Sarracenia Northwest

On the 14^th of July I went to Sarracenia Northwest. It's a small carnivorous plant nursery in Eagle Creek, Oregon. I live in the Portland Metro Area, on the other side of the west hills, so it was about a hour drive. Upon arriving I was very very impressed. They have a very small area that they work with and they utilize it in an absolutely amazing way. Not only did I feel like this would be a great example of small area agriculture, but I also figured it'd be a nice opportunity to talk about one of my influences.

Sarracenia

Upon arriving I was very surprised to see that most of their growing is done in about an acre of land. It's in a pretty remote location (in the sense that Eagle Creek is a very very small community), but like all of Oregon, it is gorgeous (for the sake of full disclosure, there might be some bias in that last statement). In the images below, as well as the ones on their webpage and facebook account, you can see that their cold hardy plants are all in plastic kiddie pools, all covered in tarps to minimize UV damage. When I saw this I was floored by how simple and elegant the design is. There are a few fold out solar panels linked to water pumps to provide some water circulation, but that's about it. I was so impressed with this. So much so that I want to eventually emulate it for the purposes of creating a small collection of carnivorous plants. Their namesake plants, Sarracenias, their Venus flytraps, and temperate sundews all reside in these pools. Another side benefit of these pools is that they create habitat for frogs, and though I didn't see any myself while I was there, several people (including my wife who was with me) caught site of tadpoles.

Butterwort (Pinguicula)

For their subtropicals and tropicals they have several greenhouses. One of the larger ones houses their Nepenthes (also known as monkey cups). They are, by far, my favorite. They have large pitchers that come off of the central vein of each of their leaves. My first carnivorous plant was a Nepenthes (though I have no idea what the genus was) that my mom bought for me when I was little. I didn't know how to take care of it though, and it didn't survive long.

Nepenthes

One of the earliest things that started me into the world of plants, which really got me interested in carnivorous plants, was a book that I had in second grade. It was full of big beautiful pictures of Venus flytraps, Sarracenias, sundews, bladderworts, and butterworts. It blew my mind in a way. I had no idea that anything besides Venus flytraps “ate” bugs. In a way it might've really been the genesis of my love for plants. I was so excited to find Sarracenia a few months ago and so glad that they have an open house for people to come enjoy what they've accomplished.

Sundew (Drosera)

When everything is said and done, I am so amazed and impressed by what Sarracenia has done with their tiny plot of land. It's beautiful and I really recommend that you go to one of their open houses. The next open house weekend is this September; the 8^th and the 9^th.

A very special thanks to Jeff and Jacob of Sarracenia for all the great stuff they do.

Go check them out:

http://www.cobraplant.com/

At the time of writing this, they're also doing a summer sale, all of their plants are 15% off.

And here is the URL to sign up for their September open house:

http://www.cobraplant.com/openhouse

All photos are copyright of Jeanette Sedell, used by permission.
These, as well as other beautiful photos are (or will be soon) available on her deviant art photography page: http://yozora-no-tenshi.deviantart.com/ 
(edit 8/9/2012)

Jeanette Sedell's new photography account: http://jeanettesedell.deviantart.com/

Next week: Adventures with wasabi