Samantha Filoso - Growing Carnivorous Pitcher Plants (Nepenthes) Indoors - Get Up & Grow Podcast EP #10

Welcome to the Get Up & Grow Podcast, Episode #10. Today, we're diving into the captivating world of carnivorous plants with Samantha Filoso, a dedicated hobbyist with a profound passion for Nepenthes. These unique plants, known for their predatory nature, have fascinated many, and Samantha is no exception. Her commitment to sustainable and ethical cultivation practices has garnered attention and admiration from fellow plant enthusiasts.

In our conversation, Samantha unravels the mysteries of Nepenthes, from their alluring trap mechanisms to their dietary preferences. She shares insights into her innovative approach, ensuring these carnivorous wonders thrive and flourish indoors.

Our discussion with Samantha covers a myriad of topics, including:

• Samantha's introduction to the world of Nepenthes.
• The intricacies of setting up an indoor environment tailored for Nepenthes growth.
• The fascinating process of how she feeds these carnivorous plants.
• Samantha's daring experiment of tasting the nectar herself and her thoughts on its flavor!
• Overcoming challenges and misconceptions associated with growing Nepenthes.
• Techniques and tips for successful Nepenthes propagation.
• Integrating her love for Nepenthes into broader educational and artistic pursuits.
• Samantha's personal favorite Nepenthes and the stories behind them.
• Future aspirations for her Nepenthes collection and the roadmap to achieve them.

For those keen on diving into the world of Nepenthes or looking to enhance their existing knowledge, Samantha's insights are invaluable. To witness the beauty of her indoor-grown plants and perhaps catch a glimpse of their prey-catching moments, follow her on Instagram @nepenthesodyssey.

This Podcast is dedicated to growers like you so we appreciate your feedback so we can provide the best experience possible for the grower community.

Now Get Up & Grow!

Taylor Schaberg

Transcript

Taylor (00:04.01)
Hi, Samantha. Thank you so much for joining the podcast today. How are you?

Samantha Sharp (00:07.806)
I'm doing really well, thanks. How are you today?

Taylor (00:10.378)
I'm great, I'm great, thank you. So you are an expert in apenthes grower, is that correct?

Samantha Sharp (00:18.822)
Expert might be a stretch, but I definitely consider myself a very experienced hobbyist, let's call it that.

Taylor (00:27.222)
You said pro hobbyist. That's one way to put it. Okay, cool. Well, this is a, maybe a new plant type for a lot of people. Um, maybe you could just give us a general introduction to the Nepenthes plant cultivars.

Samantha Sharp (00:29.714)
Yeah, maybe pro hobbyist.

Samantha Sharp (00:43.774)
Yeah, you know, Nepenthes is actually a pretty amazing family of plants. I think a lot of people are familiar with the concept of a pitcher plant. They've seen them documented one way or another, but there's so much more than just a single species. And of course, the Pentecost fall within a larger carnivorous plant kind of organization as well. But when we're talking about Nepenthes, we're talking about tropical pitcher plants, most of which originate in Southeast Asia.

Taylor (00:52.535)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (01:13.602)
Although there are some that are from as far away as Madagascar and northern Australia. But most of the plants we're talking about actually have a shape sort of like this, where we have sort of a typical leaf, but at the end of the leaf, these beautiful pictures that come down off the end of it here, which have been specialized for in one way or another. Eating bugs or sometimes other.

organic material to help fertilize the plants, which are usually found in areas without a lot of nutrients in the soil. So across the family of Dupenthe, so just these type of pitcher plants, there's over 180 species. It's a number that's constantly changing. So if we come back a year or two from now, there'll be even more. It's an area where a lot of plants are found in very inaccessible areas of the world. So we're still discovering them as people get...

Taylor (02:03.157)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (02:11.526)
up in those regions and do scientific surveys and exploration.

Taylor (02:17.415)
Is it more of like a very humid environment plant? Is it like grown in like swampy conditions?

Samantha Sharp (02:21.89)
Primarily.

So the soil conditions can change, but humidity is definitely one of those constants that we see in a lot of the areas. Depending on the plant, some of them do prefer drier soil conditions, but they're almost always found in areas where you have very high humidity. So that is definitely a factor in raising the penthes in a private collection or in a greenhouse or where you want to grow it. Most of them do.

Taylor (02:49.643)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (02:53.99)
have very high requirements for humidity levels. Most of them prefer greater than 50%. Some of them prefer and only thrive in humidity levels higher than 80%. So something you have to be aware of is where the plants came from originally.

Taylor (03:11.582)
And you said there's more species or cultivars to be discovered. Are these, but I've also read things that they're harder to find, like they're almost becoming extinct, some of these plants in nature, because people are pig poaching them and selling them. Is that a huge issue as well?

