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.