Good Morning Mephisto

I am not sure how long I will be able to keep this up, but at least for the first few weeks of Mephisto's new life with me I am going to try to take pictures of him at least every day. Maybe even more than once a day. He is so adorable and so very vicious (at least in relation to all of my other plants, which isn't saying a whole lot really. I guess my little rose plant does have thorns...) that I want a record of how fast he grows.

This morning, I took pictures.


In this one here ^
He looks much the same as he did last night. To be expected, I suppose. He was just shipped miles and miles, and hasn't really had any direct sunlight yet.

<- In this one, if you look closely you can see the closer, top trap beginning to open. This is no more than five minutes after the above picture, where the same trap appears to be closed tightly. I didn't really realize it before, but in retrospect, that's awesome.




So I finished my essay, went to class, checked my school mail, and met my boss to go to an awards ceremony (I won student worker of the year! The woman only managed to mispronounce my name three different ways!). Alex helped me get the huge awesome vase of flowers that my wonderful boss gave me back to my place. She took a look at Mephisto, and behold!

Look at those chompers! 

I am waiting on some "monster mix" I bought off eBay. Venus Flytraps like nutrient poor "soil", and many sites recommend a 50-50 mix of Peat moss and Perlite. Untreated peat moss and Perlite were actually harder to get my hot little hands on than I had anticipated and ordering a pre-mixed solution seamed like the best option. He has enough in there to last a few days, but I will repot him (in the same small plastic pot) when the new stuff shows up. He lost a bit of peat moss in shipping, and while I'm sure he's fine, it looks a bit sparse. The mixture will drain better anyway.

Certain minerals will kill the little guy, and normal ceramic or terracotta pots often soak that kind of thing up and hold on to it. So it's plastic for my feisty little friend.

Meet Mephisto

Meet Mephisto.

A few days ago I was wandering the Internet (when I probably should have been doing homework - but really, when do I ever not have homework to do?) and I started looking at Venus Flytraps. I knew about then before, but I started reading up on all the special care they need and I became more enamored. I found a place that sold them, but it had a monetary limit and expensive shipping. I put posted "I want a Venus flytrap" to Facebook and forgot about it.

When I returned home after class today there were two boxes waiting for me. I figured Amazon had divided the order I had made last week in preparation for Jer's birthday into two orders. I was a bit confused by the large "Fragile" stickers on the one box, but didn't think much of it. I brought all of my things inside, started the song I'd shut off on my way out the door that morning (3oh!3's "Don't trust me"), and opened the top box. Inside was not part of the amazon order, but instead this lovely little plant!

I immediately msged Jer, and he said it wasn't him, and then texted my parents with multiple variants of "I HAVE THE MOST AWESOME PARENTS IN THE WORLD AND A VENUS FLY TRAP!"

I did some more research and I knew that Flytraps need a special soil- peat moss and sand, or similar ingredients. Lowe's almost had everything we needed, but everything came in HUGE bags, and the Perlite was treated with Miraclegro, a big no-no. We stopped at a plant store place, but they didn't have it either. I ended up ordering a premix online. I hope to take periodic pictures and keep track of his growth. Hopefully he opens up soon- I want to see the inside of those chompers!

Jer suggested the name: Mephisto. We have been playing some Diablo lately, and I thought it fit. : )

I'M VERY EXCITED.