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Highland Nepenthes Care Sheet

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Highland Nepenthes Closeup of a trap
Nepenthes argentii

The 5 Most Important Points for Growing Highland Nepenthes:

1) Most highland Nepenthes grow where it is constantly warm during the day, and cool at night. Daytime temps in the upper 60s to mid 70s should be the minimum year-round. Summer temps are fine into the 80s. Occasionally, they can take upper 80s to low 90s, but they won’t like it. During weather like this, keep them out of direct sun, and mist them frequently. Nighttime temps should ideally be below 60, to as low as 50. If you can, place near a window. In the Pacific Northwest, our outside temps often drop below 60 even in the summer, with a few weeks of low 60 nights during mid to late August.

2) Place them near or over water, but not in water. It will rot their roots if they don’t get some air circulation through the soil. That’s why the mix we use is so ‘fluffy’. Water whenever the top surface of the mix just starts to get dry, but don’t ever let the mix dry out completely, as this is usually fatal. Water with pure water, distilled, RO-filtered or rain water all being good. Water until it pours out the bottom of the pot, but let it flow through and drain away so air can get to the roots.

3) Good strong indirect light is perfect. If it does get direct sunlight, it should be cool (morning only) and you must provide extra humidity somehow: mist the foliage and traps, place water in the traps if needed, but always less than ½ full. Too much water can lead to early pitcher death. Also you can put long fiber sphagnum moss around the plant inside your terrarium and water that to provide extra humidity. I sometimes place a couple inches of large crushed rocks or aquarium gravel under the plant and keep the water level in that just below the bottom of the plant’s pot.

4) You can feed the pitchers if you want to, your plant will grow faster for you if you do, but it is not necessary. It will grow if you provide good light, proper temperatures, humidity and pure water. If you do feed it, insects are good. I supplement the insects that my Neps catch naturally with crickets, mealworms, ants, or wasps. I will sometimes catch a ‘yellow jacket’ or other wasp in a jar; place the jar in the freezer for 10 minutes until the wasp is asleep (this doesn’t hurt the insect) and then feed to the plant while it is still not moving. Be careful, they can’t move right away, but they wake up pretty fast. They can sting while asleep. One such meal every 3 or 4 weeks is all the ‘plant food’ these plants need.

5) Never, ever feed any plant food or fertilizer to this or other carnivorous plants until you are an experienced grower, and know what you are doing and why, or you are following the instructions of an experienced grower. Fertilizers have the potential to do great harm to these plants. It may even kill them.

Drosera (Sundews) Care Sheet

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Drosera (Sundews) - madagascariensis
Drosera madagascariensis

Sundew Plants (Drosera)

Sundews vary in their individual requirements, especially regarding temperature and humidity. What follows is a quick guide to the general requirements of Drosera. It is not intended to be an in-depth guide for all species. For species-specific care please see one of the excellent resources on carnivorous plant care, such as The Savage Garden by Peter D’Amato, or Growing Carnivorous Plants by Dr. Barry A. Rice.

The 4 most important points for growing Sundews:

1) Place in a tray of pure water, distilled, RO-filtered, or rain water. Keep 1/2 to 1 inch of water in the tray at all times.

2) They like some sun, usually morning sun which is not too hot, especially if you have your sundew in a terrarium. A couple of hours a day is plenty, and is only needed to produce the best coloration. Most sundews will grow just fine with good strong indirect light all day.

3) You can feed sundews, but that is not usually necessary as they will attract and eat a variety of small flying insects, like fruit flies and gnats.

4) Never, ever feed any plant food or fertilizer to this or other carnivorous plants until you are an experienced grower, and know what you are doing and why, or you are following the instructions of an experienced grower. Fertilizers have the potential to do great harm to these plants. It may even kill them.

Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap) Care Sheet

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Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap) - Akai Ryu
Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap)

The 4 most important points for growing Venus Flytraps:

1) Please note: We ship Venus Flytraps either potted or bare root. If you bought yours from us potted, the plant can grow for at least 1 year in the pot you received it. The provided soil is all it needs, NEVER ADD FERTILIZER or PLANT FOOD. Next year, if it grows large (and it should if these directions are followed) it will need to be potted into a larger pot of the same peat/sand mix (2 parts peat moss, 1 part sand).

2) Place the plant, pot and all, in a tray of pure water. This can be rainwater, distilled water, or RO filtered water. Be careful if buying bottled water. Most drinking water has sodium and other minerals added for taste. These can kill carnivorous plants. Read the label. Keep 1/2 to 1″ of water in the tray at all times. Never let it dry out.

3) Venus Flytraps love sun. Place it, water tray and all, in full sun for at least 4 to 6 hours per day. More is fine. Indoors or outdoors is the same: tray of water, and full sun.

4) These plants need winter dormancy. During dormancy it does not need to sit in the water tray. Just keep it damp, or let it stay out in the rain. Depending on your climate, you may be able to keep it outdoors during the winter. In the Pacific Northwest, we grow these outdoors year-round. They need protection from serious freezes. Cover it if temps get down into the 20s. If grown indoors, place it outside in late autumn when it starts to become cold. Do not wait until it’s actually freezing as the plant needs to adapt to cooling down temps before winter begins. Do not worry if the plant looks dead in the winter. This is how dormant plants often do look. Don’t fret, spring is coming.

If you enjoyed reading about your Venus Flytrap plant and want to read more, a very good book on growing Venus Flytraps, and many other carnivorous plants, is Peter D’Amato’s The Savage Garden. This is (probably) available at your public library.

Mexican Pinguicula Care Sheet

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Pinguicula moctezumae
Pinguicula moctezumae

The 5 most important points for growing Mexican Butterworts:

1) Most Mexican Butterworts are not bog plants. They grow in natural seeps and
similar habitats where they are kept constantly wet during the rainy season. They grow on the ground, on stream banks and cliff faces, and even on moss covered trees. They sometimes grow in moss, leaf debris or clinging precariously to wet rock faces or fissures. Use well draining mixes with horticultural sand, perlite and peat moss. Our mix is made of 1 part each of sand, perlite, vermiculite, pumice and peat moss.

2) During the period of active growth, water Mexican Butterworts by placing in a tray of pure water. Rain water, RO filtered or distilled are all good choices. As with any plants watered by the tray method, any impurities in the water are collected and concentrated in the water tray and in the soil over time. Be careful of water labeled ‘drinking water’, as this usually has minerals added for taste, and this can be harmful to your carnivorous plants. During winter most Mexican pings will enter their winter form, when they must not be kept as wet. This is the time to take Mexican pings out of the water tray, or at least let the tray go dry before refilling. Some forms of Mexican pings will rot if left in waterlogged conditions when in their winter form. The best thing is to keep them only slightly moist, but otherwise in the same growing conditions of temperature and light that they receive the rest of the year. When you see them start to grow carnivorous leaves again, place them back in the water tray. As an extreme example, P. gypsicola needs to be kept bone dry during this period. Take it out of the terrarium, if it’s in one, and allow it to completely dry out. Keep it dry until you see new growth.

3) Mexican Pings like some sun, usually morning sun which is not too hot, especially if you have your pings in a terrarium. A couple of hours a day is plenty, and is only needed to produce the best coloration. Most pings will grow just fine with good strong indirect light all day. This is exactly the same as growing tropical sundews, which share co mmon habitats with many Butterworts. They also do really well under artificial lighting, such as fluorescent.

4) You can feed pings, but that is not usually necessary as they will attract and eat a variety of small flying insects, like fruit flies and gnats. For forced feeding, try freeze-dried bloodworms, moistened first, available from tropical fish suppliers.

5) Never, ever feed any plant food or fertilizer to this or other carnivorous plants until you are an experienced grower, and know what you are doing and why, or you are following the instructions of an experienced grower. Fertilizers have the potential to do great harm to these plants. It may even kill them.

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