NEWS
VCPS Show report
The 2011 show was quite well attended with waves of people occuring at various times.This may be just luck or the fact the the show was publicised a bit better this year.It turned out to be the year of the Venus Fly Trap with Andrew Gibbons winning the grand champion award with his pot of large healthy Venus fly traps(Dionaea muscipula).This is considered a beginners plant however it is difficult to get a to a large size so well done Andrew! Mark Batchelor managed to get the reserve champion award with a pot of Albany pitcher plant (Cephalotus follicularis).Mark is one of the best growers of Cephalotus in Australia.Maybe he will go one better next year? Special guest and well known author Stewart McPherson gave a fascinating talk and slide show on Nepenthes of the Phillipines which was much appreciated by VCPS members.Over all a very enjoyable succesful show.Thanks to everyone who helped out or attended.
Results and photos hereShow draw winners
1st Mark Batchelor
2nd Leigh Stevens
3rd Andrew Gibbons
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Plant of the night
Plant of the night
Many spectacular tuberous drosera were brought to the July meeting.The show judging for the best rosetted tuberous drosera was done and Julian Westons large pot of Drosera praefolia pictured below was the winner.It contained several large plants which have been growing well and multiplying for several years.You can read how to cultivate tuberous drosera here.Andre Cleghorn owner of Flora laboratories gave a fascinating talk about tissue culture and in particular about the problems he and others have been having with a mysterious microscopic mite.It was also interesting to hear how involved the process of tissue culture is and that the treatment of different plants is often very different.
Peter Bloem gave a talk and slide show about his recent trip to Darwin.He found a location with numerous types of carnivorous plants still growing quite well in the middle of the local dry season.Plants that he photogrpahed included Drosera indica (2 types),D.burmanii (2 types),D.dilatato-petiolaris,D.petiolaris and Byblis liniflora.
Thanks to all members who attended and especially to people that brought plants.
AGM
Most committee positions remained unchanged simply because there are not enough willing people to take on new positions.Compared to AGM meetings in the past the turnout was dissapointing with only about 15 members turning up.We hope that we will see some new faces next year! The range of plants that were brought into the meeting was stunning and the quality of the plants outstanding.VCPS meetings are the best way in Melbourne to see a wide variety of carnivorous plants that are cultivated very well.The plant of the night was very hard to decide and a spectacular Heliamphora ionasi owned by Ron Abernethy with 20-30cm pitchers didn't even get nominated! There were two plants that won the award.A large Drosera schizandra owned by David Bond with approximately 8cm leaves and flower buds and also a vase of the spectacular Utricularia volubilis which grows in Western Australia.This plant is owned by Sean Spence and hard to photograph since it is submerged in water.Some plants from the AGM meeting are shown below
Plant of the night
The topic was best and worst plants and most people seemed to bring in their best ones.There was an impressive giant Cephalotus brought in which is owned by Mark Batchelor.Mark explained that he had a lot of trouble with fungus on many of his other plants and that best results are achieved when you grow Cephalotus similar to tuberous drosera over winter.In a temperate climate that means outside in the rains.Like tuberous drosera the Cephalotus should not be sitting in water otherwise it will rot.This makes a lot of sense seeing as though Cephalotus grows near tuberous drosera in the wild.Over summer Cephalotus can happily withstand wet conditions.It was mentioned that Mark has had great results with biological fungus controls such as Trichoderma and was keen to track down some more as it can be hard to get in small quantities.There were actually 2 plants of the night as judged by members present.One was an unusual red form of S.leucophylla brought in by Ron Abernathy and the other was a nice specimen of Nepenthes alata brought in by Justin T.Other plants brought in were a flowering Heliamphore heterodoxa,Drosera adelae and a red form of Drosera Tubaestylus.
Journal hits a century
The June 2011 issue of the VCPS journal will be the 100th journal produced by the society, and to promote its success the society is going to be releasing some of the old journals in full colour as free downloadable PDFs from the website. The journals will date back to September 2004 when current Editor Steve Fretwell took over and thanks to his hard work, all of the photos within the articles have now been updated from black and white into full colour. Each journal PDF will roughly be 2-3 MB in size to download and contain 11 pages of colour spreads from the original printed journal. At the release of the 100th journal, 10 old issues between September 2004 and December 2006 numbered 73-82 will become available, followed by 2 more with each new journal produced. This will continue on, until the back issues are 10 journals / two and a half years behind the current issue.
New PDF memberships available for Australian and international members
Along with the release of the 100th VCPS journal the society is now also going to offer members a choice of receiving a full colour PDF downloadable version from the website via a link emailed to members.Three types of membership will now become available:
• Email Memberships that receive 4 full colour pdf journals a year for $15.
• Mail Memberships that receive 4 hardcopy journals a year with a colour cover and black and white interior for $25.
• Mail & Email Memberships that receive both the full colour pdf and hardcopy journals 4 times a year for $28.
New logo and membership cards
A new VCPS logo and membership card is currently being redesigned and will also be launched alongside the 100th journal in June. New cards will be issued when memberships are renewed or when new members join. Cheers for now, and happy growing.
