It has certainly been an interesting winter. Basically no snow until mid January… then crazy snow for all of February, then slowly things started to turn, and the glaciers have melted and now its Spring!
Yesterday was an amazing day, we topped out at 21C, very pleasant considering seasonal this time of years is around 5C ish… so no complaints. As I write, its another sunny mild day today! Anyway, enough about the weather.
Given the beautiful day, I figured it would be a good time to start cutting back the plants in the bog. As I mentioned, I didn’t cover any of my sarracenia with anything this year. I just let their leaves stay and let nature do her thing. I did put the last remaining pine needles I had on my flytrap bog, but next year, I don’t even think I’m going to do that.
So yesterday is my “first pass” clean. The main point of yesterday was pull out most of the leaves that found their way in to the bogs as well as cut back the dead ends of the pitchers and dead leaves of the filiformis and binatas that out there. This lets the air flowing and prevents molds or mildew and possibly rot. The other thing I do, is check to see how much frost heave there was and push back any plants that had lifted… oddly, not very many this year. In a few weeks, I will do a much more thorough cleaning.
I also check for death! So far, I only found one dead plant. It was a northern purpurea! Apparently I can winter plants from the Gulf Coast of Florida here, but not purpurea ssp purpurea. Actually, the culprit is the dryer vent which kinda blows hot air out there right at that plant! I’m guessing the warm cold, warm cold, did it in. So mental note to self, don’t put plants near a dryer vent!
I’m really excited to get this season going. Not sure if I mentioned it here, but I’m doing the big “repotting” of the bog gardens this summer! I will document the process and share it both here and on my Facebook group.
So this morning was the coldest day of the winter so far! -14C, and as you can see there is no snow cover on my bog gardens. As I am typing this post, the outside temperature is sitting at a bone chilling -11C. I know there are many places on the planet much colder than that!!!! But this guy can’t cope with cold!
In times past, I think I would be very worried about my plants considering the forecast for the next 10 days has only two days above freezing, and only by a little (+3C on Wednesday and +1C on Thursday). Every other day and night are below freezing. Friday and Saturday night are going to be very cold again, with temperatures forecast -16C and -17C. With no snow protection, I think could really test of how hardy these plants really are!
I remember a number of years ago, there was no snow and we were in a mid winter thaw. The day time was about 10C and the temp was going to drop to -15C that night!!!! I was beside myself with worry. I remember running outside, and covering everything up with whatever I could find… old comforters, tarps, whatever!!!! Not that it was really going to matter, the cold was still the cold! However, doing that somehow made me feel better. In the end, there were no loses, and since then I’ve learned to relax a bit!
Stay tuned… we will see how this all pans out in the spring!
I really don’t know what to say about 2021… it was a very difficult year for so many people in so many ways! I truly hope that 2022 is a better year and we can finally start moving past COVID and its many variants!
As this year comes to a close, I am very happy that I have decided to get back to this blog. For whatever reason I find this very therapeutic even if not a lot of people are reading it!
On a positive note, we really haven’t had to deal with any “real” winter here yet. We have a had a couple of snow falls, but it melted as fast as it came… and as I type this, the temperature is sitting at a comfortable December temperature of 3C. New Years weekend, we are looking at 7 and 9C.
From the plant’s perspective, it has been an easy winter so far!!!
2022 brings hope of a better year! I sincerely wish that we finally start to see the end of the pandemic, and we move into our new normal whatever that may look like.
The big thing for me this year as I mentioned previously, is the big “redo” of the bog gardens. When they bogs get so overgrown, they plants do start to suffer, and it shows! I will certainly be posting all about the process as I go through it.
With winter coming, folks in colder climates are getting the plants ready for their long winter sleep. For those you who have been following this blog, you will all know about my pine needle winterization process that I would religiously did each and every year. Well my friends, that has come to end! Actually it came to an end a couple of years ago… and since I wasn’t posting here, for a few years, that word hasn’t got out.
So much literature out there talks about covering the bogs with pine needles. Not only the literature, many cold climate growers have made that part of the annual care plan for their outdoor bogs. There is good reason for this – they don’t compact, they are acidic by nature, they allow good air flow as things warm up in the spring, they don’t rot and they do offer some protection from drying winds… but as for insulating the plants from the cold, they really do nothing… so my question has been, what’s the point?