Samantha Sharp (03:29.862)
It is. So poaching is an issue with the Nipenthes in the wild, but habitat destruction is an even bigger one. So many of these areas are being encroached on by human development and we're actually losing species before we can even describe them. There are some species out there that exist only from a sample or two before the area where they were located ended up being destroyed for

housing or mines or other human activity. In some cases, those people who discover those species and were able to grab a couple samples, I can think of at least one, probably a couple more, where less than a dozen samples of a species were initially found before the entire species was wiped out. And in some of those situations, they exist only in horticulture. So human activity is definitely a concern, but poaching is...

Taylor (04:01.08)
Hmm.

Samantha Sharp (04:28.382)
is a very big concern as well. When it comes to the collectible hobby, one of the areas that a lot of people are interested in is developing a in-house or in-country sort of growing program for these plants where there isn't pressure on those wild populations. And that's something that I'm very interested in is actually growing these plants to the point where they can flower, produce seed, and then be able to

distribute those locally grown plants throughout the hobby as opposed to any wild collected plants. And really at this point, wild collected plants are, I would say anyone who takes this hobby seriously is doing everything they can to avoid anything that's wild collected at this point. Really the hobby is dependent on those people who are growing locally to raise these and either propagate them from seed or tissue culture.

There's a couple different methods of propagation that are available for people who are interested in these plants. But it's something that we have to be aware of. And I think that for any hobbyist out there who's getting into the hobby, you need to know where your plants are coming from. And you need to support efforts to conserve what is still out there in the wild.

Taylor (05:36.846)
Mm-hmm.

Taylor (05:42.199)
Mm-hmm.

Taylor (05:50.67)
And you said Southeast Asia, is there like a specific country in Southeast Asia? And is there awareness in that country about this issue of protecting these plants?

Samantha Sharp (06:04.202)
They are protected plants in a lot of the countries in which they grow. So the hot spots for species activity are through Indonesia, Malaysia, especially the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, lots of species from those areas, but species spreading out as far as Papua New Guinea into mainland Southeast Asia and again, Northern Australia is sort of the

Taylor (06:15.042)
Okay.

Taylor (06:19.574)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (06:33.406)
center of where the species are found. There are laws in place to protect these plants in Indonesia, but we're also dealing with very rural areas in a lot of situations, and there are people who had made a living by collecting and selling these plants. So it is something that we have to be aware of. There are...

Taylor (06:57.932)
Yeah.

Samantha Sharp (06:58.466)
Now, today, there are nurseries and facilities in these areas that are growing captive plants and are working very diligently to take the hobby out of wild collecting and into that sort of horticulture standpoint. But it's a relatively new industry in some of these areas still, and some of those traditional collecting

Taylor (07:17.813)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (07:26.806)
people are still out there. So it's something that we have to be aware of in the hobby.

Taylor (07:29.982)
Yeah, I was speaking with a guest last week and he's an orchid expert and he was speaking about some orchids that he got from Papua New Guinea and it just seems like, yeah, I don't know compared to orchids how long the penthes has been as of an interest or how large the hobbyist group is compared to something like orchids where everybody seems to know.

So yeah, I'm just interested in that if there's that much conservation effort happening. And yeah, I think it's super interesting that it's, you know.

Samantha Sharp (08:07.354)
What's interesting about the Npenthes is in a modern horticulture standpoint, they've actually been around for over 150 years now. They were actually originally introduced into horticulture during the Victorian age in England. There was a couple of major collectors and gardens there that initially had those first species that were available in horticulture and some of their hybrids that they developed

Taylor (08:15.945)
Okay.

Taylor (08:21.235)
Okay, wow.

Samantha Sharp (08:34.802)
in those gardens, so we're talking 120, 130 years ago, some of those hybrids that were created then are still in horticulture today. I wasn't able to bring any with me into the room because they're very large plants, but there are two hybrid species that I, or hybrids, one's named Miranda, another one is Diaryana, and both of those have been around for 100, 100 plus years in horticulture.

Taylor (08:44.27)
Wow.

Taylor (08:49.642)
Mm-hmm.

Taylor (09:05.254)
and

Samantha Sharp (09:05.414)
So the collection and growing of nepenthes in horticulture has been around for quite a while, but I would say that it's been limited or more limited than orchid availability and understanding because of their more demanding conditions. And that's saying a lot because orchids are already very demanding plants, but the truth is that nepenthes can be very particular in their growing patterns and their requirements.

Taylor (09:34.89)
Right, you're not seeing as many pitcher plants at the checkout at Trader Joe's or whatever.

Samantha Sharp (09:39.394)
Right, right. But you do see them occasionally. And that's really how I got into the hobby originally, was running across one of those hybrids that was developed a while ago. So most species do have that high humidity, high moisture sort of requirement. But a few of these hybrids that have been developed are more tolerant of lower humidity conditions and maybe a little

Samantha Sharp (10:10.094)
a corner of your living room. And that's where I first ran into carnivorous plants was one of those little plants at a gardening center. One of those very robust hybrids. And I ran across that as a kid and was just immediately fascinated by these gorgeous plants. I mean, how can you not be fascinated by the wild shape and the fact that a plant is able to produce something with that kind of...

