Expert: Christopher Littrell - 1/14/2009

Question
my venus fly trap has stopped growing and has started to flower. should i keep the flowers or cut them off

Answer
Hello d,

First off, your Venus Flytrap is a temperate plant that should have gone dormant in winter. Since it is flowering, I take it you have either kept the plant indoors and have not provided dormancy cues, or you are living in a tropical region. Venus Flytraps need to go dormant for about 3-4 months from November to February which occurs naturally if they are getting direct sun outside and experience cold weather down to about 40 degrees. If your plant has not experienced these transitions as the sunlight diminishes in winter and the weather gets colder, like in the North Carolina environment it lives in naturally, it will not go dormant and will flower out of season as it is doing now. Yes, cut the flower scape off after it is about two inches tall. If the plant flowers now it will probably weaken and die in a few months. Get the plant ready for winter by lessening the length of light it receives by about an hour each week until it gets 8 hours of light, then expose it to cold temperatures of around 40-60 degrees. This can be done by placing the plant outside if your winters are below freezing. If your winters are very cold, you can place the plant in a cold room near the coldest window in your home so that it gets a cool draft and chills down to below 60 degrees. Keep the plant in cold weather and with short daylengths of light all winter until past February so it gets several months of rest. If the plant does not go dormant it will likely die off within the year due to using up all its energy growing during winter. If you cannot provide a natural cold spot for your plant you can use an ice chest with frozen water bottles around the pot. Use about 3-4 12-20 ounce frozen water bottles and replace them every 12 hours to keep the plant cold. Keep the ice chest open by day in a sunny window and close it at night. It is a bit late to start dormancy now, but without it, your plant might not survive long. It is a tossup whether you should try to provide dormancy cues for the plant or not as of now as spring is approaching and the plant might not have enough energy reserves left to continue after dormancy.

If you decide to try a couple  months of dormancy with the plant, make sure to water the plant about half as much as you normally do while it is dormant, just ensure its soil remains barely moist all winter.

The Venus Flytrap will begin to grow again when cold weather has past and longer days begin in Spring. You will want to let your plant stay dormant at least a couple of months to ensure it has at least some dormancy if you try to provide those dormancy cues. You can also just let the plant keep growing and hope it survives until next winter, then make sure it has a normal dormancy next time.

Christopher