Drosera x obovata 'Ivan's Paddle'Drosera x obovata 'Ivan's Paddle' is a beautiful and vigorous Ivan Snyder hybrid sundew. It is extremely easy to grow, both outdoors or indoors under supplemental lighting. The best thing about this hybrid is that it does not require a dormacy period! Drosera 'Ivan's Paddle' requires virtually no maintenance, which makes it a great sundew for beginners. Drosera 'Ivan's Paddle' is a cross between the 'CA x HI' tropical Drosera anglica hybrid and a Drosera rotundifolia plant from Willow Lake, California. Ivan treated the D. rotundifolia parent with colchycine to double its chromosome number. The result was a fertile Drosera x obovata (normally D. x obovata is infertile in nature). |
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        D. x obovata 'Ivan's Paddle' leaf cutting progression over 2 weeks    |
Media: 100% living or dead sphagnum (LFS) is recommended. 1 part peat: 1 part sand also works well. My favorite mix consists of 1:1 peat moss and sand (silica) topped with dead or living LFS. Media moisture: keep saturated or very moist. Also does well in waterlogged soil. Humidity: very little needed; fine in 30%. Pot height: grows well in small to medium 3 to 5-inch-tall pots. Trapping speed: is suprisingly fast. If live prey is trapped and movingaround, tentacle movement is very noticeable. Feeding: VITAL to growth when young, but does not require feeding once maturity is reached. If left unfed, the plant will not flower. See feeding page. Food size: medium to small to avoid mold or burning. But can handle larger portions once the plant is full grown. Plant dimensions: can grow to ~3 inches tall. On average, Drosera 'Ivan's Paddle' will stay around 1.5-2 inches. Under certain conditions, such as cooler temperatures, the leaf structure may revert to resembling that of the D. rotundifolia parent (see the green-leaved plants in the picture to the left). Temperature: keep above 45 degrees F to avoid dormancy. If subjected to low enough temps for an extended time, it will encourage a dormant bud to develop. Provide subtropical or tropical conditions. Lighting/Photoperiod: Give as much light as possible. Tentacles will become bright red in enough light. Leaves will also turn red if not fed and left under intense lights for a few weeks (see top picture). Dormancy requirements: no dormancy required. My plant has never gone dormant since I received it in 2009 and it has not shown signs of slower growth. Treat as a [sub]tropical sundew. Will form a hibernacula bud if given cold enough temperatures or a short enough photoperiod, but I've never personally seen this. Flowers, Seed Production: white flowers, with slender flower stalks. Will flower continually when fed. Stalks can form after only 2.5 months from plants grown from leaf cuttings. This cultivar produces viable seeds that do not breed true--- if you raised this sundew from seed, you could no longer call them D. 'Ivan's Paddle'. Resultant plants may be weaker or possess different leaf shapes than the parent clone. My plants have never produced seeds since the flowers usually get burnt in my light fixtures... Propagation TechniquesSeed: no cold stratification required. Refer above for more details about seeds. Leaf-cuttings: work extremely well. 10+ buds can form on a single leaf. Adult plants can be grown from leaf cuttings in less than 3 months if fed at least every other 2 weeks. Root cuttings: should work, but have never tried this method before due to the ease of leaf propagation. Divisions: will clump very quickly. Are not picky as long as you don’t rip apart to many roots in the process. See picture below of a plant beginning to form two distinct plants from a single crown:
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