Herself’s Houseplants

We love our plants. And we really love growing them in pots. The current ‘in’ color scheme is complimentary. These are colors opposite each other on the color wheel. ( orange-blue, yellow-purple, red-green )

Gardening and houseplants are one of the things people continue to spend money on even in a recession, probably due to low cost and because they make us feel so good.

When it comes to using plant-filled pots on the porch or around the landscape, Americans are hardly able to contain themselves. U.S. consumers spend more than $1.3 billion a year on this gardening method, according to Container Gardening Associated, an online site devoted to the technique.
Container gardens, the use of a variety of plants in any type of container, are often associated with yardless apartments or condominiums. But they also are popular with the elderly and disabled , as well as for areas where soil quality is a problem or where pots define an area or direct traffic. [ read more Americans Hard to Contain on Potted Plant Expenditures ]

[ I believe these to be wild Drosera brevifolia ]

Sundews can be found all over the world including the south eastern United States. Most of the 100 species known are found in Australia. While not as easy to grow as pitcher plants they are much easier to grow than fly traps.

Their small size and cool coloration make them great for dish gardens and terrariums. Most lay flat and are only a couple of inches across. Some grow upright but even those are very tiny and tend to have super thin strands like a spider web.

At the end of each leaf is a gland that emits a sticky fluid to trap insects.

They easily flower indoors, flowers are also quite tiny and grow on a long stem that shoots up from the center of the plant.

I find sundews do best in regular unfertilized potting soil. The wild ones I saw on my expedition were growing in a half sand, half soil mix so I trying that now. The part sand/part soil/part peat mix was also recommended to me by an expert carnivorous plant grower. Since they like acidic soil it is also recommended that you mix a bit of peat in with the soil when you repot them. Be cautious buying soil, I had to look far and wide to find potting soil that did not have fertilizer mixed into it.

Most sundews are annual plants, but I ‘ve had them happily grow for years inside the house in pots.

I place the potted sundew in dish with about and inch of water and keep the water level at about an inch. Water should be distilled or rain. Carnivorous plants are extremely sensitive to chemicals including those in tap water.

Never give them fertilizer. It is far to strong for them. They are accustomed to growing in poor soils.

While they like to have bugs as a dietary supplement they will grow just fine with out them.

Remember the bugs they eat must be very tiny, these are very small plants. Do not feed them meat. They eat bugs, not animals. ( at least all the ones we’ve found so far ). They really love mosquitoes which is as large of a bug as you should ever consider feeding your sundews.

I love carnivorous plants. There is something cool about a meat loving plant, myself being a meat lover as well. The eight known species of Sarracenia are native to the US and can be found in the wild through out the south east and as far west as east Texas in bogs and swamps.

Carnivorous plants love humidity and lots of light. You’ll find pitcher plants don’t need as much humidity as other carnivorous plants so they are an excellent choice for a house plant.

In the wild pitcher plants grow in swamps where little else will grow so they get lots of light. I went to visit a local protected wild patch of carnivorous plants a couple of weeks ago. The dirt they grow in is mostly sand but not all, some regular soil was mixed into it. It was dry at the time I visited but it is normally quite damp there. If you live somewhere very sunny like I do in Houston, you might want to filter the light a bit. Use the color of your plant as a guide. If they start to look pale or bleached, reduce the light. If they are not developing the reds in ones that have red, or if they are dark green, give them more light.

I’ve successfully grown them in sphagnum moss; dirt; and a mix of half dirt half sand. I have smaller pitcher plants growing in terrariums with just sphagnum moss for soil. I have some growing in terrariums with dirt on top of gravel. I also have some planted in pots in a mix of half sand and half soil. All are doing well. Sarracenia typically grow in acidic soil. If you add some peat to your potting mix this will help to acidify your soil. Be very careful when you buy soil for your plant that it is not pre-fertilized.

Your tap water is likely quite basic, full of minerals if hard and not at all what your pitcher plant wants. Use distilled water or better yet, rain water to water them. The chemicals in tap water will likely kill your carnivorous plant.

You never, ever give carnivorous plants fertilizers. They grow in soil so deficient in nutrients most other plants have given up and moved to better places. If you want you can add a few bugs to your terrarium. If they are outside of a terrarium the bugs will find them. Bugs need to be small enough to fall deep into the pitchers. While they do not need bugs, it will help them grow.

They should not ever be given meat, hamburger etc. It is bugs they, need not cows. If they wanted to eat cows they would have evolved to be much larger plants.

If your plants are growing indoors you should add a little bit of rain or distilled water to the pitchers. Just a little, they don’t need much.

Many pitcher plants are not large and make excellent additions to dish gardens. They do flower, flowers are unusual, and grow on long stems and hang down. All the flowers I’ve had so far have been red, green or a combination of those two colors.

In the wild the flowers appear early spring followed by pitchers and the plants go dormant in the cold weather. The flowers need the bugs to pollinate themselves so no point killing them for food until the pollination is accomplished.

In the house I find they bloom early spring and have pitchers year round.

It is not uncommon when the plants are outside to find tiny toads or frogs living in the pitchers.

Less than 3% of the native habitats of carnivorous plants are left. Which means you must be very careful buying them to be sure they are not wild plants that have been harvested. It also means to save them we want lots of people growing them.

See also:
What is that stuff in the pitcher of your pitcher plant?
Slime used to trap insects
Carnivorous plant eats mouse