Following are some of my photos of my carnivorious this past year. I read a lot of the threads in this forum, so any successes are because of that. The failures were just my learning curve. This is a photo of 2 unknown bareroot Sarracenia I purchased. I also purchased S. flava.
Here is my "bog pot" in April. The plants are in 100% long fiber sphagnum moss. There is a Pinguicula moranensis on the left, a Drosera spathulata in the center front which turned red in the sun and a Pinguicula pimuliflora on the right. The Pinguicula moranensis and Drosera spathulata didn't make through the year. The Pinguicula pimuliflora had a rough start as it didn't like all the sun, but once the cannas behind it gave it shade it did well. I brought it in a couple of weeks ago, a larger plant with just a few holes in the leaves from something eating it. Those 3 little plants did well on the window sill before I put them outside. They did loose their stickiness from the rain.
Here is my Sarracenia 'Scarlet belle' I purchased last winter on a trip to Logee's greenhouse. It really did well. I had it outside till recently under an awning. It is in long fiber sphagnum in an african violet pot that has the bottom broken so it sits in a reserve of water.
This is a closeup of one of the unknown Sarracenia.
And lastly, here is the "bog pot" yesterday. We just had a very hard frost and the sphagnum was frozen. I had to stake some of the Sarracenia because it was floppy throughout the year. I don't know if it was because it needed more sun, if it was just it's first year, or because these are very tall varieties. I tried to have it in a sheltered spot from the wind. I had placed a venus flytrap that had done extremely well indoors in the pot, but once outside it became contorted. Does anyone know why that happened. It is still alive and I'm not sure if I should put it in a sunny window or place it in the refrigerator for it's dormancy.
The Sarrs and VFT should be going dormant now. I put my VFTS in the fridge a few weeks ago and my Sarrs up in the attic.
Tom
You might want to consider changing your medium to a Canadian sphagnum peat mix with rinsed sand or perlite for the Sarracenia. I suspect some of your issues are due to the 100% long fiber sphagnum moss which is more appropriate for Darlingtonia californica.
You might want to consider giving your scarlet belle more sun next year and that plant should have colored up considerably more than it did so maybe you also might want to consider watering it with tea. There's a thread in here somewhere that lays out the how tos on that should it interest you.
If your garage is attached to your home and if your garage rarely freezes, that might be the best place for your VFTs as well as your Sarrs. Attics are often great places to over winter these types of plants too particularly if the attic is unheated and if there are windows up there. I've resorted to using my deep window wells to overwinter some Sarrs that I ran out of space to overwinter in the garage. They did fine. I'm not a proponent of the frig however many people enjoy tremendous success using the frig. Successful dormancy in a frig appears to be predicated on the plants being barerooted and rinsed thoroughly and roots dusted with a fungicide and wrapped in damp LFS.
Dormancy isn't always exclusively about temperature. Your Pinguicula pimuliflora should have the coolest spot inside your home with a reduction in photo period not so dissimilar from how one would address the dormancy requirements of some D. binata. You should also be cutting back on watering that plant.
Next time you try Pinguicula moranensis and Drosera spathulata, and I certainly hope you do, take those out for the summer but bring them back inside as soon as the temps start chilling up. Forget dormancy on those. They can be grown year round inside under good strong light. D. spathulata does not handle temperature swings well. Neither does P. moranensis.
Does your blue ceramic bog have drain holes in the bottom of it and did it sit in a water tray? Wat is your usda hardiness zone?
Hi Equilibrium, thanks for the advice. I'm in zone 5a also. I'm definately going to try the peat/perlite mix next year for them. I just repotted the VFT with a peat/sand mix and was happy the bulb looked good even though it struggled. It did retain it's red color through the year so it seems that one had enough sun and I now have it in the refrigerator.
The Scarlet Belle was more colorful in the summer but it does look like it can get more sun also. The plant grew threefold this year and I was happy about that.
My garage is a little warmer than I would like as it's attached to the house, but it is the coldest spot in the house. It only has one north facing window and I was going to put the Scarlet Belle and ping there in the beginning of December. The ping also grew about twice the original size this year. I suppose she won't look happy (sticky) until after dormancy though.
The 3 varieties of Sarrs are the only plants left in the pot. I moved them into the garage. They have many healthy looking phyllodia while the traps are dying for the year. The pot they are in does not drain. I think it was an eight gallon bucket I placed in the decorative pot so I could possibly move it closer to the window than it is now for the winter. I didn't want to disturb their their roots till spring. My attic has an east/west regular window in it, but it gets really cold up there. I wouldn't be surprised if it freezes. I could possibly place them in that window if you don't think it's too cold there.
Thanks for the advice. My kids really loved these guys this year, especially the spider that lurked in the flava tube all summer. In the spring we would go to the pet store for baby crickets for the VFT every 3 weeks or so. It was a beautiful looking plant but as soon as it went outside something ate the traps off of it.
I was tempted to buy a pot that had 3 large big mouth VFTs in them yesterday, but I was concerned they might not do well even though I gave them a dormancy since I didn't know what the greenhouse watered them with. They looked a little shakey.
Thanks, JoAnn
The plants are dormant now. You may disturb their roots by repotting them now if you would like to do so. Many people repot in fall and again in early spring.
You might want to get a ceramic drill bit and drill holes into the bottom of your blue bog pot.
If possible, stick your plants in front of the one window in the garage. They're not photosynthesizing any longer but their are many intangible benefits to natural light and the one that stands out prominant in my mind would be a substantial reduction in fungal infections. While the plants are in the garage, cut way back on watering them. And when you do water them, water from the bottom and let it wick up until the medium is barely damp. You do not want the plants sitting in a tray of water while they are dormant.
Yes, kids of all ages love these plants.
I'll repot them in the spring and and bring them down to the cold window. I thought you could have them in a undrained pot as long as the watertable moved up and down. Thanks for the advice. JoAnn
Ooops! My seedling pots are sitting in shallow water in my former garage window......... They saw some light frost while in my temporary greenhouse............ The seedlings are still fairly small! No one has told me (yet!) how long the Sarr's take to bloom from seed.
Chilly day here with flurries.... some frost getting in the soil, and I have Daffodils to plant yet.
I will empt out the water from the tray, and monitor them from there.
Hey,
The seedlings may take around 5-7 years to mature. Light frost isn't going to kill your seedlings. They're not as fragile as you think.