Taylor (10:18.432)
Mm-hmm.

Taylor (10:32.488)
Yeah.

Samantha Sharp (10:37.91)
dimensions. And for years, I was limited to just sort of those high tolerance hybrid type plants because of the local conditions where I live. So where I'm at right now is probably one of the least hospitable places for nepenthes, which is the deserts of Arizona. So it's very difficult to keep them alive and happy here on a windowsill outside of just maybe one or two of those hybrids.

Taylor (10:55.566)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (11:07.658)
that are available. And for years, I really struggled with finding a way of keeping them alive, keeping them happy out here. I think what I found originally was what a lot of people experiment with is, well, maybe I can use an old fish tank as a terrarium. And that works to a point. It helps hold the humidity and the moisture in. But airflow becomes an issue. Lighting becomes an issue. You get a lot of scatter out of there. Getting temperatures right are an issue.

So for a long time, it was very hard to have a collection of more than a few plants, and definitely limited to just those that were more tolerant of the extremes of what some species will put up with versus other species.

Taylor (11:53.566)
Mm hmm. So you mentioned you got into this hobby over 20 years ago or 20 years ago. You just saw the plant in a garden store and it just spoke to you. And then. Yeah.

Samantha Sharp (12:04.05)
I think that's how most of us get into these hobbies, isn't it? Right? We're just going through them and we see a plan like, wow, that's just amazing. And that was it really. And at the time, it was different, too, that long ago. Online information, online sellers weren't really a thing yet. There was the International Cronivorous Plant Society out there who was doing great work, but it was very it seemed very far away.

in a time before really easy access to a lot of that information. So for a long time, I was just sort of doing it casually, having a couple of plants just among the other houseplants that I had. But it really wasn't until the pandemic that we had here a few years ago, where I had a chance to really look at what had been happening in the Pentecost horticulture and where the

where the hobby was going. And going into it there, I had a chance to see that, wow, here in the US, a lot of greenhouses were now dedicating large amounts of square footage to growing and breeding these plants. And was really intrigued at the idea of some of these species that were previously unknown to me or unavailable as some of these larger scale.

greenhouses and nurseries started to produce more of these plants and make them available to the collecting public as well. And at that point, I started grabbing a few more plants, but quickly ran into logistical issues. Again, still dry out here in Arizona, so I had to come up with some sort of way of creating a better habitat for the plants that I was looking to add into my collection. And originally I was using

IKEA glass cabinets, which are pretty, but a little impractical for plants that grow very large. So most of those IKEA cabinets are only about, I don't know, 12 or 14 inches deep, a couple feet wide, and that works great for small plants, but nepenthes are a vining plant. They start small, which makes it really great for buying them and transporting them to your home.

Taylor (14:05.942)
Mm-hmm.

Taylor (14:13.949)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (14:32.086)
But the reality is a plant that you get as an inch or two tall seedling, after a few years, you might end up with something closer to this. And this is one of the hybrids that's available that was developed here in horticulture. And this one's still a baby, I would say. It hasn't really started its primary vine yet, but we're already dealing with pictures on this plant that are probably pushing about eight inches or so, not including the lid.

Taylor (14:42.739)
Okay. Wow.

Taylor (14:51.394)
Beautiful.

Taylor (15:00.791)
Wow.

Samantha Sharp (15:03.978)
So those glass cabinets very quickly become too small for the work I was trying to do. And I started doing research on grow tents. Over the last few years, grow tents have become more available, but I was really disappointed in what was available out there from my perspective. So with most grow tents, the primary goal is keeping light in, keeping heat in, which is

Taylor (15:08.883)
Yeah.

Samantha Sharp (15:32.738)
great for those applications, but I actually wanna see my plants. I wanna see them, I want to enjoy them. I like where I have the plants growing in the house is an area I pass throughout the day. So I get great joy out of being able to look over and see the plants and, or just go over and see them on the regular, which is why I was really excited when I found the Walden tent.

which has such great windows on it. So the Walden tent has these giant windows on it, but you can still close if you wanna block the light or reflect the light back in. But from what I have seen on the market, there was nothing even close to that kind of visibility in that tent. And I thought, wow, what a great opportunity to...

Taylor (16:11.031)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (16:24.738)
go into a larger size growing area, have that space, but then still be able to enjoy the plants. So having that flexibility of being able to move into a grow tent really allowed me to grow in the hobby in not only in the plants that I was able to collect, but also in how I was able to let them grow and develop and mature as they get bigger.

I was having to basically cut off the growth tips, which you can plant them as cuttings, and they're happy to grow back most of the time from there. But if you have to do that, you're never gonna get a plant that flowers. They need that vine to eventually flower and create seeds. So now I've got the space to really allow my plants to grow, getting to the point where they can become large enough to flower and I can.

