Carnivorous plants! (lots of photos)

[spark]

Well, I finally have my plants and my camera in the same place, so I took some photos. And I know at least one person here had wanted to see my collection.

First up, my purp. Sarracenia purpurea, the purple pitcher plant. I've had this little guy the longest and he is really thriving.


Next up, my sundews! Drosera capensis the cape sundew, drosera spathulata, and drosera aliciae which I don't know the common names for.


And a closeup of the capensis, which is the first one to start producing "dew" after losing it in shipping. This makes me really happy! Sundews don't make mucilage unless they're healthy, happy plants. Although my macro photography sills are still a bit lacking.


These are pinguicula moranensis, Mexican butterworts. They're tiny now but they'll get much bigger eventually. They're also not yet carnivorous, they have some growing to do before they'll start producing sticky leaves.


Here we have a nepenthes ventrata a hybrid tropical pitcher plant sometimes called a monkey cup. It's pretty healthy but hasn't given me any pitchers yet. It's still a fairly young plant though, so I have hopes.


And this is what's left of another sarracenia, of unknown species. It had just started forming the first tiny pitchers of the year, after coming out of winter dormancy, when my cat ate it. She's a brat! It'll be fine, but it hasn't managed to grow any new pitchers yet. And until it does I have no way of telling what kind of sarracenia it is. I'm hoping for a s. minor they're one of my favorites.


I'm also trying to get some sundew seeds to sprout. I have a plastic bag "greenhouse" keeping them nice and moist and warm while they're germinating.


And while I'm sharing plant photos, here's a picture of my aloe vera.


And my split rock plants.


And lastly my patio garden. I don't have any real garden space, so I'm growing everything in pots. Tomatoes, turnips, radishes, peas, beans, spinach, catnip, sorrel, strawberries, irises.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Well, if you ever disappear, we'll know where to look first.

[Bright_Star]

You don't have any Venus Flytraps?

[spark]

I don't! It's very shocking! But when I started this I was just going to get one, so I bought the purpurea, beause I really kind of like them better than flytraps. And then I decided I wanted a few more, and I won most of the rest in a single lot during a charity auction. I bid on a few venus fly traps, but they all got bid up higher than I wanted to pay for just one plant.

I plan on getting some soon, but I've kind of run out of money. :P

[Lachrymose]

"With the right advertising, this thing could be bigger than hula hoops!"

(Bonus points awarded for identification of above quote).

[Bandit]

Sorta on-topic here:

What are the best low-maintenance carnivorous plants?

The reason I ask is that the office I work in is 40+ years old and tends to have fly infestations.

While my lair is fly-free, my official desk isn't, and I'd like to help to get rid of them with something that can survive on the occasional watering and coffee.

Tkx

B

[blas]

Now I know where to take my boyfriend the next time he misbehaves.

[spark]

Sorta on-topic here:

What are the best low-maintenance carnivorous plants?

The reason I ask is that the office I work in is 40+ years old and tends to have fly infestations.

While my lair is fly-free, my official desk isn't, and I'd like to help to get rid of them with something that can survive on the occasional watering and coffee.

Tkx

B

Well, the coffee will kill any of them. XD

What's your light level like? Do you have a window, or is it all cubicle space? Would you be willing to buy distilled water for your plant?

Carnivorous plants grow naturally in bogs. That means there are no trees, there are few nutrients, and there's lots of water.

So they want light, lots and lots and lots of light. As much light as you can possibly get them. Sunlight is best, but I've kept a venus flytrap alive for a year under a desk lamp. (CFL with the bulb nearly touching the plant. The closer you can get it without toasting it the better.) It was pretty unhappy by the end of the year though, so if you have a window it'll be better.

Then they want NO fertilizer, and no impurities of any kind. You can't grow them in potting soil, they grow in sphagnum moss, sphagnum peat, sand, perlite, stuff like that. No potting soil, no leaf mold, and definitely no fertlizer.

And along with not wanting any nutrients, they don't want any contaminants either. Tap water will kill them. They might survive on tap water left out overnight so the chlorine evaporates, but chlorine isn't the only thing in tap water they don't like, so ideally they need pure distilled water. And they want to be very wet, the soil should never be allowed to dry out. Most people keep them in a little tray, and just fill the tray, and the dirt sucks the water up from the bottom and stays wet. They also like a little bit of misting on occasion (still with distilled water!) just to keep them nicely humid.

Happily this isn't as annoying as it sounds! Distilled water costs me $0.68 per gallon at WalMart. A gallon will last for months if you're just watering a single plant. And almost all of them will survive for a year or more in the pot you bought it in, they don't need frequent repotting like some plants do, so unless you're really getting into growing a lot of them you won't need to go buy sphagnum.

*ahem* I'll shut up now and actually answer the question.

I'd say a venus fly trap, a cape sundew, or a sarracenia purpurea are your best bets. All three of those are fairly hardy, and are a little more tolerant of low light and less than ideal conditions.

You'll want to buy adult plants, growing them from seed can take years to get plants big enough to eat flies. And they still might not do all that much for your fly problem, they're not actually very heavy feeders, by and large. They won't chow down a dozen bugs a day or anything it's more like a bug or two a week, and they survive happily on one every few months, or even on none at all. Still, they'll take out a few, and they're certainly a unique bit of desk decoration.

I can point you at a few sources if you like. And there are lots and lots of sites on how to take care of them, as well as a few forums.

[Gawdzillers]

"With the right advertising, this thing could be bigger than hula hoops!"

(Bonus points awarded for identification of above quote).

Little Shop of Horrors?
It's been forever since I watched that, so I don't exactly remember.

[Setsunaela]

quote is def. from LSoH (the version with Rick Moranis)

[draggar]

Nice plants - we saw some kits at the sience museum this past weekend (we hit the gift shop after Star Trek) - I'm sure those are crap compared ot what you have.

I've been thinking of getting one to get rid of some of the insects in the kitchen.

[spark]

The problem with kits is that growing from seed takes 2-3 years to give you adult plants with most carnivorous plants. Though the baby plants are kind of neat, so it's not always a bad thing. I don't know how likely you are to get actual sprouting though, the seeds aren't necessarily viable for more than a few months, from what I've read.

I'm just now trying to sprout my first batch, but they're very fresh seed. I'm hoping it will go well.

[Lachrymose]

Little Shop of Horrors?
It's been forever since I watched that, so I don't exactly remember.

quote is def. from LSoH (the version with Rick Moranis)

Yippers. Pick up your points over there ---------->

[draggar]

Where might I get good seeds / saplings?

[spark]

Ebay is a good place for seeds, actually. And can sometimes be a good place for mature plants too.

I can also recomend
http://venusflytrapshop.com/
http://www.blackjungle.com/ (bought my purp. from them)
http://www.cobraplant.com/ (they're where I'm getting my next batch from.)

The ICPS also has a seed bank, but the membership fee to access it is $35. Very worth it if you're going to grow more than a few kinds but probably not worth it for most casual growers. I haven't joined yet, but I plan to sometime this year.
http://www.carnivorousplants.org/