Pitcher plant, Sundew, Venus flytrap?

Question

I went to Lowe's today and bought a plastic box with these three plants inside it (All inside the same box). Can I keep these in the same box or should i seperate them? The plastic box is about 8 inches tall and 3 inches wide. Should I keep it under a fairly hot light (It's fairly cold where I am right now)? How much should I water them all? How much flys should I feed them all?

Answer 1

Hello Samuel, Welcome to the wonderful world of carnivorous plants. First, you need to decided where you want to keep them. You do not have to separate them, but I recommend that you not keep them in the plastic container for long because their roots need room to grow and there is not enough air. Also, if you are going to keep them in a terrarium then make sure you do not put the terrarium in direct sunlight. What a lot of people do not know is that carnivorous plants do best outside in the open air and in full sun. They are cold tolerant up to 20 degrees and actually need to be winterized and go into hibernation in order to do well next season. If your temps drop below 20 then you can keep them in an unheated garage or garden shed. If you keep them in a terrarium then you can force them into hibernation or dormancy and I will give you the site that explains how to do this. As for your watering question, carnivorous plants are bog plants and their soil needs to stay moist all the times. If you grow them in a terrarium this should not be a problem, however, if you grow them outside you will need to place them in a saucer of water and make sure you keep the saucer full at all times. As for feeding them, check out the expertvillage video I've included and it will answer all your questions.

carnivorous plant NoNos:
No meat of any kind. Meat rots and it will kill them
No fertilizer of any kind. Pot carnivorous plants in a 50/50 mix of peat moss and perlite only.
No straight tap water. Use filtered tap, aged tap or distilled (preferred)

Here are some sites that will help you with just about everything you need to know about growing carnivorous plants. Good Luck and have fun.

Information:
http://www.cobraplant.com/venus-flytrap.html
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/carnivorousplants?starvote=2&pid=153840

Contains a Section on dormancy:
http://www.the-venus-flytrap.com/venus-flytrap-help.html

Expertvillage videos all about carnivorous plants:
Feeding and more:
http://www.expertvillage.com/videos/pitcher-feeding.htm
Building a terrarium: http://homegarden.expertvillage.com/videos/terrariums-selecting.htm
Propagation and more:
http://homegarden.expertvillage.com/videos/carnivorous-plant-propagation-division.htm

Answer 2

Just this morning on HGTV there was a segment about carnivorous plants. It was fascinating! Here's a link to an article about the episode of "Gardening by the Yard" :

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_plants_other/article/0,1785,HGTV_3609_4275008,00.html


This is a link to the California Carnivores site run by Peter Damato ( the guest on HGTV ). He really seems to know his stuff. This particular page tells about how best to raise and care for your carnivores:

http://www.californiacarnivores.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=3

Answer 3

nicely, in case you have already got a venus fly seize, then this is logical to get one in all the different 2. i think of the sundew is extra exciting and grants extra to observe. The pitcher plant purely leaves bugs to drown interior the water.....similar to observing a swimming pool quite????

Answer 4

I found this link where you can get very good information to help you care for your new plants..
Good luck
Pitcher plant:
http://www.cobraplant.com/sarracenia-psittacina.html
Sundew:
http://www.cobraplant.com/drosera-pygmy.html
Venus fly trap:
http://www.pitcherplant.com/care_sheets/flytrap_care.html