First Thing And I Was Out,

unfortunaly Diana had to work today, 

so for myself it was a walk through the park to the station, 

I had a letter to post in the snail mail box, 

then continue to the park entrance in the distance, 

I had plenty of time to catch the 07.04 to Victoria, a change of trains and on to Clapham Junction, another change of trains this time I ended up in Winchester, the last part of my journey a half an hour journey on a number 69 bus to Stroudwood Lane, in Lower Upham, Southampton, 

I started my walk along the lane, 

and there it was in the distance, 

Hampshire Insectivorous Plants,

as I walked in,

I could not believe my eyes, 

green houses joined together,

with literally thousands of insectivorous plants,

I looked to my right and I was in seventh heaven, pot after pot of Venus fly traps,

there were also displays of specimen plants that were not for sale,

if you are into different plants this is the place to come on one of their open weekends, 

the plants on the left I had never heard of, next to some Venus fly traps,

some of these were a mystery to me as well,

and here they are, all the plants here under the watchful eyes of Ya and Matt, they made me feel so welcome, we had a chat about the Far East, before I continued my walk around more benches of plants,

by far the most imposing plants were the Sarracenia Pitcher plants,

some how they always remind me of triffids,

and there were so many of them,

the benches seemed almost endless, 

with beauties on every one,

I continued walking, 

and taking photographs,

some here a most intense green,

these Cephalotus, looking so nice,

more Sarracenia pitchers,

I do not know what variety this one is,

or these, 

they just looked so nice,

on another bench, 

a different variety,

and one more, 

the photograph does not do the colour of this one justice,

everywhere I looked, 

more treasures, 

the selection was staggering, 

the journey here completely forgotten,

on some of the benches in this house, 

plants being grown on,

as far as the eye could see, 

and then another selection of fly traps,

I still think these look like triffids!

 Sarracenia pitchers,

again I am not going to guess at the variety, 

in another glass house, 

monkey cups, (Nepenthes),

lots of them,

with their strange looking cups,

amazing!

these a slightly different type of insectivorous plant, 

Sundews, 

I am not sure what these are,

I am guessing seed pods,

of a Sarracenia pitcher plant,

what a feast for the eyes, tray after tray of Venus fly traps,

both green,

and these blood red, all growing on for sale when a tad larger, 

I just love this, families with the kids taking an interest in the plants, a little about the largest insectivorous plant nursery in the UK. 

"We are a specialist carnivorous plant nursery based in Hampshire UK . We have been growing these fascinating plants for over 40 years now so we know a thing or two about them and how to grow them successfully. We have been awarded 21 consecutive RHS Chelsea Gold medals and over 140 Gold medals from all other top flower show across the UK over the last 25 years"

I picked the right nursery to visit!

time to make my selection, I bought 3 Venus fly traps for just £25.00 which I thought was very reasonable, many thanks to Ya and Matt, as an aside there are specialist collectors of these plants, have a look at the Collectors Corner page, also a page with pretty much all you would need to keep these fascinating plants, if you wish to visit on the next open day keep checking their Facebook page and of course their web page, also of interest there are a number of videos on YouTube, what a wonderful visit, 

also these may be of help, detailing forthcoming shows, 

and open weekends, 

then a bit of a disaster, I missed the bus, and they only run every 2 hours! eventually I made my journey home, a reverse of the one down, on the train from Winchester I bumped into some rugby fans going to the Harlequins match, so Adrian if you are reading this please say hello to Stan!

I arrived back in the park,

and now had to get a few things prepared for our new guests, the propagator next to our original fly trap,

this is the plant we bought on our last trip to Coolings Nursery, have a look here for our day out where we also visited Coombe Wood, the seed spike on it is getting large, most say it should be cut off as it takes a lot of energy from the plant, but I thought I would leave to mature, I placed the plant on a upturned flower pot so it would be in the light and not the shadow of the windowsill, and glued a saucer to the top of it, 

so out with my trusty glue gun and glue saucers to three more upturned pots, 

all done!

so on the windowsill they went, this one is the variety red piranha, 

but I have to say I do not know,

what the other two varieties are, 

regular readers will remember way back on January 10th, I bought some fly trap seeds form a number of sources, and so far, not a single one has germinated, it must be me, but I will leave them all for another few months, just in case they are all late starters!

and here is our windowsill with our new guests, I put the original fly trap in the kitchen which has the same facing window, 

next time for my evening read and sherry,

Diana was still at work so a prawn cocktail it was, 

followed by a shepherds pie, 'Cheers!', after which a documentary,

photograph Channel 4, Hindenburg: The Cover Up, a fascinating programme, examining a number of previously discounted or not reported testimonies, after which Diana arrived home, so a coffee and a chat as we relaxed watching,

 The Book of Eli, Eli has been wandering westward across North America for the last thirty years, he finds solace in a unique book, a book wanted by Carnegie, a powerful mobster, the fight for the book then commences, by now as the film ended it was late, so we were off to bed.