On Carnivorous Plant Time Again:

It is February and that means a girl heart turns to things that eat other things. Carnivorous Plants will be for sale again in the Northern Hemisphere. I will be trolling the highways and byways looking for some new plants that eat things.















My Venus Flytraps have just come out of hibernation recently so they are not looking too good in the picture, but I see a few babies getting started so I’m stoked.















And in the other jar is two Pitcher Plants with a few Sundews round the sides. I do need to move them to a better place that is not as crowded.

I’ll have to be on the look out for a new terrarium for them. I do like my extra large apothecary/cookie jars. But I can’t fit another on the window sill. It just wouldn’t take the weight.















Not to leave the others out, Mortimer the Cactus is doing well. Spike his brother met with the floor one day and expired that afternoon. I still don’t know what kind of cactus Mortimer is yet, but he is showing the signs of arms. Once the days get a bit longer he should start to grow a bit faster.

(Mort was grown from seed in a mixed seed package so I know he is one of seven different kinds, I just don’t know which yet.)

Mort needs a new home also and I’m thinking of starting some more cactus from the left over seeds. So I will wait to move him until I have just the right spot and pot.

Hopefully I’ll find some nice Butterwarts or something else to fill out my little carnivorous and sharp families out a bit more this year.

On Pruning Relationships:

So I was sitting in bed for the last few days, with a migraine head ache, and not being able to do anything else I was thinking. Mostly thinking about how I wasn’t as happy lately as I used to be.

I came to realize that I wasn’t as happy as I had been before my daughters wedding. Not because I don’t think it was right for her, or that I don’t like him, or any other negative reason I could think of. I love my new son-in-law like my own children.

I’m pretty sure it was the change. I was expecting some change in my relationship with my daughter, but maybe not so fast or complete.

Though I’ve gained a son I’ve lost some of the closeness to my daughter. A closeness that is already hard to maintain since we live six hours away from each other.

I was looking at the dead flowers of our relationship and crying, and not deadheading them so new flowers can grow. I’ve turned over a new leaf and now that I see want I was doing I’m happy once again because I can make things better and not just let it grow worse.

I’ve cut those old apron strings for myself and I feel better.















The rumbled flower from my Venus Flytrap. It grew into the lid of the terrarium and bent it’s peddles.

On Cactus Babies:

I have mentioned before that I have house plants. I’ve talked about my carnivorous plants a few times. But my cactus plants, not so much. What can you say about a slow growing plant that doesn‘t eat things?

The only reason I’m talking about them now is because this year is the first time I’ve started a few from seed.

I picked up a mixed cactus seed packet back in the first week of March. On March 29, I planted four seeds, each in their own small pot. Three days later Mortimer showed his face. Two weeks later when there had been no movement in the other pots, I reseeded those pots. Four days after that, Spike showed up.

There is also the added excitement of being in for a surprise in finding out just which kind of cactus they will turn out to be.

Well, being a caring plant momma, I placed them lovingly on the window sill every day rain or shine. I gave them sprits of water from my spray bottle when they were dry for long enough. And I am writing about them today because yesterday Mortimer sprouted six teeny tiny spines. My baby cactus is growing up to a toddler and so fast too. I’m so proud.

I will miss them while I’m gone. I love watching things evolve and grow.

I can’t wait until they are big enough to identify just what kind of cactus they are of the nine varieties listed on the seed packet. Saguaro, Hedgehog, Fishhook Barrel, Dollar Prickly Pear, Desert Prickly Pear, Christmas Cholla, Cane Cholla, Santa Rita Pear or Cardo’n. I’d be happy with any of these. Time will tell.
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Tomorrow I’ll be off on my trip to Boston. So I’ll make my weekly Sunday update of my weight loss today. Five pound total loss so far, 190 lb. I am almost back into my fat sized black jeans. I can button them, but the zipper is under strain. I am proud of this because I remember the day I tried them on before I started this weight loss contest of Woolen Rabbit’s and the jeans wouldn’t go all the way up my fat thighs much less my posterior.

I hope to maintain my weight during my visit to my daughter’s place. My soon to be son-in-law is a really good cook. So all bets are off to actually loosing this next week. I’ll just have to do a lot of cemetery walking.

Carnivorous Plant Terrariums:

Well the carnivorous plants are doing well in there new homes. I managed to get a large matching Cookie/Apothecary jar from my local Target store. The jars stand over a foot high, 35 cm, with the lid on and have a nice 7 1/ 2 inch, 19 cm, across opening. They are very reasonably priced, and there are smaller sizes for the less adventuresome. Small stones, Peat moss, plants, water to top of stones. The white in the jars are thermometers so I can keep them comfy.















In this one I have a Sundew on the left, two pitcher plants in the center of the picture, and a Butterwort on the right.















And in the other are my Venus Flytraps.















I also got a Cryptanthus bivittatus or ‘Pink Star’ this year. She is not a carnivorous plant but with those nice sharp saw tooth edges to her stiff leaves I could pass her up. She is just a bit dangerous too. In the day time they are all on the window sill, with their lids cocked open a bit so they can feed.

Well February is almost over and it is time to get those seeds for the garden. I know that there is still snow on the ground but if we are going to start the seedlings we will have to get started soon. The end of May will be coming faster then we believe it will at the moment. And the little seedlings with be going in the garden by then.

On Pretty Plants that Bite:

Picture of my terrarium of carnivorous plants last year.

It is February in the northern hemisphere and that can only mean one thing to a girl like me. Carnivorous Plants! If you are looking for them they are generally only available for sale in February. I rushed out to one of my local home improvement centers and scooped up these lovelies.















Those of you who have been reading here for a while know how bad I felt when an early cold snap came and I had left my terrarium on the window sill at night. In the cold behind the drapes I lost my Sundew and Butterwort. The Venus Flytrap survived but weakly (It had gotten colder then 40F behind the drapes.) and when it went into the veggie bin for it’s winter hibernation period I wasn’t sure it would survive.

My Venus Flytrap did survive in the frig wrapped in it’s damp paper towel and tucked into it’s zip lock baggie for the winter. But I must say it looked so lonely in the terrarium by itself when I repotted it last week. I just couldn’t wait for the new carnivorous plants to come in and go on sale.

I do have to go and buy a new terrarium jar for this year. I found that the Venus did not like quite the same temperature and humidity as the others and I got myself a Purple Pitcher this year too and all five will not fit in my one jar.

So now my new little Venus Flytrap will live with the older one and the Butterwort, Sundew and Purple Pitcher Plant will be grouped together in the new terrarium. At least until the Pitcher Plant gets too tall and needs a new home of it’s own.

Fear not. There will be no repeat of the slug feeding incident. Mountain Man has repented his grievous act on my baby last year. And he has promise not to feed anything larger then a small cricket to my plants again.















I am now a happy carnivorous plant mama again. I must remember to put distilled water on my shopping list for them. And what to name them?