houseplants – Extension Master Gardener Volunteers of Durham County

By Deandra Hill, NC State Master Gardener^SM volunteer of Durham County

Plant Festival

Saturday, April 6, 2024

10:00 am – 1:00 pm

721 Foster Street, Durham, NC

https://www.backyardtreasuresplantsale.org/plant-festival-2024

Tennyson tells us that “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” It is indeed spring, and my thoughts have turned more than lightly to thoughts of the Plant Festival!

*Plant Festival team co-chair Lissa Lutz, excited to meet community partners and members at the inaugural event. (Image credit: Deandra Hill)*

Actually, co-chairs of the 2024 Plant Festival team, Wanda Crutchfield, Lissa Lutz, and I, along with many others, have been planning since winter to build on the success of last year’s inaugural event. We had an unexpectedly robust turn out despite having to move the event indoors at the last minute, as we discovered the wind did not intend to leave tents and tables in the same place that we set them!

High winds and rain did not discourage the community from joining us at Foster Street to meet with community partners and fellow Master Gardener^SM volunteers to propagate our mission of providing research-based gardening information and advice to the public.

Plant Sale Offerings on Display

The 2024 Plant Festival will feature many of the plants offered the following week at the annual Backyard Treasures Plant Sale on April 13.¹ The attendees are able to see the amazing plants our volunteers have been lovingly growing and tending. They are also able to ask experts about veggies and herbs, native plants, perennials, and houseplants and their needs.

Last year, we partnered with community groups with whom we share similar interests: a number of community gardens, such as Briggs Avenue Community Garden, NC Central’s student garden, and Urban Community AgriNomics (UCAN), founded by former Durham County Extension Director Delphine Sellars.

Plant Experts and Community Partners Answering Questions

(Left to right) Photos highlight our community partners’ involvement at the 2023 festival. A volunteer from Keep Durham Beautiful discussing composting basics; Durham Beekeepers volunteer delights attendees with information on bees; 4-H volunteers help kids make bouquets. (Image credit: Deandra Hill)

We had groups devoted to conservation, such as the NC Native Plant Society and Keep Durham Beautiful. Durham Beekeepers and Extension Master Gardener^SM volunteers showed up to present information on keeping bees and backyard chickens. Not forgetting the children, we had 4-H and Durham Public Schools’ Hub Farm.

Our volunteers represented the Extension Master Gardener^SM program with tables about propagation, container gardening, and our very own demonstration garden, as well as being on hand to answer questions about gardening.

This year, we are lucky to feature many of the same community partners and plant pros at the Festival. In addition, we have experts providing information on veggie container gardening and using “green” pots to help lessen plastic waste.

Plant and Gardening Book Give-a-ways

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Well, at our 2023 inaugural event, the Plant Festival gave away 250 plants that represented the offerings from the Plant Sale, as well as free garden books welcome to anyone who attended! We will be returning again this year with a plant give-a-way and free books while supplies last.²

This year we will also be offering free trees! We will be distributing 2-year-old oaks trees, locally grown at Panther Creek Forest Farm, in partnership with Keep Durham Beautiful. Durham community members will be able to take home and plant one of these keystone plants that play such a pivotal role in our ecosystem.

(Left to right, top to bottom) Just a few of the many plants that will be part of the Plant Festival give-a-way including tomatoes–several varieties (Solanum lycopersicum L.); paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysanthia); golden pothos (Epipremnum aureum); polka dot begonia (Begonia maculata); basil (Ocimum basilicum), and butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). (Image credit: Master Gardener^SM volunteers of Durham County)

Community Representation at the Event

In conjunction with efforts of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee, the Plant Festival team has worked diligently to increase the representation of our community partners to include groups that match the faces and demographics that make up our community.

To that end, we reached out to community organizations in the Native American, Black, and Latino communities. We are excited to also be including El Futuro, the Black Farmers’ Market, and NC A&T along with our returning community partners. We may even have a couple more new faces by the time this blog is posted. This work can seem slow, but we have high hopes to keep reaching out and extending our figurative hands to more groups.

