Inside the Garden Sanctuary for the Rarest Carnivorous Plants on Earth | Visionary Gardeners

[00:00:02][music] >> You get to a point where you start to know the bogs very, very well.

[00:00:16]The more you come here, the more you learn.

[00:00:23]>> Orchids had their golden era of discovery, maybe 100 years ago.

[00:00:28]We're going through the sort of the golden era of carnivorous plants right now.

[00:00:33]Every year these are being discovered, and it's a really fun field to be in.

[00:00:37]It attracts a younger crowd that aren't super interested in gardening, but the quirks of carnivorous plants really get them intrigued.

[00:00:56]>> It's like a jungle in here.

[00:00:59]I've always loved art.

[00:01:01]When I look at the garden, that's [music] better. I see it as my art and collaboration with nature.

[00:01:09][music] When you find something that calls you, you dive in.

[00:01:29]>> [music] [music] [music] >> At the beginning, [music] aside from the oak trees, there wasn't anything.

[00:02:22]It was a blessing because [music] I was given this empty canvas that I could play with.

[00:02:32]I had a how-to book in one hand and shovel in the other, and I was sitting in the middle going, "Okay, how [music] does this work?"

[00:02:40]What nature does takes my breath away.

[00:02:43]It's not just what [music] I planted where it ended up, but what happens afterwards.

[00:02:50]>> [music] >> I work with numbers all day.

[00:03:00]I'm an accountant.

[00:03:04]I've always wanted and needed a creative outlet.

[00:03:11]When the kids were little, I learned to sew and make everything that [music] went on them.

[00:03:18]We did a lot of art. We did huge batik paintings, [music] tie-dyed.

[00:03:26]They were my creative outlet.

[00:03:31]After the kids were all grown up, I took piano lessons, and I took it quite seriously.

[00:03:42]After 3 years, I looked at the piano teacher and said, "I'm done now."

[00:03:47]So, I stopped, and I garden.

[00:03:50]I put a lot of love into everything I do.

[00:03:55]I walked [music] around in the garden, just walking around in circles thinking, "I don't know what I'm going to do."

[00:04:02]And after studying [music] the empty space, I was ready to tackle this.

[00:04:10]The only thing I knew that I loved was Japanese maples. So, I would just go through the nursery and pull out the trees that spoke to me. Hello. Let me come and say hello to you.

[00:04:23]Oh, that's not what I wanted to do.

[00:04:28]It's called forest pansy redbud. It has a tendency to take over, but it's so beautiful. And then there's a very special Japanese maple hiding right underneath it. And I want to make sure that it gets enough light.

[00:04:45]Look how glorious this is.

[00:04:48]>> [gasps and sighs] >> Oh my gosh.

[00:04:50]And this, right here, this Stewartia.

[00:04:53]Look how beautiful it is. Look.

[00:04:56]>> [music] >> Do I have pollen on my nose again?

[00:05:03]Gone?

[00:05:04]>> Yeah.

[00:05:04]>> [music] >> Okay. When I see new things popping up, I'm always [music] just in awe.

[00:05:12]Right there.

[00:05:17]Isn't that just glorious?

[00:05:19]>> [music] >> Wow.

[00:05:24]Yeah.

[00:05:27]>> [music] >> Started with orchids, kind of this plant here, kind of this plant there. When I get into something, I try to get into it as fully as possible.

[00:05:38]>> [music] >> Growing up in northern Ontario, there's tons of bogs up there. And I remember as a kid playing around with all the the purple pitcher plants and, you know, feeding it little bugs and moths that I had caught.

[00:05:52]On Vancouver Island, most of them are up in the mountains.

[00:05:56]The conservation and the discovery of new species is a fun part about getting out into the wilderness [music] and seeing those plants.

[00:06:03]Carnivorous plant enthusiast is a pretty classic one or carnivorous plant nerd is another one.

[00:06:13]When I'm not growing carnivorous plants and I'm not in the greenhouse, I'm typically out hiking with friends to go see specific plants.

[00:06:21]Bog plants can't ever dry out.

[00:06:28]Out in the high elevation sites, not only do you get snowmelt, but you also get a lot more fog and you get a lot more rain.

[00:06:37]It's like a floating sphagnum bog. So, it's actually not attached to the ground here.

[00:06:43]As I squish around, everything shakes and the water all moves.

[00:06:48]You got to be careful on some bogs like this because you'll fall through.

