Expert: Christopher Littrell - 2/18/2009

Question
Hi,
This is my first Drosera adelae....
I started great, the weather wasn't to the liking of the plant, it was cold 46 degrees F and I took really good care of it. but let me rewind some, I purchased a Drosera adelae from Lowes and I knew about the cube, so the first day i completely removed it, i was in love with the plant, when it started it had lovely leaves, although they weren't red as i was expecting but white, so I left it in the sunlight during the morning and later in the day pulled it in, I knew it stressed the plant due to humidity changes, so my mom thought, hey lets go buy some soil since it'll help the plant grow, we went to lowes found a soil bag with sphagnum moss in it, and a lot of other crap, and miracle gro perlite, i knew this was going to cause death, but my mom didn't want to hear it, so she me  soiled it and put a plastic bag over it, set it in direct sunlight and keep my son away from it, it was blazed with sunlight from morning til nightfall.. By day 5 it was burnt to a crisp and it is like that to this day, dry, i wanted to water it but i think its to late, its soil is dry its leaves burnt crispy and with toxic soil, is there anyway at all, that i can redeem my Drosera adelae from complete death, like trimming the leaves off and watering it completely, and letting ti recover with its old soil?
Is there anything I can do to save it,
i cant do indoor growth since i don't have the money to buy lights and all that stuff nor the space.
But anything else that i could attempt to make it come back,
or am I doomed and have killed my first Drosera adelae and need to move on and get another one.
I will show you what it looks like now but i wasn't able to get a picture, my camera died and i don't want to wait another second for help....
so if you could please help me with some advice asap, i would most greatly appreciate it.
Kain

Answer
Hello Kain,

It sounds like, with all the plant has been though, that it is probably thoroughly dead by now. The only way to find out is to uproot the plant, clip off the dead leaves, and check the roots. If there is any live root left, repot it in unfertilized sphagnum peat and perlite 50/50 mix. The bags of stuff they sell at garden centers will kill carnivorous plants due to the fertilizer in it. Try cobraplant.com and californiacarnivores.com for unfertilized soils for a veriety of carnivorous plants along with proper instructions on care and healthy plants to boot.

Cold weather down to the fourties would be unhealthy for a tropical sundew like that. You could grow a Drosera adelae indoors in a sunny window, but if you lack the space then it is a moot point. Drosera adelae is a plant that prefers wamrth, partial sun, like it would get under some trees and bushes, and fertilizer free soil. They also need mineral free water like distilled, rain, or reverse osmosis water. Tap water, drinking water and spring water have minerals added that can harm carnivorous plants for the most part.

tips for Drosera adelae

Place in a tray of water up to a quarter the plants pot in depth, they need a lot of water near their roots.

Keep at temperatures of around 70-80 degrees optimum. Below 50 would not be healthy for them.

Never place them in direct sun due to leaf burn. Their leaves cannot adapt to full sun. They need strong, but partial or indirect sunlight.

Never place a humidity bag over them unless you are slowly adapting the plant to low humidity, which works fine with carnivorous plants of many species. They can do well in quite low humidity if they have time to adapt for a couple weeks to successively lower humidity.

In effect, the plant was nearly frozen, root burned by fertilizer, steamed in a bag in direct sun, burned by ultraviolet radiation, and dried out. I would surmise that the plant is thoroughly dead by now.

Growing carnivorous plants can be a bit counter-intuitive for those used to regular houseplants and garden plants. Once the rules are known for their care, it becomes easier with time.

Might I suggest trying temperate carnivores like Venus Flytraps and Drosera rotundifolia. Both would be good plants to grow open pot in the conditions you described if the humidity is over 15 percent where you live and granted enough water were provided to keep them always moist.

Christopher