Carnivorous Plant Garden Update

Mini Carnivorous Plant Garden

I last reported on the Carnivorous plant garden at the end of May. A couple of months later and everything seems to be fine. The pitcher plants and venus fly trap have survived drought conditions and a heat wave and are thriving...

Pitcher Plant - July 2022

Venus Fly Trap - July 2022

The Venus Fly Trap (VFT) has thrown up a flower stalk just like the pitcher plant did last year. Most VFT growers recommend removing the flower stalk as early as possible because it weakens the plant: see here and here. By contrast, allowing pitcher plants to flower seems to be no big deal.

Venus Fly Trap Flower Stalk

Experienced growers, looking to maximise the number of plants produced (and sold), will be happy to allow the plant to flower and collect the seed (20-30 per flower). Amateur growers might remove the stalks in order to maintain an already established VFT plant collection.

With our single VFT plant, the stakes are not so high and the flowers look to be close to opening. It might be a little too late to 'save' the plant since it has already expended a lot of energy producing the flower stalk. In which case, I think we'll leave the VFT to flower to see if we can collect some seeds. In the worst-case scenario, we will have to buy a new plant (about £5).

We will update as and when the experiment finishes.