[00:06:53]Most of the Drosera that we're seeing at this site are Drosera rotundifolia and then in little pockets, you find the the Drosera anglica or the English sundew.

[00:07:03]And it's where these pockets overlap where you can find the natural hybrids.

[00:07:08]These clusters in here are Drosera obovata, which are the natural hybrid.

[00:07:16]>> Yeah, pretty cool.

[00:07:18]>> Well, they're native to temperate areas.

[00:07:20]They exist all the way across the northern hemisphere and there's actually one site that exists in Hawaii.

[00:07:29]Kalmia microphylla. You can see the last ones here. They have beautiful beautiful little uh pink flowers. Pretty much everything in this bog I think we already grow.

[00:07:39]>> [laughter] >> I've always loved nature, loved anything that grew in bogs. I've been bird watching since I was 10.

[00:07:59]Once I decided to go to school for green essence horticulture, that's [music] when I started to get into the really niche types of plants.

[00:08:08]Been an obsession of mine.

[00:08:15]Yeah, that's cool.

[00:08:17]Oh, dude, here's the other idea. How many more sticks do we have? Attach it and then we put it at whatever height we want.

[00:08:25]Just building a ladder to get a shot through a bog.

[00:08:35]This is pretty awesome.

[00:08:38]It should get enough solar and then frame it into here.

[00:08:49]We've done really cool trips and a lot of exploring.

[00:08:52]And a lot of the areas not a lot of people have gone to.

[00:08:55]Is it going?

[00:08:57]There's just something about discovering stuff that other people have never seen before.

[00:09:03]When you brought them to like, you know, entire group of carnivorous plants or orchids or ferns, there's just an endless possibility of things to see, places to go, and things to research.

[00:09:18]>> [music] >> A lot of these I [music] grew from seeds. I'm starting to really see the characteristics.

[00:09:39]The name on the back of it, this is Schnell, so that was crossed with Schnell's ghost. And then I know that when I put that into the spreadsheet that ALL 01 is an Alabama oreophila, and it was the mother.

[00:09:55]You can see the perfect little seed pod.

[00:09:57]Each chamber is one ovary that was filled with seed.

[00:10:05]Yeah, that's going to be a a really cool cross. This is anthrofree alata by anthrofree leucophylla. Don't think anybody's ever done that cross before.

[00:10:16]So we sort of knock all the seeds off, get rid of all the husk, >> [music] >> and then our seed is all ready for sewing.

[00:10:27]All the seed goes into there.

[00:10:31]CF CB 02.

[00:10:35]And then we're good to go.

[00:10:48]This goes to What we do is >> [music] >> it's called stratification. And stratification is just breaking down the seed coat on the outside.

[00:10:58]And [music] with Sarracenias, we do that by just putting them in the fridge for uh a couple weeks, anywhere [music] from 4 to 8 weeks, and then we pull them out.

[00:11:08]I use hydrogen peroxide to help sterilize the seeds, it doesn't hurt [music] them, and then it also just breaks down into oxygen and water.

[00:11:25]>> [music] >> And we come back in a month or two.

[00:11:53]>> [music] [music] >> I love growing plants, but I also have [music] deep desire to conserve those plants so other people can see them.

[00:12:18]>> [music] >> All the codes in the entire spreadsheet [music] are all in the index so you know what each code means. Sarracenia is flytraps, Mexican pinguiculas, hardy plants, and it just keeps on going and going and going.

[00:12:32]>> [laughter] [music] >> This species is Sarracenia flava.

[00:12:43]And there's [music] seven varieties of flava and they're all named on their different color patterns.

[00:12:49]Flava atropurpurea, which just means very purple or very red.

[00:12:56]Rubricorpora is all nectar along the edge of the the rim there.

[00:13:01]It's all sticky. They use those nectar glands to attract the prey and then eventually the insect will find their way under the lid into the throat and that's where the highest concentration of nectar glands are and that's where it's most likely to fall into the pitcher.

[00:13:16]These are all my hybrids.

[00:13:17]And it's fun just seeing how they're developing and what they're going to turn into.

[00:13:23]Because these species have evolved for for to catch bugs and to be perfectly in sync with the ecosystem and the hybrid hasn't had that opportunity yet. So, a lot of the times uh the hybrids that we make just suck at catching bugs. You know, you have one that the lid is shaped a certain angle and then the other one ruins that angle and so the bugs don't fall in the same way.

[00:13:49]If 10 flies fly into here, they're all gone.

