How do I grow carnivorous plants?

Sarracenia minor


Drosera graomogolensis


Pinguicula ehlersiae


Utricularia intermediaYou must educate yourself if you want to grow carnivorous plants successfully. No amount of love or general horticultural experience will compensate for a lack of knowledge. How do you gain this precious information, normally only disclosed to the inner circle? You could read this FAQ. You could buy my book or any of the other good carnivorous plant books on the market. You could get help from another carnivorous plant grower. You could also subscribe to thecarnivorous plant mailing list or join the ICPS forum and read those for a while. If you do none of these things and simply grow your carnivorous plants like conventional, beloved house plants, your hungry botanical gems will die, I promise you.

Do not listen to the advice from people at the nursery where you bought your plant. They are usually as in the dark about these plants as you are. If you are compelled to listen to their blatherings, ask them the following key question to test their knowledge:
"Can I use coco peat in my soil mixes?"

An expert carnivorous plant grower will have an opinion either one way or the other on this question, or will tell you why it is a tricky question (having to do with sea salts). It doesn't matter which way they answer, but what does matter is that they should have a well thought out and lengthy reply for you. If your so-called expert just shrugs or gives you that deer-in-the-headlights look, smile pleasantly but don't pay attention to their other advice.

Only by using reliable sources of information will you be able to make wise cultivation decisions. Let me be firm on this---you must have good information. Otherwise, you will will select the wrong soil, water, light, humidity, temperature, and fertilizers.

Incidentally, I encourage you not to email me for help unless you have read this FAQ and can't find the answer to your question here. The FAQ has a whole lot of information in it---I'm guessing I already answered your information here somewhere. You probably don't have to wait for my sluggish and poorly worded response when this beautiful FAQ is simply awaiting your explorations.

In addition to Venus flytraps, there are hundreds of other carnivorous plant species. It should be no surprise that the different plants have different cultivation requirements (none of which are too easily satisfied). So while you will find plenty of general information about carnivorous plants throughout the FAQ, information specific to each plant genera is stored in the FAQ section that describes each genus.

But for the beginner, you should absolutely make sure you read the next several pages---everything in the beginner's section---so you have an overview of the basics.

One final comment... Consider all my cultivation information merely a set of suggestions---if the hints fail for you then try something different. Experiment!

Source: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html

Should I let my Venus flytrap flower?

New flower stalk


Stalk detail


Flowering au naturalNo!

That was easy, eh? Now for the why's.

The process of making flowers takes a great deal of the plant's energy. After flowering, a Venus flytrap will be sluggish for nearly an entire year. In the wild they get over this slow period very quickly. But in cultivation, where the light, humidity, and other conditions are rarely ideal, the plants may never escape this weakened state. In fact, they may even die! This is why, unless you are a very skilled flytrap grower or have spare plants to risk, I advise you to trim those flower stalks off as soon as you can.

You can tell when your plant is going to flower because a weird cylindrical stem (unlike a leaf) will start growing out of the center of your plant. See the middle photograph to the right? The young flower stalk is on the right, while a young leaf is on the left. The flower stalk will get taller and taller, and will eventually make the rather unimpressive flowers that you see on this page. When you remove the young flower stalk, the plant may make more. Trim them off too!

Apparently, the previous paragraph is not clear enough for many of you. So let me be extra specific! See the cylindrical (rod-shaped) stalk in the bottom picture at the right? The one with the bud at the top? This is a flower stalk just emerging. Cut it off at the base.

If you wait until the flower stalks are so tall the flower buds begin to enlarge (which happens at about 10-20 cm (4-8 inches), you might as well let the plant flower--the damage is done. What the heck, pollinate the plant and maybe you'll get seed. Your flytrap is probably going to die, though, unless you are a pretty skilled grower.

You will often hear people say that the whole thing about cutting off flowers is bogus, and that their plants do just fine without the flower buds being removed. I think those people are very good growers (by luck or by skill), but have forgotten what it was like to be a beginning grower.

Source: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html

Why isn't my Venus flytrap growing well?

Venus flytraps can languish or die for lots of reasons. So this may seem like an impossible question to answer without examining all the details of a person's cultivation details.

Let me tell you one thing, though---your flytrap is not dying because you aren't feeding it enough. Flytraps can live without any bugs whatsoever!

I think that in nearly all cases, the underlying cause for Venus flytrap death by beginning horticulturists can be traced to inadequate lighting.

If you give Venus flytraps the light they need, they are really resilient little plants. If you skimp on the lighting, they are weak plants. How much lighting do they want? FULL SUN! Bright, full sun that makes you blink the sweat out of your eyes in discomfort. A gently lit windowsill is just too dim for them.

If your Venus flytrap is growing in a "bright windowsill" or terrarium with a single dinky fluorescent light over it, don't be surprised if it starts dying! I have six fluorescent bulbs over my Venus flytraps, about 30 cm (12 inches) over the plants. I've had police visit my house because I was suspected of growing marijuana. That's the kind of lighting intensity your plants need!