Taylor (16:55.143)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (17:19.274)
participate in this hobby of creating new hybrids, breeding individual species of nepenthes, and contributing ideally to those homegrown plants that are reducing that demand, or if there is even that demand on those water-grown plants anymore. But allowing more people to get into the hobby is, I think, an exciting thing. And being able to do that in a home is a unique thing, and a relatively...

new thing in the hobby, where in the past you really needed a full-size greenhouse or some other, or if you lived in a climate where you can grow them outside or in controlled conditions. But these grow tents that have become available here over the last few years have really been a game changer for me and a lot of people who are growing in areas where they don't have the room or the

Taylor (18:15.703)
Yeah.

Samantha Sharp (18:18.682)
or they just don't have those conditions available. So it's been really, really amazing to be able to grow in this hobby and utilize these tools that are available now to really grow incredible plants that I wasn't able to grow before.

Taylor (18:33.758)
No, we appreciate that. Yeah, the idea behind the tent was to grow in those conditions, but also enjoy it. You want to share it. You don't want to just hide it off in the corner. Part of it's just reveling in the beauty of some of these plants. Specifically, maybe for people who might find this information useful, you have the tent set up. How is like?

Samantha Sharp (18:48.095)
It really is.

Taylor (18:58.642)
Is ventilation set up in there? Is there racks set up in there? How exactly is it your tent set up?

Samantha Sharp (19:05.81)
Yeah, so in my tent, I do have racks set up. Sometimes people just go right on the ground, which I do have some plants on the ground because they are starting to develop those longer vines now. But because I do still have plants of varying sizes, I use those racks to keep them at the right height away from the lighting. I do use LED lighting in there, which gives me just about the right amount of heat that I need inside that grow tent.

Taylor (19:12.439)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (19:36.126)
So there's no extra heating or cooling. The lighting is actually providing a fairly good temperature. Most plants that I grow prefer daytime temperatures somewhere between about 80 to 86, 87 for a high in Fahrenheit. And then for lows, usually they like around 68 to about 72.

Taylor (19:54.856)
Okay.

Samantha Sharp (20:02.878)
They do need a little bit of a temperature change, but definitely not as much as you'd experience in most non-tropical areas. I do focus mostly on lowland nepenthes, so those that in their natural habitats grow between sea level and maybe a thousand or two feet above sea level. And that's because of my conditions that I'm able to approximate in my tent.

Taylor (20:15.429)
Hmm.

Samantha Sharp (20:32.87)
In their natural habitat, the penthees actually grow from sea level to the highest peaks in Southeast Asia, which can be actually over 10,000 feet in elevation. Those highland species require much different conditions, much more difficult to grow, much slower growing. Those highland plants actually prefer temperatures at night close to freezing into the upper 30s, low 40s.

because that's where they're found in the wild. So that presents some unique challenges in horticulture. I've seen people develop refrigeration ideas, converting wine coolers into greenhouses or into little terrarium type creations there to help approximate those conditions. Much harder to grow, but gorgeous species. And if you're able to find a way to approximating those temperatures, very rewarding species to grow. But most of mine are

more of the lowland species or the hybrids. And a lot of times what we see in the penthes is when we do cross two species, usually the species that, or the hybrid that's developed from there is more robust than that either of the two parent species, more tolerant of temperature and humidity variations. So the two plants I have with me here today are actually hybrids that were developed by growers here in horticulture.

Taylor (21:47.479)
Hmm.

Samantha Sharp (22:02.206)
which are very tolerant of varying degrees of humidity and temperature and really show off some of the better features of their parent plant.

Taylor (22:13.846)
Nice. So the species or the cultivars you like to grow, they're closer to the earth, lower levels. Is that the Lolean?

Samantha Sharp (22:25.438)
Low land, yeah.

Taylor (22:27.522)
But what's the name of the cultivar? Lolean or Lolen? How do you say that?

Samantha Sharp (22:32.226)
Oh, I was just, just low land, low land versus high land. Yeah.

Taylor (22:36.11)
Oh lowland versus highland. Okay, isn't there a isn't there a type called the lowly in or am I crazy or what? What's the one? What's the type that can eat the larger? like lowy I okay Okay, that's what I heard

Samantha Sharp (22:43.359)
There is a...

Yeah, low EI.

Yeah. So I grabbed about the largest picture I was able to bring over on the call today. And this is actually a hybrid between two species here, Spathulata and Hamata. What's really interesting about Hamata is they're really well known for these amazing peristomes with this bridging and color on here. Spathulata is more known for

Taylor (23:15.598)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (23:17.898)
the size of the pitchers, the larger size of the pitchers. And this hybrid really shows off the, I think the best of both. You get a really toothy peristome on there and a really large pitcher for the size of the plant. But loai is even larger than this. Loai is actually a really specialized species of nepenthes, has a very wide lid on it, very wide opening.

