How to Grow Carnivorous Plants

At NFCP, our plants are grown “hard” which means that they face what mother nature dishes up for them outdoors every day. It does not mean that carnivorous plant's are hard to grow, actually it's pretty easy to do once you understand their basic needs. All any plant needs is water, sun, and soil along with your patience and diligence. It's a matter of how much sun, and water, and what type of soil to use.

 

Soil

Carnivorous plant Potting mixes need to be acidic and virtually void of nutrients. Fertilizers can burn carnivorous plant roots and are generally not needed. Common materials to use include peat moss, sphagnum moss (live or milled) clean white sand and perlite. Peat and sphagnum may be used alone, but we find mixing sand or perlite with peat 50:50 helps aerate the soil for healthier roots.

 

Sun

Most carnivorous plant's are sun lovers and for this reason we recommend that you grow them outdoors. No matter how sunny that kitchen or bay window looks to you, to a plant, it looks like a pair of sunglasses. Our modern homes are equipped with UV treated windows. Only shade loving plants do well indoors, and with carnivorous plant's, shade lovers are the exception, not the rule. Put your plants in the sunniest spot you have, they crave it. Without strong sun your tall pitcher plants may become floppy and lack color, flytraps grow spindly and weak, and sundews go pale and stop producing leaves.

 

Water

Pitcher plants, Sundews and Flytraps all come from permanently moist environments like bogs and seepage areas. There is an expression, “carnivorous plant's like to keep their feet wet”. So, when we grow them in containers, we need to mimic these conditions. We use the tray watering method. Plants actually sit in water about an inch deep through the growing season. This way, we avoid watering from overhead with sprinklers which tends to fill pitcher plants and knock them down, and washes the dew from your Sundews. Rain is the only exception to the no sprinkler rule! If the water in your area is very hard, you may need to use distilled water from time to time to “flush” the mineral build up from your potted plants before it gets too strong. Mineral build up can become toxic to carnivorous plant's, like fertilizers are.

 

Containers

Most gardeners strive to cultivate fertile soil for their plant passions and so don't have the acidic, nutrient deprived soil that carnivorous plant's need. Oh well, time to put that carnivorous plant potting mix in containers and then put those containers in the sun standing in water. Sounds strange, but your plants will do well in these conditions, provided you use the right containers. Avoid clay pots as they tend to dry out too quickly. We recommend plastic or double glazed ceramics. Either way, you'll find a wide variety of decorative containers to use. Alternatively, you can build a raised bog garden using pond liners, but that's a subject for another page.

 

The remaining ingredients are your patience and diligence. Patience is required so you'll let the plants do their thing in their time. You can't force growth with fertilizers like your roses! They'll get growing when conditions are right, usually from Spring through the rainy Summer months. Diligence comes into play especially with regards to water. Don't let them dry out during the heat of the day and expect them to spring right back. Wilting is bad for any plant, but it's very bad for carnivorous plants. It is best to keep the water tray filled during the growing season. Remember these basic rules of carnivorous plant gardening and the plants will reward you with their unique beauty. Happy growing!