Carnivorous Plants?

Does anyone here grow carnivorous plants (ie, pitcher plants, venus fly traps, sundews, etc)? The prices here for them are outrageous. Does anyone have any cuttings or seeds for sase or trade?Thanks for any help :)

Eric

This message was edited Sep 5, 2005 9:41 PM

Eric, they are expensive everywhere.they take a long time to propagate ,so thats why they are so high in price.

There's a guy on ebay - Seedrack is the user ID- who sells seeds for different carnivorous plants. He doesn't appear to have anything for sale right now, but you could always email him.
HOw expensive are you talking about? I usually expect to pay 12-15$ for a quart size pot around here. I bought Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok' in a quart size pot with lots of growth, both old and new, for 12$. Is that cheaper than where you are?

Hi Pixy,

The local Lowe's has the small plastic cubes for 4.99 and the larger cubes for 7.95. My local greenhose has 3" pots of CP's for 7.00 (just plain plants). For S. species (pitcher plants) "Judith Hinkle" are about 12.00 for a 3-4 inch pot. I found Cook's Carnivorous Plants online that have bareroot plants for 3" pots starting at about 1.99 each. Sounds like you're getting better/bigger plants for about the same costs as my local gh's plants.

Eric

Well, Eric, I'll keep my eyes open for you. I wonder if they mail easily. Not everyone around here carries them, but since many of them grow easily here as they are native to the area, we have some growers here.
Anyone ever mailed these plants?

Pixy,

Thanks you much! I'd appreciate it :)

Eric

No problem! I don't know when I'll be at a nursery that sells them, but I go to nurseries a lot, so you never know!

That would be great! I'm looking for different types of sundews and venus fly traps mainly, but can take a tropical pitcher plant or 2. Thanks for looking!

I haven't seen any sundews at all, actually. Just at Lowes. Likewise on the venus fly traps. Lowes only so far. The tropical pitcher plants are a bit pricey. I saw one in a hanging 6" pot for about 20$. It was a nice plant with about 7 pitchers hanging down. That's the only one I've seen, but there is a nursery here that I'm hankering to visit. It sells only tropical plants. It's called Jungle Fever and I want to make a visit soon, so I'll keep my eyes open for tropicals. The Carnivorous plants I usually see are like the ones in this photo, but, of course, different types. This was at a garden show in June. Looks like they had a couple of flytraps in the pot!

what do you mean by expensive prices?
Here the average price of a sundw is between £5-10(I dotn know what it is in dollars but pounds are worth more then dollars) and Nepenthes are usually £15 or more(which is about 20 dllars i think) but these arnt outrageous at all, Id expect to pay quite a bit more for orchids

I disagree about them taking a long time to propagate, this is probably true in Nepenthes, although young offshoots will develop into big plants rapidly and when they do you can remove them.
Sundews only take a year to reach flowering size, some only take months(like pygmy sundews)
Venus flytraps can be divided, but it is really slow growing from seed, flowering size is achived in no less then 4 years

Actually Eric, the prices for the Lowe's "cubes" are quite cheap for CP's.

For better size, quality, & varieties you're going to pay a lot more than $4.99-$7.95.

Hi Pixy,

In the picture you posted, if you'll look to the left of the VFTs, theres a sundew :) Looks like a Drosera Intermedia.

Thanks ya'll for the input. Still sounds a bit pricy though. I just placed an order from Cook's Carnivorous Plants for 3 sundews and 2 VFTs for about 23.00. including shipping. 4 of them are 3" pot size and and 1 is a 3" potted plant. So, I'll see what they look like when they come in. But again, I appreciate any and all help :)

Eric

Again, this is not pricey at all, in fact, for 5 plants at just over 20 dollars Id say its extremely cheap!

Red,

No, these plants are not pricy. What I meant to say, was that the plants that I could get here locally was what I thought were pricy. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Eric

Eric, so there is a sundew there! I just didn't look hard enough.
Red, I think that we have very reasonable prices for plants in my area as a general rule. We have so many growers in Washington and Oregon, and there are so many nurseries that the competition is fierce. Also, vendors in the eastern part of the US and in the South get plants from the west coast, adding to the cost of the plant to the consumer. Sometimes the price difference is so great that even with the cost of shipping, people on the east coast can get a better price and a bigger plant by having someone out here send it to them. I recently sent an Agastache 'Blue Fortune', in a gallon size pot, to a DGer in Georgia (southern US). She couldn't find any in her area, and I got her one for just over 3$.

Hi Eric,

I am curious about Cook's Carnivorous Plants where you ordered the carnivorous plants. Did you receive them on time? How is their condition?

Connie

Hi Connie:)

I sent them a M.O. last week. They said that they would ship it out in 7-10 days after receipt of payment and that they would send a confirmation e-mail when it shipped. I haven't gotten anything from them yet. So, I should be hearing something shortly. I'll let you know when I get the order. Take care!!

Eric

Hi Connie,

Just got a shipping notice yesterday from Cook's. I finally got a reply from an email I'd sent. Cook's said they had just got the M.O. in last Monday (the 26th). Will let you know how they look when the CPs come in.

Eric

Hi Eric,

Thanks for letting me know. Keep me a post. :-)

Connie

You sent the money order the week before the 20th of September and they are just notifying you now that they receiving it??? Did you drop your envelope into a mailbox or hand it over to somebody to stick in a sadle bag on a horse as in a Pony Express?