And it's actually developed an interesting way of collecting nutrients. On the low EI, if you look at the picture here, so you've got the peristome, the main opening and the lid, on the low EI, it's actually developed these nectar glands on the bottom side of the lid here that extrude this really sweet sort of substance that attracts small mammals in their native habitat. And the low EI actually

has the little animal sit there on the lid of the pitcher and it starts eating that extradate. And while it's doing that, nature calls and it just happens to fall right in the pitcher. And that is how low EI gets the nutrients it needs to grow. So, you know, wherever you can get it, I guess, but it's a real interesting development or adaptation to the environment and it's a giant toilet.

but it is effective at what it does. But because of that very large opening on that picture, and because those pictures can be upwards of, over a foot tall, they have been known in greenhouses and in the wild to accidentally have rodent-sized animals fall in there. Rats, mice, larger lizards have been found inside some of those larger pictures. So it is definitely more than just bugs that end up in these plants.

Taylor (24:45.716)
Yeah.

Taylor (25:13.026)
Wow.

Samantha Sharp (25:14.658)
While most of them focus mostly on ants is most of their food. I know a couple people who have ended up with mice and rats that have fallen in because they were attracted by the nectar or by the water inside. So they can be killers.

Taylor (25:32.807)
And you have a small dog running around your house. Is that something you just need to be careful about?

Samantha Sharp (25:34.934)
Hahaha

He steers clear, so I think we're okay.

Taylor (25:42.606)
Okay, then how do you feed your plants? Do you actually feed them bugs or do you have like some soil that just overcomes that or do you put bugs in the tent? How do you do that?

Samantha Sharp (25:55.134)
Yeah, that's a great question. So it's a little hard to see. I guess you can see it here on the corner. Most of the plants are growing in a moss type substrate. So there's actually very little nutrients in this, I'll call it substrate because it's really not soil. It's sphagnum moss, which is largely there just to retain moisture. You can grow it in almost any inert media. If they're...

is too much fertilizer or nutrients in the substrate, it will burn the roots. It'll actually kill the plant. The plant can't take those nutrients there. The primary way that the plant absorbs nutrients is through the pitcher. You can feed them bugs, but bugs creates sort of its own headache because if you release a hundred crickets or a hundred ladybugs into your grow tent, you'll quickly find...

Taylor (26:33.408)
Okay.

Taylor (26:37.547)
Mm-hmm.

Taylor (26:43.842)
Hmm.

Samantha Sharp (26:50.026)
that crickets and ladybugs don't want to be in a grow tent. They want to be everywhere and it can become sort of a nightmare. Generally speaking, what I'll end up doing is feeding them, there's a couple of different ways you can do it. And I won't say that any one way is better than the other. Everyone has their own secrets of how they feed their plants. But I've actually had good luck with as basic as betta fish food.

Taylor (26:54.079)
Yeah.

Samantha Sharp (27:20.094)
which come in little dried pellets, but they're high in protein and high in some of those nutrients. The nice thing about them is they're small and you can drop them right in the pitchers and they'll be dissolved that way. There are a couple other sprays that you can mix up with a couple preferred fertilizers at very low concentrations.

Taylor (27:22.226)
Yeah.

Samantha Sharp (27:48.45)
And if you're able to get that directly into the pitcher, into the liquid, the plant will be able to break down those nutrients and take what it needs from those fertilizers. So generally at this point, I prefer to do either the feeding of those betta fish flakes, there's osmocote, it's another type of fertilizer, it's definitely a stronger fertilizer that you can put in, still in a pellet form. A lot of times those stronger fertilizers will damage the pitcher.

Taylor (28:11.798)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (28:18.582)
So I try to be really aware of what pictures I'm feeding because of the way that they die back. So this is a nice healthy picture that opened up recently, but if I rotate the plan around, you'll notice that I've got a picture that is at the end of its natural life. Over time, the older pictures will dry up, and usually, not always, but usually they'll start drying from the top down.

Taylor (28:28.877)
Yeah.

Taylor (28:35.835)
Uh...

Samantha Sharp (28:43.462)
at this point, the bottom is still able to digest, it still has that living area. So I usually find a pitcher like this to fertilize because it's already on its way out, but it's able to still absorb those nutrients. So before it ends up getting cut off in a couple weeks, I can sort of sacrifice what's left of the pitcher there to take up as much nutrients as possible for the plant and help it along its way. So

It can be a very manual feeding process, unlike a lot of plants, it does take time. And usually I end up feeding several times a month, just try to space it out a little bit. You'll see though, after a week or two after feeding, that the plants do usually respond well in putting out additional growth or faster growth for you, so you know that they're getting what they need to be healthy and survive.

Taylor (29:11.086)
Yeah, I bet.

Taylor (29:33.718)
But you're kind of just guessing when they're hungry. You're just, or you're just kind of spacing it out.