So here’s to a sunny and breezy (but not windy!) day this April 6. We hope to see your smiling face in the crowd.

To see a full list of plants you will see at the Plant Festival along with a full list of exhibitors and educators who will be there, check out this link:

https://www.backyardtreasuresplantsale.org/plant-festival-2024

Notes

1–For additional information on the upcoming Backyard Treasures Plant Sale on April 13, including photos and lists of plants available for purchase, visit the online site. https://www.backyardtreasuresplantsale.org.

2–The first 250 attendees to the Plant Festival will receive a ticket for a free plant with a time, starting at 11:00 am. Check out all the plant offerings before 11:00 am, and when your time slot comes up, trade your ticket for one of the plants of your choice. Time slots are every 15 minutes between 11:00 and 12:30, and you must be present to claim your plant. One ticket per person, please.

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By Melinda Heigel, NC State Extension Master Gardener^SM volunteer of Durham County

(Left to right) The carnivorous butterwort cultivar ‘Aphrodite,’ which needs constant moisture, sitting in an inch of distilled water (a tray watering system). The simple yet stunning butterwort flowers emerge and will eventually fade to pale pink. Note the butterwort’s flat thin leaves that at first blush resemble those of a succulent. (Image credit: Melinda Heigel)

I recently attended a talk by a commercial orchid grower who introduced the audience to a plant most of us had never heard of—the carnivorous butterwort plant (Pinguicula spp.). Most were acquainted with the NC native Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) or even the pitcher plant (Sarracenia spp.) —but the butterwort? Butterworts, also called “pings” for short, are not the easiest plant to find at the local nursery. That makes them a favorite of collectors and plant hobbyists alike. In addition to their rarity, butterworts have some interesting characteristics. Most notable is their source of nutrition.

The butterwort plant is a bit like old-fashioned fly paper. Its shiny, sticky leaves trap prey on their surface, and their digestive enzymes consume small pests by literally dissolving them. The orchid grower finds it most helpful to control small flying visitors in his greenhouse. If you are a houseplant lover, you might find it a trusty friend in controlling fungus gnats (Lycoriella spp. and Bradysia spp.) that hitch a ride home on your newly-purchased plants. And if you are a produce or fruit lover, fruit flies (Drosophilidae family) are also on the butterwort’s menu. This feature alone makes it a great plant for a bright kitchen window.

Check out the ‘Aphrodite’ butterwort in action. The fine translucent hairs of its leaves emit a sticky, greasy mucilage that traps prey like these fungus gnats that the plant will ultimately consume. (Image credit: Melinda Heigel)

I sometimes suffer from these annoying “house guests,” so I bought a butterwort cultivar called ‘Aphrodite’ (Pinguicula agnata x moctezumae. ‘Aphrodite’) and trekked it home over 1,000 miles to central North Carolina to try my hand at growing it.

Characteristics of Butterwort Plants

There are some types of “pings” that are native throughout North, Central, and South America and exist in varied environments, but you don’t need to travel thousands of miles to find them. Some butterwort species are native to parts of the southeastern and the southern US including North Carolina, where they grow in moist environments. Blue butterwort (Pinguicula caerulea) prefers sun and often grows in the sandhills of both North and South Carolina. Yellow butterwort (Pinguicula lutea) prefers the poor, acidic, and sandy soil of bogs with partial shade. There are many species and cultivars (human-bred plant varieties) of butterwort, but they they are all perennial plants with long rounded leaves that resemble those of succulents.

(Left to right) Butterworts native to North Carolina like the blue butterwort (Pinguicula caerulea) and the yellow butterwort (Pinguicula lutea) grow in sandy soil and in wet environments. (Image credit: Eleanor CC BY-NC 4.0; Bob Peterson CC-BY-SA 2.0)

The ‘Aphrodite’ butterwort cultivar I am growing is known as a Mexican or tropical cultivar. It has leaves that can grow up to 10 inches in length. They have a slight downward growing habit and range from bright green to a deep pink, depending on the light level and overall conditions. This cultivar generally grows as a basal rosette and can reach up to 6 inches tall. Butterworts can appear fragile, but they have a reputation for being easy to grow and quite vigorous. This plant has delicate short-lived flowers on long spindly stalks that emerge as deep violet and fade to a pale pink. Plants can flower year-round, but most are more prolific during warmer months. Make no mistake, though. You won’t be growing this plant for showy flowers; you’ll be growing it for its insect-eating super power.

