Post by richs on May 11, 2011 11:53:09 GMT -5
Today is one of those days where I can look at my whole collection of carnivores and do nothing else - after spending a good portion of the day (yesterday) grooming and weeding them, moving some out of the greenhouse - others, inside. Making sure plants don't overlap, or hang on top of one another outside in their staging, so everyone gets their time in the sun, I have come to the realization that not only am I a hobbyist, but something of a stage father.
As the smoke from yesterday still lingers over the collection, I had to ask myself, "In all of the years I've grown, what haven't I done for these plants?"
Case in point - my partner now knows that when I'm heading over to the "carnivorous plant area" or to work on "the girls" (and by the way, the carnivorous plant area is just that...where there was lawn, there is now DG and a small greenhouse. Where there was a 10' Yucca, various vines, a fruiting Mulberry on the abandoned property next to us (the Mulberry is another warped story) there is now @ 30 - 40' of double staging for the Sarracenias - yes, there are many) and I'm carrying either loppers, shears or hand held pruners...someone's cutting off someone's sun, which means bonsai time - at first, this was met by resistance, and oh so many arguments, but now - (Thank God they're crepe myrtles)
quiet resignation, with the understanding that it's a win win situation.
I don't know what kinds of pests Southern growers face over there, but here, one that is kind of inadvertently a pest is the spider - since they know a great food source when they "see" it, and over here, black widow spiders are famous for setting up camp around them (just as much as the other kinds), so I spray around them every spring to keep the population down.
When I had moved from Southern California to Northern California, I knew that most apartments were going to be BURIED under trees, as Redding, Ca. gets extremely hot in the summer (101 @ 2am is not uncommon), so I had to find an apartment...FOR MY PLANTS!! I had orchids at the time as well, so after finding a place on the corner of I'm in hell and drug dealer central (it was one of the few places that had a large sunny back patio, and I converted one of the bedrooms into a grow room for the catts), I settled in, with the exception of a plumbing problem that left a small crack in the corner of the wall downstairs, next to the patio, that was going to be filled in that Monday.
Before putting the Sarracenias out, I sprayed the whole back wall, and staging area, since after smashing 2 rather large black widows, I felt "inspired". I got the plants up, everyone looking good - ready to face the hell that was coming (Oh, this was before I purchased a RO system (at my partner's embarrassed request), so at that time, I would run to the store with 7 large water jugs (FREAK!!!) and have people in line talk about the coming apocalypse).
I came home from a friend's party late, went to get something out of the fridge, ( Now before we go any further, I am an OCD clean freak - not crippling, but many happy roommates along the way) and I see a roach on the floor - stare down, Clint Eastwood music - in 2 jumps I land on and kill it, only to hear the line of logic in my head say "where's there's one..." and I freak - out comes the proven bug killer spray, the following day a few dead ones, nothing more VICTORY!! I call the landlord, a guy from Twin Peaks (anyone remember that one?) comes and sprays, but tells me the combo of disturbing (I get hebbie jebbies now..disturbing) where the roaches were by moving the plants in and spraying PROBABLY DROVE THEM IN TO THE WALLS OF THE APARTMENT COMPLEX. The plumber came, the exterminator sprays, I go to work, back over to my friend's house, we're all laughing and joking about it, and then I go home late that night.
When I get home I turn the light on, and the kitchen floor is COVERED IN DYING ROACHES, I swear, it was like a freaking Japanese horror movie - it was BIBLICAL - and they were EVERYWHERE (the exterminator, by the way had informed me that I was lucky, and that these were Asian roaches (big), that only live in walls, as opposed to German roaches(smaller), that get into your food (fud), so you could imagine my relief!). It's now 2 am and I have to be a work at 10 - knowing the kind of person I am, I now bring out every cleaning solvent known to mankind, and in the process discover that when the guys came out to fix the plumbing, NO ONE sealed the crack in the wall and all of that spraying literally drove them right into my apartment, and as I'm sweeping hundreds of carcasses of my kitchen floor, dousing everything I look at with some form of cleaning solvent, I looked at my collection and thought, "Would I be dealing with any of this crap if I had a dog?"
