pitcher perfect
Geraldine man Ross Taylor, who runs the country’s only specialist carnivorous plant nursery, explains his lifelong love for flesh-eating flora.
Alove of plants often passes down through the generations but for Ross Taylor, his love of carnivorous plants began with a schoolboy yearning for a woman more than twice his age. Ten-year-old Ross had talked his way on to a night computer course at Nelson Polytechnic and was delighted when “corporate goddess” Helen, 24, took the neighbouring terminal. He was even more thrilled when she offered him a ride home one rainy night. Making conversation, he asked about her interests, which resulted in an invitation to see her collection of carnivorous plants. Fatefully, it altered the direction of his life.
Ross still recalls the visit in vivid detail. “Helen lived up a long, steep driveway. I was frightfully unfit, and stopped to compose myself on several occasions, so I wouldn’t look like a sweaty schoolboy. Finally, I made it to the top but she was nowhere to be found. Instead there was a tall, dark-haired man wearing a black leather jacket.” On learning this was Don, Helen’s husband, Ross says, “my heart crumbled”.
However, in the greenhouse, the boy was “transfixed” by the collection of endangered North American sarracenia (pitcher plants). “They were like nothing I had ever seen. Their ‘wow’ factor has never left me,” Ross says. “Suddenly, my infatuation with the blonde goddess took a back seat, and the plants stepped into the driving seat.”
Helen, Don and Ross, by the way, are still good friends 31 years later.
The next year Ross started his own carnivorous plant nursery in Nelson and by the age of 15 was supplying eight or nine garden centres in the district. “They’re great plants for children to grow,” he explains, “as they demonstrate how plants survive in a competitive world. Carnivorous plants naturally grow in poor soil and take few nutrients from the ground, and they’re an organic form of fly control which is very, very effective.”
Then came another major upheaval – this time of the planet, not the soul. Ross was established in Christchurch then, supplying plants by mail order in limited numbers all over the country, selling at markets and opening his nursery to the public by arrangement. The devastation of the Canterbury earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 triggered an unusual reaction in him. “Many of the tray-like benches in my 50m long glasshouses collapsed and none were able to hold water, with most being damaged beyond repair,” he recalls. “I had 15,000 plants, a lot of which were tipped all over the place, and seeing my life’s work reduced to chaos was heartbreaking.”
Despite all that, Ross was oddly relieved. “Growing carnivorous plants had originally been a hobby, but became more of a commercial endeavour to try and cover costs, and with the intention of making a dollar. But standing in the mess, I realised it wasn’t fun at all. When I should have been enjoying the plants, I was working my insides out, just to recover from the earthquakes. The thought of rebuilding didn’t make me happy and I decided to change direction.”
“Pitcher plants are very efficient as pest control,” Ross Taylor says. “Even when there are 15,000 plants, each with between six and 10 traps, the vast majority of traps will be full.”
With his ground lease about to expire, Ross came across a property in Geraldine that was perfect. “The size of it required me to streamline, and I decided to go back and focus on the North American pitcher plants that had first taken my breath away. Over the years, I had ended up growing a bit of everything because that’s what people wanted, but this was my chance to purge the collection, to retain the best of the best, to specialise in what I love – and I took it. It is the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Purging his collection and relocating has taken three years but he believes he now has one of the best sarracenia collections in the world. “There’s probably only one other grower in New Zealand who has a collection as complete as mine, and there are a few noteworthy international growers, especially in Britain. We’re all friends and like to help each other.
“I spend a lot of time ensuring the very rare forms are kept alive in my personal collection and while I think I have almost everything I want now, it has taken 30 years to achieve this – and there are always new varieties to tantalise the senses.”
Sarracenia are herbaceous perennials, similar in growth habit to paeonies, so every June, Ross takes an electric hedge trimmer to the old pitchers. “In their natural snowbelt habitat, the weight of the snow crushes the old growth so the new can come up unimpeded,” he explains. “I’m just imitating that to keep the plants tidy and free of disease.”
He is equally ruthless in his cross-breeding efforts. Invariably, out of 1000 seedlings, 950 are immediately culled, then another 45 a year later. The rest are grown on for four to five years, and often none will be kept. If he decides to keep one, it “may” be named.
Ross has been working with his friend – Don Gray of Auckland, another hobbyist with an excellent collection – to selectively breed sarracenia and preserve the endangered species. In 30 years, they have registered only one or two new plants with the International Carnivorous Plant Society. “For us to name something, it has to be exceptional,” Ross says. “We are both motivated to grow the finest forms and see little point in growing anything that doesn’t express excellence and the best characteristics inherent in the species.”
Sarracenia primarily trap houseflies and blowflies but at various times their diets change slightly. People with one or two plants may think that because the pitcher is always open nothing has been caught but, Ross says, unlike Venus’ fly traps and sundews, the pitchers don’t have to do anything except be open. Nectar around the neck of the trap attracts insects which then slip and fall into the stomach of the hungry plant. Slippery sides and downward-facing hairs prevent prey from climbing back out. “If you autopsy a plant’s pitchers you’ll find that by mid-season, the pitchers are full, even in a greenhouse,” he explains.
“We are very fortunate in New Zealand to have such rare and wonderful plants in private collections and available for sale, so that we can grow them, and enjoy them in action.” How to visit: Carnivorous Plants Nursery in Geraldine is open by appointment. Email ross.taylor@xtra.co.nz.
Nectar around the neck of the trap attracts insects which then slip and fall into the stomach of the hungry plant.