Drosera foliosa officially renamed to Drosera hookeri
There is a complex of plants in Victoria which superficially resemble Drosera peltata. In the past there has been much confusion as to which is which.For many years some types of plants were referred to as D.auriculata and D.peltata.Many people including VCPS member George Caspar noticed a 3rd type of plant amongst these and unofficially named it D.foliosa or D.peltata ssp foliosa.The differences were clearly evident in the growth habit,preferred habitat and seed shape.Subsequently several types of plants were noticed that are distinctly different to D.peltata and are currently undergoing taxonomic revision. They may be resolved into a number of different species.To anyone that has seen these plants in real life and growing in their native habitats over a period of a number of years this is not at all surprising as the differences between them are quite dramatic.One plant has recently been given a species status ; Drosera hookeri (formerly Drosera foliosa).The findings were published in the Adelaide botanical journal by Dr. R.Gibson.We eagerly await the results of further research.For more information on Drosera hookeri and some of the other Victorian drosera please check the Victorian Drosera page
Plant of the night
The plants of the night for the March meeting were an interesting white form of Sarracenia Leucophylla owned
by president Steve Fretwell and an "Akai Ryu" VFT owned by Julian Weston.A number of different types of VFT
were brought in and there was discussion about the proliferation of different types of VFT in recent years.
There are now scores of different types available however there are some types of VFT plants going around with different names and also different types of plants under the same name,even within the VCPS.For example there seems to be a few names for the registered cultivar "Dentate".One needs to be careful before making a purchase and it is probably safest to stick to names that are registered.
Below is a list of registered cultivars of the venus fly trap.
Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu'{Ron Gagliardo}
Dionaea muscipula 'B52' {Henning Von Schmeling}
Dionaea muscipula 'Big Mouth' {Tony Camilleri}
Dionaea muscipula 'Bohemian Garnet' {Miroslav Srba}
Dionaea muscipula 'Clayton's Red Sunset' {Colin Clayton}
Dionaea muscipula 'Cupped Trap' {Staff at Agri-Starts III Inc, Eustis, FL.}
Dionaea muscipula 'Clumping Cultivar' {D'Amato}
Dionaea muscipula 'Dentate' {D'Amato}
Dionaea muscipula 'Dentate Traps' {Barry Meyers-Rice}
Dionaea muscipula 'Dente' {D'Amato}
Dionaea muscipula 'Fused Tooth' {D'Amato}
Dionaea muscipula 'Green Dragon' {Unknown}
Dionaea muscipula 'Holland Red' {Commercial breeder in the Netherlands}
Dionaea muscipula 'Jaws' {Leo Song Jr.}
Dionaea muscipula 'Justina Davis' {Unknown}
Dionaea muscipula 'Kinchyaku' {Katsuhiko Kondo}
Dionaea muscipula 'Korean Melody Shark' {Jang Gi-Won & Wook Hyon (Max) Yoon}
Dionaea muscipula 'Korrigans' {Guillaume Bily}
Dionaea muscipula 'Louchapates' {Romuald Anfraix}
Dionaea muscipula 'Microdent' {Gayl Quenon}
Dionaea muscipula 'Mirror' {Dieter Blancquaert}
Dionaea muscipula 'Perlite Dragon' {Unknown}
Dionaea muscipula 'Red Burgundy' {Unknown}
Dionaea muscipula 'Red Piranha' {Ed Read}
Dionaea muscipula 'Red Rosetted' {D'Amato}
Dionaea muscipula 'Royal Red' {AUPBR 464}
Dionaea muscipula 'Sawtooth' {Barry Meyers-Rice}
Dionaea muscipula 'Scarlet Bristle' {Real Keehn Concepts}
Dionaea muscipula 'Wacky Traps' {Cresco Nursery, Netherlands}
An interesting thing about Julians Akai Ryu VFT is that he grows it outdoors in a sheltered position which is partly shaded,yet it has a wonderful deep red colour.On top of that the previous Melbourne summer has been cooler and cloudier than normal with a large number of rainy days.Peter Bloem brought in two different types of Sarracenia Purpurea which were both spectacular.Chipola (a redish form) and a green form.These plants do very well outdoors in Melbourne and were quite large (scores of plants collectively measuring about 60cm across).However they are known for catching large numbers of snails and slugs so can be very smelly if brought indoors!
Plant of the night
The plant of the night for the February meeting was Nepenthes flava owned by Sean Spence. Sean also brought in a Utricularia nelumbifolia growing in a non carnivorous bromeliad which won the non topic plant of the night.
Annual VCPS Barbeque
The first VCPS event for 2011 was the annual Barbeque which was held at Ron Abernethys house.Ron is lucky enough to have a very large backyard with several spacious greenhouses and it makes an excellent venue for a VCPS meeting.The weather turned out to be very favourable as well,a mild summers day with a little sun,approximately 20 members showed up including businessman David Banks from Western Australia.A variety of topics were discussed whilst members enjoyed lunch including the recent floods in Australia,rising electricity prices and solar panels and of course Rons superb collection of carnivorus plants.One thing that surprised a few people was that Rons Darlingtonias (Cobra Lilys) were growing in quite warm conditions but in filtered light.Even though they are potted in sphagnum moss the moss was actually quite warm to touch.In the VCPS Ron is well known for his ability to grow them well and has done so for a decade or more.It is probably correct to say he is one of the best growers of Darlingtonia in Australia.Of course it was a warm day so on some days his Darlingtonias are a lot cooler however it is recommended by many that they be kept cool all year long,especially the roots.This indicates that there are numerous factors involved in growing a particular type of CP well and perhaps certain individual "rules" can be broken under certain circumstances.This observation generated discussion about who grows what well and it turns out that in the VCPS some people grow some types of CP and not others.Different people grow different things well.Also it is often the case that someone who cant seem to grow a type of CP well gets recommendations from someone who can and still fails.Once again it seems that there are numerous complicated factors in growing a type of CP well ,many of which are perhaps overlooked.All participants enjoyed the day and are looking forward to the next one.Any member that is interested is welcome to come along to the next one.Members are friendly and the atmosphere relaxed and you can bring family as well.Do keep away from David Bond though unless you want your ear talked off :) .Thanks to Ron and family for hosting the event.