About four or five years ago (I actually don’t remember when exactly), the place where I bought pine needles from went out of business as far as I could tell, I was unable to contact them and unable to find another source. Since I collected up my pine straw each spring and saved it, I would just reuse it the next winter, but gradually, the amount pine straw slowly decreased, mainly due to the fact that when you collected it up, some gets away and some stays in the bogs! Now all I have left is about 3/4 of a leaf bag. I just throw these on the flytrap bog as its just enough to cover it with a 10cm thick layer.
So what have I done with the rest of the bogs gardens over the years? Simple, NOTHING! and I mean literally nothing. In previous years, I’d work really hard to cut back the leaves, clean everything up and put a nice layer of pine straw over the bogs. Eventually, I decided that cutting back the leaves wasn’t that great of an idea, especially for the more “evergreen” Sarracenia species, like purpurea, and psittacina as it slowed their recovery in the spring. So now, I do nothing! I leave all the leaves on the plants, and just let mother nature do her thing with snow cover.
This will be the third winter in a row now, where I have just left everything, and cleaned things up in the spring. I’m guessing that all the leaves act as a windbreak, just like the pine needles, to help protect the plants from the freeze drying winds. Then with the snow, covering everything like a blanket, the plants just do their thing till spring.
So how has it turned out? Well, so far so good, I haven’t had any losses, in fact many seedlings survive just fine. Flytrap seedlings and Sarracenia seedlings look just fine in the spring!
I’m not going to lie, if there is no snow cover and the temperatures get real cold at night, I do worry, and so far there has been a few occasions, where there has been no snow cover and temps dropped below -10C… so far no issues.
Would I recommend no protection for places colder than here in Niagara Falls… I can’t say with any certainty… it would depend on a couple of factors. First, and most importantly, do you have dependable snow cover in the winter. A good deep snow cover is like a warm winter blanket. Here in Niagara, snow is not guaranteed all winter. We get a number of thaws over the winter where all the snow melts. We can occasionally get some really mild weather for a day or two and depending on the snow cover, some or all the snow will melt. Then the cold front comes through and temperature might drop from +10C to -15C in a day! It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. So far, like I stated above, I haven’t experienced any losses. The next consideration would be shelter from wind. No snow and cold drying winds can be a bad combination over a prolonged period, so if your bog is sheltered from wind somehow, that will certainly help and leaving the leaves on helps as well.
If you live somewhere and you think its too cold to grow your Sarracenia and Flytraps out doors all year, my only recommendation is to give it a try. Make a kiddie pool bog (like my first bogs) and put a few expendable plants outside and see what happens. Try with protection first, and see how the plants do. Then, if they seem to do well, try leaving the leaves on and letting mother nature do her thing!
As a side note, as I was writing this, I thought I would see if the place I got my pine straw from was back. I found a shiny new website with a copyright of 2020! So I’m guessing they are back!!! https://georgiapinestraw.ca/ in case there is anyone in the area of Ancaster, Ontario who may want some!
Hello everyone! I don’t know how many of you will even still see this. But its been about 5 years now since I’ve posted. I have created a zone6b Facebook group and have been using that platform for the most part. I figured I’d be able to reach more people that way. And for the most part… it has worked well… with lots of members and lots of people posting.
After all of that however, I’ve decided that I’ve missed the writing. So I think I may take this opportunity, to get back to this. I hope to still to share my ongoing and continued experiences growing my Carnivores outdoors year round… but I think I have other things that I want to write about.
I do not plan and flooding this site with posts, but I do feel I want to keep it active and update and freshen the content as well as share other related tidbits. So I hope there are still a few of you who are around and interested.
If you see this post, maybe drop a comment and let me know you are still out there!
So here is to hoping that 2022 is better year for all of us. I know these last few years have been trying, and so many things have changed for so many people. I look forward to re connecting with people here in the new year!
Hello folks… I just got a message from a friend who was wondering why I haven’t posted here for a very long time. The answer is that I’ve moved over to Facebook.
This blog was great for what it was, a blog… for me to share MY experiences on my experiences growing Carnivores outdoors in a zone6b climate here in Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada. But now, every year starts to look the same, and the information I’m posting is basically recycled from one year to the next.
By moving to Facebook, its far easier for other cold climate growers to share their experiences as well a photos and videos of their bogs and collection. Simply, its more interactive and better forum for people to share information and best practices.
That said, I have chose to leave this blog online as I feel it is a great resource and has a lot of great information for people considering outdoor cultivation.
If you are interested in joining the online group, please search up Zone6b on facebook and drop a request to join.
For those folks that are familiar with Sarracenia, you know they bloom in a particular order. This staggering of peak flowering times help to reduce hybridization in nature. That said, we can still find many natural hybrids in the wild due to flowering time overlap.
