Updates: Pitchers, Venus, Binata, and Mary Jane

What did you eat?

Pitcher plants are limited to what fits or what does not.

The Sarracenia is doing quite well, each pitcher is about seven to eight inches tall. There are two tall leaves on this plant. We will look at all, the big, small and twisted, and even a surprise while trying to propagate this species.

This one looks like it has lots of bugs deep down inside its pitcher.

The above is the one on the left. The one on the right, below, has a massive cockroach inside it.

Now we are going to look at the middle of the plant.

We have the senior citizens toward the right, and one leaf that is kind of new on the left. It looks like it got twisted or blown over during its formation. I am not sure if that one will ever catch insects.

Here is the whole plant with the larger leaves included.

The one on the right, has that giant cockroach inside it. That kind of meal is what makes these take off and grow more rapidly.

Sometimes, I take one of the senior citizens out of the group and put him aside in a pot with the babies. I want to see if it will start its own family (a new plant). So far, not much luck. None that I can see anyway, but it does take months for that to happen.

Here's one example of that.

The stick on the right, the one that is brown on the top and a bit green on the bottom, was put there to see if it will grow its own roots and make a new pitcher plant. Not looking hopeful yet. The process is called propagation and I have tried it many times, but have only had success with Drosera plants.

To the left of this "Grandpa" pitcher plant, I see something green and it is not a Drosera. It is so tiny, I can barely see it.

Zooming in, I think I see the shape of a Venus leaf, to the right, and it looks like a brand new fly-trap to the left. If this is a Venus, it will be the first Time I have propagated this species of plant using one of its leaves in moss!

Let me try to get a closer shot of that little tiny plant, and maybe compare it to one of the Venus leaves.

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On the left, I shot an image of a new leaf formed on one of my
Venus Flytrap plants and it is obvious that the trap part unfolds from the leaf.

On the right we have our new discovery which looks like a Venus plant. Time will tell.

Let me put something next to the plant to show you how small this is, for scale and size. How about a standard USB connector. Everyone knows how big that is.

The above is this new plant next to a normal USB plug in.

If this is a Venus Flytrap, that microscopic trap would be hunting very, very, tiny bugs. What a pleasant surprise to find this little guy!

Back to our updates

We have an update on the baby Binata plants that found near the base of the parent plant. I had re-potted them in this post. That was three months ago. Both babies now have their own flower stalks and I am attempting to pollinate them from one to the other and back to the first.

Here is the larger of the two. I cannot focus on the whole plant so you get a flower in focus, then he bug catching end of this weapon...

You cannot have both 'in focus' at the same time.

At the time of the last post on these guys, they were in the same pot, just separated from their parent. Later I gave them each their own pot. Here is the littler one.

I am going to have to raise his salary! Look at how many pests this one catches. You will see both of them below. They are still little but working hard.

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Next I want to update you on the vine that was killed.

Last time, we left off with a small vine that I had nurtured to replace the one that was killed.

Above, we have another surprise of nature. The original one that died is starting to crawl over the lattice toward my side of the wall again.

I am thrilled. This time I will take many, many more pictures of its blooms.

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Lastly - Mary Jane

This update is on a plant that was dead as far as I knew. Mary came back and here are some before and after photos - after being now.

The baby one

Measured today at 2 feet tall (63 cm) from the dirt to the top leaf...

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The larger plant

Measured today at 2 ft. 8 in. (81 cm), dirt to top leaf.

All in all very good shape, considering they both looked completely dead when summer started. The larger plant still has signs of dead spots in the center. I see no flowers or buds on them as of yet. But there are a lot of new leaves and branches sprouting. The smell is delicious but not as swimming as it was when they had buds last year.

If I ever want that smell again. I need only open the jar on my desk that says "BUDS" and the aroma fills my office. What a wonderful little tree Mary is.

That is it for today. May you experience progress and little wonders as I have so far in 2026!

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