As the smoke from yesterday still lingers over the collection, I had to ask myself, "In all of the years I've grown, what haven't I done for these plants?"
Case in point - my partner now knows that when I'm heading over to the "carnivorous plant area" or to work on "the girls" (and by the way, the carnivorous plant area is just that...where there was lawn, there is now DG and a small greenhouse. Where there was a 10' Yucca, various vines, a fruiting Mulberry on the abandoned property next to us (the Mulberry is another warped story) there is now @ 30 - 40' of double staging for the Sarracenias - yes, there are many) and I'm carrying either loppers, shears or hand held pruners...someone's cutting off someone's sun, which means bonsai time - at first, this was met by resistance, and oh so many arguments, but now - (Thank God they're crepe myrtles)
quiet resignation, with the understanding that it's a win win situation.
I don't know what kinds of pests Southern growers face over there, but here, one that is kind of inadvertently a pest is the spider - since they know a great food source when they "see" it, and over here, black widow spiders are famous for setting up camp around them (just as much as the other kinds), so I spray around them every spring to keep the population down.
When I had moved from Southern California to Northern California, I knew that most apartments were going to be BURIED under trees, as Redding, Ca. gets extremely hot in the summer (101 @ 2am is not uncommon), so I had to find an apartment...FOR MY PLANTS!! I had orchids at the time as well, so after finding a place on the corner of I'm in hell and drug dealer central (it was one of the few places that had a large sunny back patio, and I converted one of the bedrooms into a grow room for the catts), I settled in, with the exception of a plumbing problem that left a small crack in the corner of the wall downstairs, next to the patio, that was going to be filled in that Monday.
Before putting the Sarracenias out, I sprayed the whole back wall, and staging area, since after smashing 2 rather large black widows, I felt "inspired". I got the plants up, everyone looking good - ready to face the hell that was coming (Oh, this was before I purchased a RO system (at my partner's embarrassed request), so at that time, I would run to the store with 7 large water jugs (FREAK!!!) and have people in line talk about the coming apocalypse).
I came home from a friend's party late, went to get something out of the fridge, ( Now before we go any further, I am an OCD clean freak - not crippling, but many happy roommates along the way) and I see a roach on the floor - stare down, Clint Eastwood music - in 2 jumps I land on and kill it, only to hear the line of logic in my head say "where's there's one..." and I freak - out comes the proven bug killer spray, the following day a few dead ones, nothing more VICTORY!! I call the landlord, a guy from Twin Peaks (anyone remember that one?) comes and sprays, but tells me the combo of disturbing (I get hebbie jebbies now..disturbing) where the roaches were by moving the plants in and spraying PROBABLY DROVE THEM IN TO THE WALLS OF THE APARTMENT COMPLEX. The plumber came, the exterminator sprays, I go to work, back over to my friend's house, we're all laughing and joking about it, and then I go home late that night.
When I get home I turn the light on, and the kitchen floor is COVERED IN DYING ROACHES, I swear, it was like a freaking Japanese horror movie - it was BIBLICAL - and they were EVERYWHERE (the exterminator, by the way had informed me that I was lucky, and that these were Asian roaches (big), that only live in walls, as opposed to German roaches(smaller), that get into your food (fud), so you could imagine my relief!). It's now 2 am and I have to be a work at 10 - knowing the kind of person I am, I now bring out every cleaning solvent known to mankind, and in the process discover that when the guys came out to fix the plumbing, NO ONE sealed the crack in the wall and all of that spraying literally drove them right into my apartment, and as I'm sweeping hundreds of carcasses of my kitchen floor, dousing everything I look at with some form of cleaning solvent, I looked at my collection and thought, "Would I be dealing with any of this crap if I had a dog?"
