Expert: Christopher Littrell - 12/3/2008

Question
I Have a serracenia leucophylla in a four=inch plastic pot. It looks very healthy. I live in Southern California. Where should I plant and how should I care for this plant? I've been told it's a carnivorous bog plant. Thanks for ideas.

Lenore

Answer
Hello Lenore,

Sarracenias are bog plants that survive by absorbing full sun, acquiring clean, mineral free bog water in large quantities, and by procuring nitrogen by capturing insects in their tube like leaves where the insects die and become fertilizer.

You will either need to keep the plant in a pot full of one part sphagnum peat moss and one part perlite or plant it in a specially made artificial bog with the same soil unless you can find a natural bog near you home. No other soil will work as most soils are too alkaline or full of fertilizers. Fertilizers will kill the plant when introduced into the soil. Make sure the moss and perlite you obtain does not have fertilizers added as usually occurs in bags of brand name stuff in garden centers. Bales of dry moss and perlite can be bought with no additives. You can go the safe route and buy from an online vendor of carnivorous plants like cobraplant.com or californiacarnivores.com as they often sell premixed soils that will be unfertilized.

Always use distilled, reverse osmosis, or rain water to water your Sarracenia and keep the pot in a tray up to half its depth in water. Tap water has minerals that will alter the soil and eventually harm the plant if they build up too much.

Make sure the plant always gets full sun outside as they really need a huge amount of natural light. If you absolutely have to grow it indoors it will need the brightest window supplemented by at least 12000 lumens, more is better, of artificial florescent light as close to the plant as possible. Even then, the plant will be weaker and slower growing then outside grown plants. Sarracenias are more of a garden type of plant.

Never fertilize the Sarracenia as it is likely to burn their leaves and/or kill them. They will obtain fertilizer naturally by attracting insects and capturing them in their tubelike, fluid-filled leaves. The insects will drown and be digested by enzymes and broken down by bacterial action until nitrogen is released and absorbed by the plant's leaves in small quantities. It is possible to artificially fertilize most carnivorous plants with very diluted fertilizers foliarly fed, however; natural fertilizing with insects is always preferable as that way an accidental overfertilization will not result in plant death.

You will want to repot the plant after winter is past. It will prefer a 5-6 inch pot and might even grow into a larger pot in time.

Since winter is coming you will see the plant enter its dormant stage over the cold, low light days over the next several months. Leave it outside to provide a natural dormancy. The only care the plant will need is if the winter temperatures freeze as pots are bad insulation. The plant's roots could freeze dry and kill the plant. Just keep it slightly warmer than freezing and keep it hydrated with just enough water to moisten the soil in winter. If the winter is a bit too warm the plant will not stay dormant comntinuously and might weaken or succumb to fungus. If needed, keep the plant under 60 degrees by placing it in an ice chest with frozen water bottles around the pot during the day with the top open to receive sun. Sarracenias in dormancy will not respond to light, however; will be less likely to die from fungal attack if given sunlight during the day. The contant changing of water bottles can be a nuisance, but does keep the plants alive and healthy in regions that do not have a properly cool, or too cold,  winter.

In spring the plant will exit dormancy as the temperatures warm and the daylength gets longer.

Christopher