Big, Vigorous Flytraps

I've been looking around for the biggins and most of the U.S. retailers have been recommending 'Fang" and 'Big Mouth'. Any other inputs?

Czech Giant
Akai Ryu?

Big Mouth had decent sized traps but I don't think Fang is all that big.

Thanks. I did some more searching and it's starting to look like 'Big Mouth', 'Big Vigorous' (go figure) are among the biggest, and I agree with Equilibrium about 'Fang', but it's mentioned as well. I think I'll start looking for sources for the first two. There's a picture of 'Big Vigorous' halfway down the page for this link. http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/venusflytrap.html

I've ordered from Michael S who owns the Carivorous Plant Nursery before. I was very pleased. He's a kind soul. I followed the link to his nursery from the link you provided above and saw Czech Giant offered for sale. Big Vigorous is a cultivar name that I believe might be referring to it's growth habit not ultimate size but you might want to check that out on line.

If it's size you want, you might want to go for Czech Giant and Big Mouth.

Most of the US retailers recommend that which they have in stock.

Yes, an old trick of the trade! It looks like I have a good start now. Thank you.

In less than a month they can come out of dormancy! Mine have been in the fridge all fall/winter. Valentines day they can come out!

Tom

Hmmm... my Wal-Mart refugee is dormant now. Keep it moist and cool in the fridge now? It's in a cooll window, but rarely down to 50 degrees.

Oh sure, you can stick it in the frig for a month. Don't let it dry out though. You want it damp not moist. With where you love, you would be perfectly safe planting it outside year round. I doubt seriously if you would even need to mulch at all.

Oops, meant with where you live not with where you love.

Same thing!

You have a valid point there. I love where I live too.

It is rare that a Venus Flytrap will produce a trap larger than 1.5 to 1.75 inches (measured from the base of the cilia at the trap's margins), but there are certain varieties or cultivars that definitely tend to produce larger traps than most others. In my own collection the ones that reliably produce the largest traps are:

* Low Giant
* Vigorous
* Triffid Traps
* Big Mouth (aka Red-Purple)

Others, while perhaps not having the largest traps, have some other outstanding characteristics such as unusually striking coloration (Banded, Royal Red, Red Piranha) or unusual shape (Red Piranha, Dente (which can also have impressively large and deeply red traps)).

Best of luck with your search and with your growing. Venus Flytraps are amazing plants. :-)

Steve D
New Mexico, US

Ah ha! All anyone wanted to know and more about VFTs and he is here with us now. Thank you ever so much for joining DG. Members here will be more appreciative to receive "expert" as opposed to "hobbyist: suggestions than you may ever know.

Welcome to DG FlyTrapRanch!

Thank you for the warm welcome, Equilibrium! :-) I'm just a guy who grows Venus Flytraps, who loves them, and who seems to have great luck with them (so far!), although like many others I have killed a few carnivorous plants along the way (when I was about 8 and into my teens).

I killed my first VFT by using tap water (who knew back then in 1960 with little or hard to find reference material?!) No directions came with the poor, exhausted during the 6-to-8-weeks-shipping pale little plant that had strived so hard for a little sunlight, and then was sunburned when I placed it in the bright, high-altitude sun and dry atmosphere of Colorado where my family lived at the time, and then poisoned by high-mineral water! :-)

Then, after my family moved to Walla Walla, Washington, I found a book--a little book about carnivorous plants aimed at children and teens--which described the various common north american genera and gave elaborate instructions on how to grow them in a terrarium!

I was thrilled, nagged my parents until they bought me a used fish tank and a few supplies, and I very carefully (fussily) prepared the terrarium, ordered plants from Carolina Biological Supply, and received a Venus Flytrap, a Sarracenia purpurea and Sarracenia flava. In addition, during the interim my father had to take a business trip to the Oregon coast, and I begged him to let me go with him so that I could see the natural habitat of Darlingtonia californica.

The cobra lilies were beautiful and wonderful, and to my everlasting shame I couldn't help but take one of the many thousands I saw growing in the magnificent stand--it was just _one_, and I would mother it (well, "father it," I guess) and coddle it and give it the best care it ever had! On the way home, I noticed a bonus: a glistening little sundew growing in the soil at the base of the Darlingtonia! I was overjoyed.

At home, I planted everything just perfectly in my graduated-depth terrarium, filled the water level above the drainage rocks (in an otherwise undrained terrarium--yuck!) just perfect, and when I was done I just sat back and stared at my plants through the glass walls between us. Were they going to be happy? Was there enough light? Was the humidity high enough?! I worried. I fretted. Then I decided to cover the top of the terrarium with--I can't remember what; something transparent or translucent, although I don't know if plastic wrap existed yet at that time in the late 60s; certainly it did though, right?--to make the inside more humid. I was so excited about my little plants and I wanted to make them grow, darnit! (Kids don't have much patience.)

Then, wondering what else I could do to "enhance" their environment, I took the terrarium outside and placed it in the bright sun. I stared. Nothing happened except that the sides of the terrarium became foggy. So I told myself I just had to be patient and forget about the terrarium and my precious plants for awhile and do something else. Every time I thought about them over the next few hours, I told myself to just relax and think about or do something else and give them time to grow.

Finally I couldn't stand it anymore and I went out to see how my little plants were doing. Well, to my shock and horror the inside of the foggy terrarium was as hot as an oven and the plants all looked kind of droopy and their leaves kind of translucent! I immediately took the terrarium inside to cool down, but it was too late. Over the next couple days I saw all my plants turn brown and die. I was heartbroken. I was a bad father. My plants had been in a glass prison (and later death chamber), totally dependent on a loving caretaker who tortured them to death!

Now, at 54, I live in a very arid climate in New Mexico, US. I don't grow any of my carnivorous plants in terrariums, and I take no special measures to increase the humidity. All I do as a concession in that regard is to keep them out of the harshest high-speed, bone-dry, grassland prairie wind when they are outside. Plants, when healthy and well cared for, are often incredibly adaptable (within certain parameters, of course).

My orchids (which remid me of Peru, where my family lived for about 11 years before and after the Colorado experience mentioned above) and my Venus Flytraps and most other plants grow great for me now and seem to enjoy my "custodianship." There are a few plants I have difficulty with however (like paphiopedulim and oncidium orchids (I'm doing better with paphiopedilums now though! :-) and one little Drosera capensis (of the two I have, the other of which is growing very well) which has given me headaches for several years now). I think the problematic Drosera was poisoned by something from the ceramic pot it was planted in. I'm guessing that the acid soil released some chemical or mineral in the pot (which was unglazed on the inside, vitreous brown stoneware) that overdosed the plant and burned the tips of its leaves.

Anyway, things are looking much better now and I'm a happy gardener. :-) Sorry for such a long story, everyone! Best wishes,

Steve D
New Mexico, US


This message was edited Mar 27, 2007 7:50 AM

Fortunately, we love stories! You had the bug as a kid too, eh? That way we get through with the brown-thumb stage at an early age... I've steamed a few greens myself.

I ordered Vigorous and Big Mouth from Michael S and he threw in a small Low Giant as a bonus, so it looks like I have a nice little collection now. I'll makes some crosses and see what happens.

We've all caught the bug... tee he, and so do our plants!

Hey'all. just as an update, Big Vigorous was the winner this year. It outstripped Big Mouth and Low Giant easily. Big Mouth may produce bigger traps in time, but big vigorous lived up to its name.

Big Vigorous beat out Big Mouth! Who woulda thunk!

Are you able to share some photos and would you be able to add a ruler into your image?

Sorry, they're going dormant. Next year.