Equilibrium,

I sent the MO the week of the 12th of Sept. I had tried calling and sending emails asking if they had received the MO and about the status. I finally got the email (28th) from them saying that they had received the MO on the 26th and that they would ship the order out the next Wednesday. I got an email yesterday (10/4) saying the order was shipped that day. Soooo..should get the order by tomorrow or Friday...hopefully. I had ordered from Cook's a couple of yrs ago and didn't have this much problem. Not real sure that I'll order from them again after this episode.

Sorry, I was sort of being facetious.

Lemme guess, the outgoing message tape said they were out in the greenhouses? You left messages but your calls were never returned? Your e-mails were never responded to either, right? And then over 3 weeks after you sent the equivalent of cash... and after you left a gazillion voice mails and e-mails trying to make sure they had the money order... you get an automated cut and paste type response to one of your last e-mails that states your order has been shipped and there is no tracking number? Does that about sum it up? They have a great inventory although I don't know how current their quantities are at the website and they truly are nice people but I don't think responsiveness is part of the deal over there and customer service is non existant lately. Consider yourself lucky that your turnaround time on your order is only a month. Please do share what you think of the size of plants shipped to you as well as packing when your plants arrive as I am most curious.

If you don't mind my asking, you didn't order any Nepenthes from them did you?

E,

You sure nailed that one on the head!! Altho I did get a tracking number, but won't get any info on the shipping until AFTER the order gets here. I'll let you know what kind of shape the plants are in when I get them. And, no...didn't order any Nepenthes. All I ordered were 2 different Droseras and a double order of VFT's ("Dentes"). By the time they get here, it'll be just about time to put them into dormancy.

Ok Ya'll,

Got the Cook's order in yesterday. I had ordered 2 VFT "Dente",
2 Drosera internedia "Great Swamp- R.I. (these were bare root) and 1 D.roundifolia in a 3" pot. The VFTs looked ok...had a couple of leaves/traps turning black, so I snipped them off. Then potted them on. The D. "Great Swamp" didn't look that good. All but 1 leaf was black, but the rhizone looked to be in good shape, so I cut all the the leaves off and planted the rhizone. All these went into 3" pots for now. 50/50 mix of perlite and peat. The D. roundifolia looked better. Only 1 leaf that was turning. And the top of the pot was covered with live moss. So...Iets see how they do.

Eric

Sounds like a fungal/bacterial deal. I've had some luck dousing plants received like this with 1 part hydrogen peroxide to 4 parts water. I water the plant with the mix and let it run through then flush it in about a half hour.

Black traps on a VFT aren't that big of a deal in my opinion. One does want the plants to be as healthy as possible before they go into dormancy though. On those you might want to snip off any new leaves you see emerging so that the plant will redirect all of its energy to the roots rather than to the leaves at this time of year.

You might want to consider getting rid of that moss from around the rotundifolia right now. These plants don't need the competition. Have they begun to form hibernacula at all yet?

Hi "E"

I did the HP and water. So, have to wait and see. The roundifolia is planted in the live moss (nothing else). Would you leave it or repot in peat and perlite?. And I don't think they're forming hiberacula yet.

Eric

Hi Eric,

There are a lot of people who grow in live LFS who are probably going to disagree with me but I'd repot it into a mix of Canadian Sphagnum Peat (rinse it well as your plant is already struggling) and add rinsed sand. I'm thinking maybe 3 parts Canadian Sphagnum to 1 part sand. I generally steer clear of perlite as it does compress over time and I've noticed some issues with roots getting messed up by it. Perlite isn't cheap either.

Here's an easy way to rinse the sphagnum, just get a 2 gallon bucket and toss in a little bit more than what you believe will be enough for this plant. Let it soak for a few hours and then skim off all that mucky stuff that may float to the top. Add more water and swish it around and start pulling out handfulls and squeezing out as much of the water as you can. Now mix this in with your rinsed sand and pot up the plant. I don't normally rinse my Canadian Sphagnum before I use it but then I don't normally receive plants in poor condition any longer as I've learned to steer clear of nurseries that have a history of not shipping plants that are in line with what I want to receive for my money. Every once in a while, something goes wrong and I get plants in poor or marginal condition. That's when I will rinse my Canadian Shagnum Peat. I've noticed a lot of people don't realize there is a difference between the Canadian Sphagnum Peat and other peats. Don't use other peats, too many inconsistencies and the price difference is virtually non existant. I'll save you a two page post on why to only use Canadian Sphagnum Peat but please trust me on this one right now.

By the way, same deal with your sand. Swish it around in a bucket of water and let the sand settle to the bottom and dump the dirty water. Keep repeating this until the water runs clear. You can use tap water for this but once the water runs clear, rinse it one final time with distilled, rain, or RO water.

Back to the plant, D. rotundifolia is temperate and does require a dormancy. I'd bring that plant inside to give it another month and then I'd start transitioning it into dormancy. Once it starts forming hibernacula, you can begin to back it out of the light of the window you are growing it in and then just stick it out in your garage until the middle of March I'd think for where you live. When it is out in the garage, give it enough water every few weeks to keep the medium damp. You can usually stick a little bit of water in the drip tray and that will wick up and keep your medium barely damp. That's all you need, damp not dry or moist.