Looking for nice highland nepenthes

[Ghan3sh]

Hi, im from Belgium and im looking for a nice easy to grow highland nepenthes. I would like to hang it in front of the window in my office. Im a beginner to growing nepenthes but after a lot of reading i think a highland nepenthes has a good chance to thrive there.
Belgium is a somewhat cold-rainy climate much like England. The relative humidity is always 75%-85% year round and i would boost this by hanging cups of water on my radiator which is placed directly under the window. In winter it would always have a temperature swing of 21-22°C during daytime and 12-13°C at night. In summertime temperatures are around 20-25°C and rarily climb above 30°C (5 days in a row above 30°C is considered a heat-wave). With the right soil, distilled water and some bug feeding a highland nepenthes could thrive/survive or is this being too optimistic?
Which nepenthes would you guys advise on getting. I must admit i like the big pitchers like rafflesiana and truncata but these are both lowland species. Are there similar highland species who could live under prescribed conditions? In Belgium there arent a lot of shops so ill have to order via internet and i wouldnt like to make the wrong decision and see my nep wither and die.

[Aliamyz]

Hai Ghan,
Truncata has two forms. Lowland and highland.The highland variety is more colourful than the lowland.I would suggest ventricosa for you to grow in your office.You can try www.captiveexotics.info
Good luck!

[David]

If you want something nice and huge, and easy to grow in your conditions, I think N. sanguinea would be a nice plant to have. Perhaps you could also try out N. veitchii, a highlander that has a very flare and colourful peristome.

You can also check out the list of nurseries in the Resource Page under "Online CP Nurseries"

[fongwee]

If you really like big pitchers, then N. rajah will really give you big ones. They can be difficult to grow thou. You should look at hamata and villosa for their unique pitchers.

If I have the right conditions for highland, I would definitely try villosa, rajah, hamata and lowii.

Look at Borneo Exotics for the plants

[strath76]

Sounds like you have already put a lot of throught into it. I would suggest something like a ventricosa or alata. alata comes in both highland and lowland so you should check this when buying. I f you don't mind hybrids then ventrata is a combination of the two.

I would give rajah and hamata a miss intially. Whilst they are great plants they can be tricky to grow and as this is your first attempt they aren't the sort of plant to experiment with. They can also be expensive in comparison to the other plants listed. Hope this helps your decission.

[Aliamyz]

For a beginner rajah, villosa etc: is a bit too hard.Maybe ventricosa, sanguinea, ventrata, maxima will be a better choice.

[Ghan3sh]

I bought these species :
- N. Ventrata (this was my first one and came from garden center)
- N. Sanguinea
- N. Ventricosa "alba"
- N. xMaxima (some maxima hybrid)
I got a pretty good deal on these plants as they were all under 10€ and some are already pretty large.
As soil i used a mix of blonde peat (over 90% is spaghnum) and live longfibre spaghum in a 1:1 ratio. Some sites suggest using a 1:2 mix (1 peat/2 long fibre spaghnum) but i found this mix to be a little too light and some of the larger plants had a hard time staying up. Even with the 1:1 mix the soil has good drainage and keeps a lot of moist. At the bottom of the pot (approx. 11cm high and 18cm diameter) i put about 1 cm of "oasis-foam" (the green foam used for decorative flowerpieces) as an extra water buffer, although i think the spaghnum holds more than enough by itself. As topping i put a "carpet" of long-fibre spaghnum (gives it a nice green mossy look and helps moisturize the air around the plant). So now it's fingers-crossed hoping all plants will do well.
I'll keep you guys posted on how they are doing.