[00:13:56]Sarracenia rubra gulfensis is often known as the cutthroat flava. And you can see it just gets one blotch of color at the back of the throat that's bright red. The anthocyanins in Sarracenias are used as um basically sunblock. So, the red coloration they use to protect themselves from the intense sun.

[00:14:18]Isn't that cool?

[00:14:20]>> [bell] >> Oh, wow.

[00:14:48]When I see beauty, especially in nature, I feel it with all my heart.

[00:14:58]When you walk through my garden, [music] I'm opening my heart to you.

[00:15:03]Feel it embrace you.

[00:15:06]I founded a charity [music] in the middle of the pandemic with a desire to help people in the performing arts.

[00:15:14]The name of the charity [music] is the joy of music.

[00:15:18]The garden concerts started happening and it just grow.

[00:15:23]Bringing people together [music] in this garden and sharing this beauty.

[00:15:27]It gives and gives and gives.

[00:16:16]These are young, incredible talents who are just about to hit the world stage.

[00:16:29]>> [crying] >> It's more than just a financial support.

[00:16:37]They get to see the audience. They get to connect with them. They get to actually [music] talk to them on the ground.

[00:16:45]We are all on the same level.

[00:16:51]>> [music] [music] >> Most carnivorous plants, if not all carnivorous plants, are considered bog plants.

[00:17:04]They've adapted [music] to grow in these areas that are nutrient poor.

[00:17:09]Carnivorous plants need water and they need lots of sunshine. To compete against the other plants in those bog ecosystems, they have adapted to draw their nutrients from insects [music] and from other prey.

[00:17:21]It adds just that little bit of extra nutrients [music] to the surrounding area, so you'll often find a, you know, a clump of Sarracenia right here, and then there's a bunch of, you know, really, really well-grown sedges right next to it.

[00:17:39]The one that we're looking for, the Corallorhiza happens to be the least charismatic orchid in the Pacific Northwest. It's tiny, only a few inches tall, green with flowers that barely open, but it's still very exciting.

[00:17:55]Piperia colemanii, but it's one of the rarest orchids on Vancouver Island.

[00:18:02]When you've come to the bog so many times and you've seen everything, and all of a sudden you see something that's a different color and out of place, it really stands out.

[00:18:11]This is sticky false asphodel. It's completely yellow, devoid of any red pigment like it's all of its siblings just over here.

[00:18:19]Its flowers are cream white, so you can't tell if it's an albino when it's in flower. The only way to tell is the seeds.

[00:18:33]We have both species and the hybrid, and then when we get home, we can do chromosome counts, see if we can confirm that one is indeed a triploid.

[00:18:45]We live in a time of instant gratification.

[00:18:49]People don't want to grow a Cattleya that takes 12 years to flower. They're waiting for these beautiful flowers that might not come for literally a decade or two.

[00:19:00]You germinate a carnivorous plant, and within a few weeks you've got this little dime-sized flytrap that you can watch eat fruit flies. So, it's an instant gratification, and whether you love it or hate it, we are in that age that people want that.

[00:19:32]>> It's building [music] a community. It's building friendship. It's building network for them to continue doing what they love doing.

[00:19:46]To get to the next level.

[00:19:52]The music, the garden, everything is the butterflies that float into the garden. It's the birds. It's the sunlight. It's nature.

[00:20:02]They are all adding their own beauty into this.

[00:20:11]It comes alive. It's living art.

[00:20:18]>> [applause] >> And all we do in life, it is finding that joy.

[00:20:24]And guess what? You get paid back tenfold.

[00:20:32]>> [applause] >> Often time, you know, you get some 14-year-old kid that just want to grow a couple Venus flytraps. [music] Once they've grown a couple, they're like, "Oh, maybe I'll expand to this."

[00:20:49]And and maybe some vegetables and, you know, [music] the whole ecosystem that they grow in.

[00:20:56]So, it's a hook for younger kids and a new generation to try to get them into enjoying plants and gardening in general.

[00:21:06]>> With these time lapses, [music] you get to see from one season to the next, from one day to the next.

[00:21:14]The hydrology changes.

[00:21:17]That just only [music] helps you understand the plants better and thus be able to grow the plants better.

[00:21:26]When you [music] walk into the bogs, it's just an indescribable feeling of being in this raw wilderness, an area that few people have been to.

[00:21:43]Every year new carnivorous plants are getting described, [music] and I feel like I've still just begun my journey, and there's just so much more to it discover and research and [music] observe.