Samantha Sharp (29:37.554)
I think, yeah, they're always hungry. They're always hungry, I think. And they will definitely take as much bugs or food you throw at them. What's funny is if you do end up having any bugs that do get into the tent, they are amazingly effective at getting rid of them. I mean, that's what they were, that's what they evolved for, but.

It always amazes me at just looking in the pictures, what they'll end up catching just by being there that I didn't put in there. Houseflies, mosquitoes end up in there quite often. So they are good at keeping the house free of pests.

Taylor (30:04.765)
Mm-hmm.

Taylor (30:12.192)
Mm-hmm.

Taylor (30:19.358)
Yeah, what a great selling point for those. Um, yeah, that's a, that's super interesting. So to get, so, you know, they're healthy when I guess a pitcher might slowly die off like a plant or a leaf and then a new one will come, or as long as there's new ones coming in that balance, then you know, the plant's doing okay.

Samantha Sharp (30:43.594)
That's a good way of looking at it. So I showed you the one that's near the end of its life. I've got one up here that's just now starting to open. So this one will open over the next few days here. And as it opens for this particular hybrid, it'll end up developing that toothy sort of pinkish, cream colored peristyle and fully open here. But generally you'll notice that a plant has about...

Taylor (30:51.5)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (31:09.962)
a certain number of pictures that it wants to hold on to. Some plants only like holding on to one or two pictures at a time. Some plants may hold on to eight to 10 to 15 pictures at a time. It really just depends on the type of plant that it is. Some of the pictures are very soft planting material and others are almost more like a woody material. And depending on the plant, it may hold on to a picture for a month or two.

or a year or two. I've seen some of them, especially the more woody species, will hold on to those pictures for multiple years.

Taylor (31:48.398)
Okay, well, you've talked about the types you like and your methods for growing. Maybe you can go into some, what are the challenges that you have encountered in growing these plants? How have you overcome those challenges?

Samantha Sharp (32:03.318)
Well, the biggest challenges are those habitat requirements. The humidity, the moisture levels were what I had fought with for years. So having an ability to control those climate conditions, whether in a grow tent or a greenhouse or a terrarium type setup, that's the first one I think a lot of new hobbyists have to overcome, is making your plants happy. Now, if they're not happy, they'll usually tell you. The growth will slow down.

Taylor (32:13.791)
Mm.

Samantha Sharp (32:33.77)
The plant will produce new leaves, but those leaves will not pitcher. You'll notice I've got a new leaf that's poking out up here. So as these new leaves start developing, that little kind of mini pitcher at the very end waits for the right time for it to grow. So this one is actually probably still three or four months out from when this will fully develop into the pitcher. But if the conditions are right, it will expand and eventually you'll end up with

full-size pitcher, if you're not getting enough humidity or moisture, it won't grow. It will just stay right there, or that end may even dry up and just brown and you might lose it all together. So getting the conditions right is by far the most difficult part of the hobby. And then once you get past that point, it's maintaining those conditions. Because they are plants that

don't get a lot of their nutrients from the substrate that they grow in, they are slower growing plants. Generally speaking, it will take these plants somewhere between five to 15 years to flower for the first time. So being able to maintain that habitat and those conditions for a long period of time, and they're not very tolerant of...

missing water days or moisture days. It just takes one power outage to really make a collection unhappy. So yeah, definitely something you have to be aware of. No, they're really not. You definitely have to have somebody on standby when you're on vacation to make sure they're getting what they need to be happy.

Taylor (34:05.642)
Really? So, not super forgiving.

Taylor (34:17.591)
Wow.

Taylor (34:21.886)
Is there a way or how would you propagate in a pantheist? Is there a technique that you found to be successful in propagation?

Samantha Sharp (34:28.946)
Yeah, as I mentioned, flowering can take quite a long time. And not everyone wants flowers, number one, because usually they do have to get to that vining stage. And that vine can be four feet to 15 plus feet long. So that can be a lot to manage even in a large grow tent type environment. Cuttings are one of the easier ways to propagate the plants. If you've ever propagated.

Taylor (34:33.833)
Yeah.

Taylor (34:47.285)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (34:58.402)
pot those. It's very similar. Pretty much every leaf has a node on the vine, so every leaf has a growth point right above the growing leaf there. So you can cut the main vine up into multiple cuttings. Normally you can root those either in a moss substrate like this or for some hybrids and species you have luck with just going directly into water.

Taylor (35:02.71)
Yeah.

