Sarracenia...

I've been having a hard time with my carnivorous plants. One week they're doing brilliantly, thriving and producing babies... the next week, dead. My Venus Flytraps are sadly dying off. Out of the twenty or so that I had, only six remain and they are not in the best of conditions. The Drosera (aka sundew) is holding on, but it is fickle. One day it's the peak of health and the next it is a limp, brown mess. My sarracenia has been consistently underwhelming. That is... until now!

I've been experimenting with the best placement of the plants and how moist to keep the soil. The sundew seems to do better in a controlled environment with medium moisture. Too much and it wilts. Not enough and it dries up. I put the sarracenia outside to soak up a little rain water and it's thriving! While it was indoors, it produced a few small stalks. None of them ever opened to my knowledge. But as soon as this one was outside, new BIG stalks sprung up and were lovely examples of the species.

Luckily the local botanical society is organizing field trips to a nearby wetland called, "Third Bridge Wetland" and a bog called, "Spruce Flats Bog". I'll have to keep my eyes open for the carnivorous plants. Apparently in the 1950's the same botanical society introduced some of the first "pitcher plants" to the bog and it's reported that they are thriving quite nicely to this day. I will definitely be along for these trips!