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Name: Walter
Location: North Carolina, United States
Gender: Male
Interests: Collecting Star Wars memorabilia, taekwondo, aquariums, Saint Bernard dogs, carnivorous plants, home theaters, traveling to East Asian countries, Asian movies, collecting autographs.
Expertise: I'm a master of deception; I have fooled 90% of the people I know into thinking I'm someone else! And I've done this with minimal effort on my part!
Occupation: Sales Support
Message: message me
Member Since:
3/6/2003
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| I haven't purchased from Sarracenia Northwest (cobraplant.com) before, but I enjoy their podcast video clips. I was searching for some specific plants and wanted to order from just one place, their website showed that want I wanted was in stock, so I recently placed an order. I also sent a few emails regarding what they had in their inventory to Jacob Farin who replied to messages quickly.
They filled the order and shipped what I wanted on the following Tuesday (just like their website says). Everything was in stock and nothing was substituted. The packing was excellent - each plant is sold potted only (sort of wish they offered bare root as well, but no complaints on the packing). Each potted plant was wrapped up with a wet paper towel around the pot with a clear top taped to the pot. All of that was wrapped in plastic around the bottom to prevent drying out and leaks, with an identifier tag taped onto the bag. These were placed in a box with lots of styrofoam popcorn.
My only gripe was that a couple of the plants were a bit smaller than expected (I guess jht spoiled me with his Drosera spatulata!), BUT there was more than one plant of each within the pot (so in a way, that made up for the small size). Also, it is early in the season, so there could be/ should be some more growth on the way.
Here's what I ordered:
Drosera capensis - Red leaf
Drosera filiformis Red Leaf (not sure if this is 'Florida "All Red"' or "Florida 'Giant'")
Sarracenia alata, Red Hood
Drosera rotundifolia
Drosera intermedia
Overall, a good experience and if they have what you're looking for, I recommend shopping with them. 
Here's the Drosera spatulata that I got from Jht a few weeks ago:
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| Last weekend, it was warm and dry enough for another coating of stain on the deck. Last year, I applied a coating and I've noticed that the water is no longer being repelled in the horizontal boards. It's in total sunlight (southern exposure), so it takes a real beating. The good news is that most of the vertical areas were actually still in good shape. So earlier, I scrubbed the deck down with a cleaner/ brightener. My mother was in town and she gave me a hand staining the deck.
Last year, by myself, it took 13 hours! This year, with my mother's help, it only took 3.5 hours! Since we were just applying it over, we did not need as much stain as I did last year (used up two 1 gallon buckets last year - this year, only 1).
Last year:
This year:
Once again, I used TWP #103. The darker the stain, the more protection it has from the sun.
TWP 100 series got the best review for deck stains here:
http://www.deckstainhelp.com/category/deck-product-reviews/deck-stain-reviews/
Previously, I had used Thompson’s WaterSeal Waterproofer Plus Clear Wood Protector and it stopped shedding the water within a few months (not even a year). Thompson's is low priced, so you get what you pay for. That website didn't like Thompson's either.
http://www.deckstainhelp.com/thompsons-waterseal-finish-review/
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|  I've been looking at the 'Villa Taranto' Japanese Maple Tree. At first, I was considering the Koto No Ito which is a green linearlobum, but Villa Taranto changes colors from spring to summer to fall. Photo from www.essenceofthetree.com | | |
|  Last year, I applied the "TurfBuilder with Halts Crabgrass Preventer", but unfortunately, the warm winter didn't kill off many weeds, so this year the weeds (including that poa anna weed grass) showed up sooner.
I am trying the Ortho Weed-B-Gon MAX Plus Crabgrass Control Ready-Spray. I got the idea from this webpage:
Restoring A Sickly Bermudagrass Lawn On A Budget Anyway, I read that the original container had a bad connector for the hose ( people reported it would break and the liquid will spray all over), but fortunately, I bought the newer container (which worked fine). The new container is shown on the left. My only complaint about this product (so far) is that it didn't quite have enough liquid to cover my entire lawn. It was just a bit short (I had read this on-line as well), and so I ended up using the pump container and target spraying the weeds in the remaining area. Most on-line reviews say the weeds will die in about 5 to 7 days, so I am monitoring the results. Some people say it takes 2 weeks to see the results. If there are any weeds left in a couple of weeks, I'll hand spray again OR I'll apply the TurfBuilder with Plus 2 weed killer product. | | |
|  Every 2 years, I repot my carnivorous plant. It's quite a task because I have to:
1.) Make a fresh mix of their soil - a 50/50 mixture of Sphagnum Peat Moss and silica sand (usually pool filter sand). You can use pearlite if you want. Basically, the Sphagnum Peat Moss is to retain the moisture for the roots, while the sand is to let the water flow and help keep peat moss from compacting (stagnant, etc...).
2.) Carefully dig up the plants (while trying not to damage their roots).
3.) Hose / spray off the existing old soil from their roots. Trim off some of the old leaves.4.) If they are too large, I'll split them up and repot the extra plant(s).
5.) Dump out the old existing soil (usually in my backyard).
6.) Give the pot a good rinsing.
7.) Fill the pot with the fresh Sphagnum Peat Moss and Silica Sand mix.
8.) Carefully pot the plant.
9.) Repeat on the remaining plants for that pot.
10.) Move the pot to the deck.
11.) Rinse out the water tray.
12.) Place the pot in the water tray.
13.) Water the plants (to remove any air pockets).
14.) Fill the water tray to about 2"(about 5cm).
This weekend, I spent over 7 hours doing this! Anyway, I've got enough extra carnivorous plants (mostly Sarracenia/ pitcher plants) to give some out to my friends in the area who also keep carnivorous plants.
Although I already have some old Sphagnum Peat Moss (I think it's probably 9 years old!), I decided to buy some fresh stuff - it's not that expensive; only around $10.00US per bag at the local Home Depot. Interestingly, not ALL of the Home Depot stores carry this - an on-line friend of mine around the San Francisco area told me the Home Depot shops in his area don't carry this, nor the pool filter sand.
Interestingly, it's the same brand, "Premier", but the packaging is different than that old bag (that one was solid yellow). That old one is kind of dried out and powdery now. Probably still okay to use, but I'll give the carnivorous plants the newer stuff.
It's still good quality stuff - other people who keep carnivorous plants recommended this to me. I also bought some new silica sand (its inert, so it doesn't contain chemicals nor will it change the chemistry of the Sphagnum Peat Moss). On the recommendation of a couple of people, I bought some pool filter sand from Leslie's. Previously, I had used the Pavestone brand and really liked it, but the local Home Depot no longer carries that brand and what they do carry, wasn't rated as well by people who keep carnivorous plants. Interestingly, the Pavestone brand is listed on Walmart's website, but the local store only has that company's play sand (for sand boxes). That is not the same type of sand and playsand is often not good for carnivorous plants.
I have also tried the HTH brand of pool filter sand from Ace Hardware, but it is finer and doesn't drain as well. I compared the Leslie's sand and the HTH sand - they are pretty close, but the Leslie's is slightly larger/ coarser. | | |
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