S. flava tends to be first in flower, shortly followed by purpurea… hence there is a decent chance for flava x purpurea hybrids to be found… however a species like psittacina is one of the last to bloom, so a naturally occurring psitt x flava hybrid is extemely rare (though has been found in Bay Co. Florida). While psitt x minor hybrids are quite common as these two species tend to bloom close to each other.
As far as flowering goes… this season has been interesting here in zone6b. The first few weeks of May were quite warm and flava and purpurea came into flower quite rapidly. Then things cooled down… these early flowers held on longer than normal due to those cool temperatures. Then things warmed a bit and then all the other species started to bloom. So this year, all species of Sarracenia were in bloom at the same time! except psittacina and minor… however they were close.
Flowering is almost done now…. but it was very colorful while it lasted. Here a couple of photos from a couple of weeks ago.
So I don’t have any photos to post… cause honestly, nothing is really happening.
As I mentioned, we had a very mild winter, with very little snow and even less cold. It was indeed a nice treat! It was so mild infact, that a fig tree that we have planted at the school where I teach suffered NO freeze damage at all! All the leaf buds are growing! We didn’t wrap or protect the tree in anyway this year! Usually unprotected, it dies to the ground and has to regrow from the roots.
We had a very warm April and things started moving like crazy! Trees and plants all leafing out a couple of weeks early… maybe even three weeks earlier than normal. Then… it got cool… Its like May and April flipped here! Not just here… but most of eastern North America from what I understand.
So… things have been moving super slowly for the last couple of weeks. I really figured that by now, some of my flavas would be blooming… but they still look to be a couple of weeks away.
The good news is, although its been cool, we’ve had no frosts here, though areas around us and away from the Great Lakes did. So although our spring has been set back some, the plants have not had to deal with any damage from the cold.
The 10 day forecast is promising with some warmer temperatures on the way. Maybe we can once and for all say good bye to the cold!
So that was awesome! Probably one of the easiest winters we’ve ever seen here in Niagara. Very, very mild overall, but the best part… almost no snow. It seams everywhere around us had normal snowfall this winter, but us… no so much. Lots of rain because of the mild temperatures and when it did snow it seemed to miss us! Well our luck ran out last week. We got about 50cm of snow over a two day period, bringing to an end a nice snowless mild spell. Good thing is it got warm acouple of days after and its all melted now.
Last evening we were out it was 18C today, we can’t get above 4C, however, I think this is the last really cool weather… the ten day forecast calls for more “normal” temps for this time of year, which means that Winter is done!!!
That said, when it looks like we are in for spring weather, its time to uncover the old bogs. Its important to get the cover off before it starts getting too warm… you don’t want things starting to grow or the warmth and dampness to be caught in the needles which will cause mold or fungas growth, you want to get these guys open to the fresh air as soon as possible. There are no freezing temps at night in the upcoming forecast but even if there were, I’m not worried. The plants are still fully dormant and quite able to handle it. At this point even a freak snow is not an issue.
As you can see in the photo, I didn’t really clean things up… I just roughly removed the pine needles. There are still plenty that need to be removed, but at least the air is flowing now. In the next couple of weeks, I will be giving the bogs a clean out, but for now… I just want to get them opened up. The other thing too is that the sun is strong now… and you want the plants that have phylodia or the everygreen types like psittacina, purpurea and minor to start photosynthesizing… you can’t do that buried in pine needles!
As you many of you know… I started a zone6b facebook group… called… yep you guessed it, zone6b! so if you’re on Facebook and want to join in, just search it up. Lots of great photos and discussion between other cold climate growers… so far we have 75 members… and we’re growing!
With this official un-needling of the bogs, its officially the 2017 growing season! 🙂 I hope everyone has a great season.
Well folks another year is upon us… and I’ve decided to make some changes here in Zone6b. Last year I was talking about transitioning from WordPress over to Facebook. However, after thinking long and hard about it… well actually not really long or hard, I’ve decided to do both.
There is a lot of information here that I’ve been posting over the years and the feedback I’ve been getting is the information is a valuable resource, especially to folks thinking of moving their plants outdoors. At the same time… having a FB Group allows for people to quickly and easily share photographs and best practices and share experiences with other growers. WordPress is a more one way communication, me to you… where FB is open communication between everyone! Both platforms have their merrits and both I think are worth maintaining.
That said, I will continue to post here on my blog this year as well as share photos and information on my FB group.
If you search up Zone6b on FB you should find the group, failing that, here is direct link.
Zone 6b 