Samantha Sharp (35:27.666)
for a few weeks until those roots start developing. Usually have a fairly high level of success from cuttings. I'd say for me personally, it's somewhere between 50 and 80% depending on the species. And again, for hobbyists, you're looking for a plant that's just starting to get into that vining stage. And generally speaking, you'll know you're in the vining stage when the length between the nodes starts to.

increase. And this plant is just starting to get there, where you're starting to see some stocky material between the leaves versus a younger plant. Those leaves will almost be one right on top of another. So I'd say that this one is definitely in a position, if I wanted to, to start making cuttings from it. Besides cuttings, another easy way is just by waiting. And most Nepenthes will eventually start putting up basil shoots.

from the root structure. So as you watch them grow, you might start seeing what looks like little plants coming up from the base. And after a few months, those will develop into little plantlets, at which point they can be carefully removed from the main stock and rooted the same way as the cuttings and those grow very well. Those are the two easiest ways. Growing from seed is a much more complicated process.

Taylor (36:52.626)
So if you're 50 if you if these only start longer to 15 years you must have some that you started growing 20 plus years ago

Samantha Sharp (37:00.638)
Now I wish I could say that I was that good, that I was able to keep all of my plants alive this entire time, but that is not the case. My oldest plants right now are about eight years old.

Taylor (37:11.091)
Okay. Wow.

Samantha Sharp (37:12.61)
So, and they're getting to be a very large size now. But flowering is, it is difficult because not only are, not only do they require a fairly large size before they flower, the penthes are also either male or female plants. They're not able to self pollinate.

Taylor (37:17.774)
Thanks for watching!

Taylor (37:38.379)
Hmm.

Samantha Sharp (37:39.238)
which makes it very hard in horticulture to produce pure specimens, because a lot of times, if you are lucky enough to create seeds, you're creating with what you have available, with what happens to be flowering at the same time. But it's the future now, right? So there are groups online where people actually post, hey, I've got a female of this species in flower looking if anyone has a male of this species, and people are actually trading pollen.

Taylor (38:09.175)
Wow.

Samantha Sharp (38:09.486)
across the U.S. here to help create some of these species because they are notoriously difficult to get flower and to have flower at the same time as another plant happens to be flowering of the other sex. So it can be very complicated to get to that point and actually produce viable seeds.

Taylor (38:27.906)
How is the community of Nepenthes growers online? Have you seen it grow since the pandemic? And is helping people pollinate across the country, is that one thing that you guys are talking about? What else is going on in these groups?

Samantha Sharp (38:43.978)
Yeah, I'd say over the last few years, and I would say that I wasn't really involved online until more recently, but it has grown quite a bit. And I think the pandemic was definitely one of those features that really got people more into it here over the last few years. But the community is very open, welcoming, and willing to work with one another. There's a lot of the trading of cuttings of smaller plants, the sale of smaller plants.

I know we just got through, or we're at the end of June here. June across the US, there's a lot of crevice plant shows. There was just one in Southern California, Texas off the top of my head, and several others out there, which are opportunities for people to come together, share their collections, trade and sell with other people in the hobby. So yeah, utilizing some of those online tools that are out there has really sort of changed the hobby in a lot of ways and opened it up to people.

Taylor (39:24.683)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (39:44.31)
who may not have had access before.

Taylor (39:47.282)
And you're a big influencer in this space. How is your channel grown and what have you seen as you've kind of shown people what you're doing?

Samantha Sharp (39:59.846)
I think people are always amazed at the variety of plants. I wish I had more than two to show, because they are so gorgeous. And if you've already had orchid growers on the show, then you know that the variety is just incredible in some of these plant families. I've really enjoyed being able to share my collection online, share some of my experiences in growing.

both the successes and failures along the way. I think it's really important as much as we can to share what we know with other people. This shouldn't be a hobby that is relegated to those who are able to do this full-time. There's an ability now, and it didn't exist before, for...

growers of all experience levels to get into the hobby, to enjoy the hobby, to understand it, and to produce beautiful plants that they can enjoy. And I think for me, that's the biggest part about the online community is just helping people see what we're able to do, even in very modest growing conditions. Again, 10, 15 years ago, if you didn't have a greenhouse, a full-size industrial greenhouse, you probably weren't growing plants like this.

at home unless you had access to that type of facility. Being able to set up a grow tent or small grow space and now with the availability of plants locally, it really is an amazing time to be in the hobby and to enjoy some of these beautiful species and hybrids that are being developed with the penthees.

Taylor (41:50.068)
What advice would you give to someone who's interested in growing a pantheist but doesn't know where to start?

Samantha Sharp (41:55.838)
My advice would be to start with those hybrids that are out there that are more friendly to new growers and to those conditions that may be less than ideal. So there's that Miranda hybrid I mentioned earlier produces beautiful pictures. Even here in Arizona with Miranda growing on a in a bright.

not direct sunlight but a bright corner, I was able to grow, you know, pictures that were 8 to 10 inches tall, even here in the desert, inside. Miranda is a very forgiving species and produces these beautiful pictures. There's another hybrid out there called Ventrata, and that's a hybrid of Ventricosa and Allotas, which are two species. Those are the ones you're most likely to find at garden centers, so if you do ever run across a tropical pitcher plant,

Taylor (42:49.215)
Mm-hmm.