Source: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html

How often should I feed my Venus flytrap?

This depends upon the plant. You can put a bug in any trap leaf that is open. Once a trap captures a bug, it requires about a week to digest it. Then it will reopen and be ready for a new bug. This means that if you have a large plant with about seven traps, on the average one trap will reopen per day, ready for a feeding. This is a lot of work.

On the other hand, you do not have to feed a trap right away just because it opens. Traps can go for weeks without being fed. I have grown plants for more than a year at a time without feeding them. They grow fine, just more slowly.

I usually feed my plants about four times each year. Each plant gets about three bugs per feeding. Twelve bugs per plant doesn't seem like much, but I have about 30 plants in my terraria, so that comes to about 360 bugs. That's a lot of time spent chanting Poe in my living room, when I could be off teasing my neighbor's cat.

Source: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html

Should I transplant my Venus flytrap out of the mini-terrarium it came in?

If you bought your Venus flytrap in a store, it probably came in a little plastic terrarium; maybe a pot with a little plastic domelike lid. Does it need to stay in this little terrarium forever? You have to decide for yourself.

Whatever you do, it should be to increase the likelihood that the plant is in conditions like it would expect from coastal North Carolina or South Carolina.

If you live in humid Georgia (USA) or Townsville (Australia) you do not need the mini-terrarium lid. But if you live in dry places like western Nebraska (USA) or Nagpur (India), keeping the plant in a mini-terrarium will help provide much-needed humidity.


Bottle terrariumYou can make an inexpensive terrarium for your plant by modifying a 2 liter bottle of the kind that your favorite soda beverage (or drinking water) comes in. Cut the bottom off and you will have a nice little terrarium (as in the photograph to the right). If you cut off the top and the bottom to give yourself a tall transparent cylinder, and you will have a chamber that will will allow for air circulation, which might be good, but the humidity will tend to be lower.

One thing you can do to help a Venus flytrap in a tiny pot stay healthy is to not overwater it. Keep the plant wet, but do not keep the pot sitting in more than a few centimeters of water. A deeply submerged pot cannot get enough oxygen. Water your plant frequently, but do not make it sit in too much water.

If you want to upgrade the size of your plant's growing area even more, you should look at the FAQ entries that talk about terrarium construction.

If you have questions on how to transplant your Venus flytrap, look at my transplant instructions.

Source: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html

Sure fire, easy instructions on growing Venus flytraps...

Bad news for you. There are no easy answers.


Double trapHere is the deal. Venus flytraps are plants that live in humid, wet, sunny, warm bog habitats. In order to grow them well (and that means still having it alive after twelve months), you have to duplicate those conditions.

So what should you do with your newly purchased little fangster? Pour yourself a cup of coffee and read this FAQ. You will learn how Venus flytraps come from acid wetlands in North and South Carolina. You will learn about how Venus flytraps do not acclimate well to other habitats.

The key, therefore, to growing Venus flytraps is to replicate their native habitat with enough success to make them happy. This seemingly trivial statement is so important I will say loud, in a Strunk & White sort of way:

The key to growing Venus flytraps is to replicate their native habitat with enough success to make them happy.

Can you grow your plant in a terrarium? Sure, if you can replicate the humid and extremely sunny conditions--just like they would expect in the Carolinas. Can you grow it on a windowsill? Sure, if your windowsill is extremely sunny and humid--just like in the Carolinas. Can you put your plant outside? Sure, if it is warm and humid--just like in the Carolinas. Can you keep it outside during the winter? Sure, if it gets chilly but not killing frosts--just like in the Carolinas.


trapRead about the plant's requirements, then write your own prescription on what you must do to grow this plant. "Hey, this is hard!" you may say. That's right! Animals like dogs and cats are easy to keep, but others like pandas and hairy-nosed wombats are trickier. The same applies to plants. Tulips are like dogs. Venus flytraps are like wombats. (I live for the moments I can say things like that!)

And good luck to you!

Source: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html

What is a "carnivorous plant?

This may seem a simple question, but it is actually a matter of some discussion and disagreement. The following is, I believe, the most straightforward and sensible definition, as I wrote it myself (Rice 2010a, 2011b)!

A plant is carnivorous if it has the following three attributes:

The plant must have clear adaptations to capture prey such as a trap. It can have extra features that help improve the trapping efficiency.
The plant has some way to digest the prey into a form that can be absorbed by the plant. The plant may produce digestive enzymes, or it may rely on bacteria or other organisms to perform the digestion for it.
The plant must have a way of absorbing the nutrients, and must benefit from the nutrients.
That is a slightly simplified version of my definition, but it notes the three important parts. In the next few FAQ pages I will provide details of each three steps.

Plants that have some, but not all, of the above attributes are called semi-carnivorous, para-carnivorous, or sub-carnivorous. (Avoid the word "proto-carnivorous", as we can't say that evolution is moving in some particular direction---evolutionary forces can change at the drop of a hat.)

Source: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html