Herself's Houseplants

You have heard that fluorescent lights do wonders for your electric bill. Mine dropped by a third. Not only do they use less electricity than incandescent lights but they don’t throw the heat that incandescent lights do.

They also are wonderful for your house plants. We’ve noticed that house plants that are not doing so well will thrive when placed under a fluorescent table lamp. The lamps also do not heat up so they can be placed closer to plants that need a good dose of light.

I’ve found many low light plants will do just fine on a desktop with a bright fluorescent bulb.

A good rule of thumb is to use 20 watts of fluorescent light per square foot of plants.

I haven’t the time or place to put a full terrarium. The micro sized ones I saw at the flower show have me experimenting with little ones this month.

I have three containers here of carnivorous plants. One is just an open round container about 8″-10″ at its widest, one is a cylinder with a glass cover and one is a small terrarium.

No lights, fans or other equipment is needed.

I was looking for unusual plants that would stay compact for these gardens and decided it was time to grow some carnivorous plants again. It’s been a while since I have done so.

The first two batches died much to my dismay. I had one potted in soil with gravel on top, and one with gravel on the bottom with soil on top. It turns out most potting soil you purchase now has fertilizers in it. Carnivorous plants can’t handle fertilizer.

So I dug around on the net and found out some people were using the same sphagnum moss I use for orchids as a base for carnivorous plants. It’s been a month and all are showing new life so it looks like it will work.

I soaked the moss and wrung out the excess water. The moss then went into the bottom of each container followed by the plants. Pitcher plants can get tall so use an open container for the taller growing plants. And be sure to plant them under the opening.

Carnivorous plants can sometimes be found in the house plant sections of stores and always be found on line. I’ve had good luck with both.

See also:
Carnivorous Plants
Carnivorous plant eats mouse
Nepenthes
Use sphagnum moss to make your plants easier to care for