Samantha Sharp (42:51.094)
That's probably what you're seeing in those commercial type settings. But again, very forgiving. I had one growing right next to the kitchen sink for years and it was happy to produce pictures and clean up any fruit flies or fungus nets in the kitchen as well. And then as you get into the hobby, understand what your local growing conditions look like. So being in Arizona,

Even in the winter, it's never very cold here. It's not very cold in our homes here. So the grow tent with just the grow lights usually is able to give me those low land conditions fairly easily. But I know that a lot of people who live in colder climates or maybe they're growing areas in their basement, they have more opportunity to grow some of those higher elevation, the highland species, because those basements may...

settle some cold air down there and it gets into the 50s at night. Those highland species really appreciate those troughs and you're able to grow some more of those species. So understand what you have available to you and then start looking at the species that sort of fit what you're able to produce. I think most people would be surprised at what they can grow as they get into the hobby.

Taylor (44:11.426)
And there's a beautiful like symbiosis relationship with these plants. Like you take care of them, they'll take care of you. I think it's a super interesting plant type. I have to ask you, I saw on your Instagram that you were tasting different nectars of these plants. What does they taste like and why are you doing that?

Samantha Sharp (44:33.122)
So depending on the species, one of the ways that they attract bugs or whatever their prey is, is by extruding nectar. The two I have here don't really have a lot of nectar glands on them. I should have grabbed one. But yeah, so like I mentioned with low AI, they extrude that it's actually really almost like a thick waxy nectar on those.

But a lot of the species, actually this one does have some under the lid, just a kind of a light gloss under there. Just to attract ants primarily. Anything looking for that sweet, so I thought I'd try some. And it's sweet. It is sweet. It is nectary. So if you've ever, you know, tried like a what do they call them? Not the honeydew, the

Oh, they grow. Oh, it's semi-sweet, I'd say. It's not quite as sweet as honey, but it is sweet and sticky and syrupy. You know, like if you could collect enough of it and it would take a lot of plants, I think it would actually make like a nice syrup. Now, I don't, I, well, I think it's just the amount of plants you'd need. And I'm not recommending that everyone go out there and taste their Nepenthes.

Taylor (45:48.234)
Really? Yeah, why does anyone come up with that?

Samantha Sharp (45:58.802)
just for the record. And the nectar up here is different than the fluid that collects at the bottom of the pitcher. I wouldn't drink the fluid necessarily, since that's more digestive enzymes. But the nectar up on the peristome or on the lid is usually sort of a semi-sweet type of nectar that bugs go crazy for.

Taylor (46:04.282)
Yeah, don't try that.

Taylor (46:13.092)
Yeah, okay.

Taylor (46:23.738)
super interesting. Well where can people find you online and see the beautiful setup you have going on?

Samantha Sharp (46:30.238)
Yeah, on Instagram, my primary page is the Penthe's Odyssey. And I do post a lot of photos about how my plants are doing. I try to share some of the variety that I have. I also post a lot about some of the work I'm doing in keeping my greenhouse running. So post some propagation videos on there, some videos about my growing conditions, generally just sharing my experiences in the hobby as we go through it here.

Taylor (47:01.182)
Well, this has been a super interesting call. You're the first person we've spoken with doing tropical plants, you know, let alone plants that are carnivorous. And the pitcher plant is super unique and beautiful. And I appreciate you sharing your knowledge, 20 plus years and, you know, getting people excited and interested in this plant. I hope that this, you know, starts a conversation, continues conversation and gets people more engaged to learn more and.

you know, interact with your Instagram and some of what you're doing on social media.

Samantha Sharp (47:33.714)
It's an exciting time. It really is. To have this opportunity now with the materials that are available in horticulture with advancements in grow tents, grow lighting, ventilation. It's the best time it's ever been for growing the pentheas in horticulture. So it's exciting to be in the hobby right now. And I'm excited to see what people continue to do out there. So I think the more people who are interested in it and who are growing

it just makes it better. Everyone who's involved, you know, is able to contribute their own piece to the community and I think that's really an amazing thing.

Taylor (48:13.086)
Yeah, and I think the conservation effort that I knew little about is also super interesting and bringing attention to that is also really important. So I appreciate that that's part of your mission.

Samantha Sharp (48:25.482)
Definitely, yeah. Being able to grow, but grow in a way that conserves what is left in the wild by focusing most of our activities here locally, I think is so important. If all of us in the hobby and the community are focused on growing what we have and bringing what we have, or making what we have available to other growers, it really does help preserve what is still out there. So that is very important.

Taylor (48:55.842)
All right, well, thank you so much, Samantha, and we'll be in touch and look forward to seeing your progress as you continue to expand your garden.

Samantha Sharp (49:04.214)
Thanks so much, really appreciate the chance to talk about the plants here today.

Taylor (49:09.07)
All right, thank you. Talk to you soon, bye.

Samantha Sharp (49:10.111)
All right, bye bye.