#vft

My part of the @true-colors-zine! 💛✨

Now that the zines are being shipped, I thought I’d finally share my contribution!

I had so much fun drawing this big BroZone hug 🫂

It's starting to wake up! The first pitcher of spring has opened! It's from a Sarracenia flava rugellii "Bob Hanrahan" (or hybrid of that cultivar, I'm unsure) that I got a division of from my cousin. I didn't get any flowers from it, it just jumped straight into pitchers! The difference between a young vs mature plant is really evident with this one's fast growth.

All of the plants therein are leaving dormancy and growing, from the tiny bog button to the sarracenias. I'm particularly excited to see the Sarracenia purpurea ssp venosa start to get into the swing of things, as they turn a really dark, beautiful maroon; as well as the two bog orchids I have! The green leafy plant at 9 o'clock is a mature/flowering size Nodding Lady Tresses orchid that looks like it's going to shoot up multiple flower stalks (hopefully!), and there's a bulb buried around 1-2 o'clock that hasn't peaked out yet, of a Grass Pink Orchid that I'm also very excited for.

Particularly fun is the realization that along with the temperate Drosera x elosiana (a temperate sundew, center photo) that I bought came a bunch of little Drosera binatas! Those are the little red guys growing around the bigger plant here. I actually have no idea what kind they are but I'm super excited to have them in my bog. Some version of Drosera binata get quite large and I look forward to finding out how they do.

Also shoutout to this tiniest of Venus Fly Traps, which nearly died when I first planted them but has managed to struggle along and is now marking the start of spring by trying to push out the TINIEST Venus Fly Trap flower I have ever seen, in person or online, in my entire life. While I'm letting my big, healthy VFT flower, I actually just snipped this one - otherwise there's a high risk of it just kicking the bucket entirely from the amount of energy flowering takes out of the plant! It does make me hopeful that it will recover and actually manage to flourish in the bog. I'd love some VFTs in there. If not, it's not a huge loss - I nabbed it for a few bucks at a big box store.

My go-to carnivorous plant shop also has S. leukophyla var 'alba' back in stock so I'm going to try to nab one of those, it's a plant I've been coveting for a while. Right at the cusp of spring is the best time to purchase dormant plants that are readying themselves to grow, so hopefully it will have time to settle in nicely!

Also bought new orange bee shrimp and corys to build up populations

The corys are so baby

BUT MY MOST EXCITING PURCHASE

I've named him Oliver Trap and he eats the same stuff as my betta