Here is Barry Rice's advice from the International Carnivorous Plant Society:

Just remember: they need lots of humidity or they won't put out new pitchers and like all carnivorous plants they need distilled, reverse osmosis, or rain water.

Thanks, buckcity. Right now, I'm using R/O water on it. It's in a west kitchen window. So far, it still looks happy!

Carolyn

Actually I think this one is ventricosa. If I remember correctly ventrata has wings and ventricosa doesn't and I don't see any wings.

I just looked at the website listed on the tag (duh!) and they only carry two Nepenthes. I guess that means this is N. 'Alata'

Carolyn

http://www.derooseplants.com/en/select_plant_search_results.asp?searchtype=commercial

You're right. That's what I get for going by memory instead of looking it up. Doh!

Just for the record, N. ventrata is the cross between alata and ventricosa. The hybrid is one of the easiest and tolerant of the genus. You're doing a great job with it!

Well, I did read that N. ventrata was the cross and a great starter Nepenthes. Kinda sad that it's NOT N. ventrata!

But, such is life. N. alata will do.

I'm hoping it STAYS healthy. I've only had it since Friday! :) I did water it, today. (Placed the pot in a bowl of R/O water for a bit to let it soak up what it needed, added R/O water to the pitchers and misted, again with R/O water.)

I took the bottom off the pot to water . . . should I put it back on or leave it off?

Carolyn

Where did you get your plant?

J&J Nursery in Layton, UT.

Carolyn

Hi wrynsmom:

Your plant is definitely Nepenthes 'Alata', but it is a complex hybrid N. alata x (ventricosa x alata), in other words itÂs a ventrata back crossed with a N. alata. Hence the still ruffled peristome but with a more elongated graceful urn like N. alata. N.'ventrata' are a lot more tubbier and surprisingly I haven't seen a true ventrata for some time.

I've read this particular hybrid referred when it first came out as N. 'DeRoose' since it was a Dutch name DeRoose who developed this particular hybrid. But it is commercially sold often with the name N. 'Alata' red or the more confusing name N. alata red form... you can see the confusion the latter name has caused among growers.

If the commercial nurseries have kept the 1st letter of the species name capitalized & between the quotation marks to denote that it is a hybrid, that would have help, but many commercial nurseries aren't that interested of being accurate. The link you provided is at least doing it right since it belongs to the DeRoose fellow.

But this is a complex hybrid you have and is not the pure form of the N. alata species.

hunterkiller, that is GREAT to know! I've been talking about this plant in two different forums. In one, I referred to it as Nepenthes 'Alata', (as that is how it was written on the site), but was corrected, so I dropped the quotes and capitalization. Now, I know to put it back!!!

Thank you. And can you tell me where I can look to find the hybrid info on this one? I'd love to read about it.

Thanks again,

Carolyn

The Deroose 'N. alata' is N. ventrata

Ya know, I even read on several sites that the DeRoose N. 'Alata' is N. ventrata x N. alta, so I think I'll stick with that.

Thanks for your 2 cents, anyway!

Carolyn

Whatever you do, don't simply relabel it and then distribute cuttings to others in the future under a new name. Deroose has never come out and said what their plant is. The best thing to do would simply to call it Deroose 'N. alata' if you would rather not call it N. ventrata. The idea that it might be N. alata x ventrata originates from a few hobbiests that think it looks more like this supposed hybrid (which it doesn't) and post on various forums that it is. This doesn't make it so. It is highly unlikely to be this supposed cross based on the time frame and history of Nepenthes into general cultivation. This plant has been around since the early 1980's. There were only a few species in cultivation at the time. This means they would have had this plant in developement from the late 70's or so in order to produce thousands and thousands of large plants to distribute worldwide by the early 80's. N. ventrata was only registered in 1979 as a hybrid. There simply is not enough time to take N. ventrata and cross it back to N. alata and then isolate a single clone with all the characteristics they want and replicate them by the thousands and grow them to large mature plants by the early 1980's. It simply isn't feasible that this plant could be N. alata x ventrata.