Growing Conditions and Care of Butterwort Plants

Light

As a potted plant grown indoors, cultivated butterworts like sunny to part-sun conditions. A south facing windowsill is great, and supplemental lighting can also be helpful especially during the winter. Avoid too much exposure to hot sun, though, especially if you periodically put your plant outside during warmer months. Outdoors, they require only part sun. Although native butterworts in NC are cold hardy to our winter temperatures and require a period of dormancy, cultivars like ‘Aphrodite’ are considered tropical plants that cannot tolerate frost.

Growing Media

Butterworts have very shallow roots whose main job is to provide anchoring for the plant. They require a special medium in which to grow. Some experts recommend a mix of 1 part peat to 3 parts perlite, vermiculite, or sand. Very loose, well-draining soil is a must. If you don’t want to mix your own, carnivorous plant mixes are available commercially online and in some local nurseries.

Water

Despite their resemblance to succulents, butterworts have very different water requirements than their look-a-likes. They need to always stay moist and should never dry out during their active growing seasons in warmer months. Planting butterworts in a plastic pot with drainage holes instead of a porous terracotta one can help mitigate evaporation and keep the plant moist. Some experts recommend placing them in a bowl or saucer of water 1-inch deep. This eliminates the need for overhead watering. Especially important is their need for low mineral content, so do not use tap or well water. Likewise, chlorine in most municipal water systems will damage the plant. Instead, only use distilled water or rainwater to keep these carnivores happy.

If your ‘Aphrodite’ or other Mexican-type butterwort leaves begin to plump up like those of succulents during the winter, you can limit the tray watering and keep them only slightly moist. They are experiencing a type of dormancy. Once the thinner flatter leaf shape returns, begin watering again with the tray system. However, most experts recommend that you do not force this dormancy. If there are no appreciable changes in the leaves, you don’t need to change your watering methods. Just carry on with sitting the plant in the 1 inch of water as normal.

Nutrition

Butterworts do photosynthesize, but they receive most of their nutrition from the insects they trap and ingest on the surface of their sticky leaves. Most experts contend that carnivorous plants generally do not require supplemental fertilizer. According to the North Carolina Botanical Garden, which does fertilize their carnivorous pitcher plants sparingly, “all carnivorous plants are extremely sensitive to over fertilization.”¹ Best to let insects do the work for you.

Discover something new with the butterwort. Hopefully you’ll take care of any pesky flying gnats in your home and have a great conversation piece! You can easily find the cultivar ‘Aphrodite’ and other butterworts online. If your local nursery stocks any carnivorous plants, ask them if they have access to the plants as well. And while some of the native “pings” can be found in nature, they can be rare, and on private or public land, so it’s best to leave them undisturbed. Instead seek out cultivated options in the commercial arena from a reputable seller.

Notes

1–See NC Botanical Garden’s guide to growing native carnivorous plants for more information.

https://ncbg.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/963/2020/02/GrowingCarnivorousPlants.pdf

Resources and Additional Information

For general information on butterworts (Pinguicula spp.) see North Carolina State University’s Plant Toolbox site.

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/pinguicula

To learn more about how scientists are researching the genes of butterworts and other carnivorous plants to reduce pesticide and fertilizer use for crops, see Penn State University’s site.

https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/little-crop-horrors

Visit the University of Illinois Extension’s page to learn more about carnivorous house plants and their care.

https://extension.illinois.edu/news-releases/bugged-houseplant-pests-give-carnivorous-plants-try

For some stunning photos of carnivorous plants including the butterwort, check out Duke University’s page featuring a photo gallery of their live plant collections.

https://liveplantcollections.biology.duke.edu/featured-collections/carnivorous

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Extension Master Gardener Volunteers of Durham County

Tag: houseplants

The Plant Festival Returns on April 6: Join Us!