Venus Flytrap
Venus Flytrap
Dionaea muscipula
❦ ❧ ❦
Difficulty — IntermediateEvery visitor to the greenhouse knows her by sight, and nearly every one of them has killed one. That is no fault of theirs; she is simply misunderstood. People take her for a jungle exotic and keep her warm, dim and fed on tap water, when in truth she is a sun-loving native of a few boggy coastal counties in the Carolinas, and she asks for exactly three things: strong sun, pure water and a cold winter's sleep. Grant those, and each little jaw, lined with its fringe of bristles and blushed red within, will snap shut on a careless fly in well under a second. There is no plant on my shelves that better rewards being understood.
Notes on Cultivation
☀Light
Full sun, and plenty of it — six hours or more of direct light is ideal, and four is the least she will thrive on. A bright south window will do, a sunny porch through the summer is better still, and a strong grow light can stand in when the sky will not cooperate. Pale, floppy leaves and traps without their red blush are the sure sign she is starved of light.
❦Water
Distilled, reverse-osmosis or rainwater only. The minerals in tap water build up in her soil and will kill her as surely as any frost. Keep her soil constantly damp by standing her pot in a shallow tray of that pure water, refilled whenever it runs low. During her winter rest, keep the soil merely moist rather than standing in water.
☁Humidity
Ordinary household air suits her perfectly well. A closed terrarium is in fact a poor home for her, for the stale, damp air and dim light invite rot. Give her sun and a little moving air instead.
✵Temperature
Through the growing season she relishes warmth, from 70 to 95 Fahrenheit. Then, from roughly November to February, she must have a dormancy of three to four months at 35 to 50 Fahrenheit — an unheated garage window, a cold porch or a chilly sill will serve. She will look tired and lose many of her traps; that is sleep, not death. Skip this rest and she will weaken and fade within a year or two.
❧Soil
An equal mix of sphagnum peat and perlite or washed silica sand, with no fertilizer, compost or ordinary potting soil anywhere near it. A plastic or glazed pot is best; bare terracotta leaches minerals into the mix as the years go by.
❀Fertilizing
Never fertilize her soil. Outdoors she catches all she needs on her own. Indoors, an occasional live fly or a rehydrated freeze-dried mealworm placed in a trap is plenty — and never a scrap of hamburger or cheese, which simply rots the trap.
✿Propagation
In spring, as she wakes, a mature plant can be divided where her rhizome has split into separate crowns. Leaf pullings also root: peel a whole leaf from the rhizome, white base and all, lay it on damp peat under a dome in bright light, and wait. I set the clear cup of Fluval Stratum aside for her, as its rich aquarium soil is exactly what a carnivore cannot abide.
Field Observations
Resist the temptation to set off her traps for fun. Each jaw can close only a handful of times before it withers, and every false alarm costs her energy she would rather spend on growing. When a trap turns black after a meal, that is its natural end; snip it off and she will grow another.
In spring she sends up a tall stalk of white flowers. They are lovely, but they cost her dearly, and I usually cut the stalk early unless I want seed. The ASPCA lists her as non-toxic to cats and dogs, so Winston may sniff away; it is the flytrap, not the dog, who is likely to suffer from the encounter.
— faithfully recorded by Mr. Phileas Plant
✿Have one of these at home?
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