Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 12/19/2011

Question
I just bought one of those carnivorous plant death cubes, but one thing was different about it: the plants inside were dormant. Inside, the plants were a single Venus flytrap with three leaves above the soil surface, non of which have completely formed traps, although the petioles are pretty long, and either one sarracenia crown which broke in two pieces or two sarracenia cowns. Neither crown has a lot of roots and I couldn't see any active growing points ( the crowns also have no leaves above the soil). I potted them up in the undrained terrarium they came with using 1 part peat moss and 1 part perlite. Because it is currently winter , rather than bringing them  out of dormancy as the instructions suggested, I was going to leave them dormant and get them acclimated to outside. I have left the plants in the humidity dome and have placed the terrarium in my unheated garage on the south windowsill. I planned to slowly loft the humidity dome off then put them outside and acclimate them to full sun. I live in Oklahoma so the weather isn't super cold right now but pretty cold and the plants are receiving four hours or more sunlight per day. Am I doing this right? Thanks for your help.

Answer
Hi Jonathan,

What I'm going to recommend is that you move these plants to a window in the house.  The reason is that they have been sitting a in a store for who knows how long, in poor light, and warm.  They are very weak right now, and will probably not be able to take even a light freeze.  A North window is best until late February.  Make sure they are right up in the window to remain cool.

You should also transplant them into regular pots.  The roots are going to need drainage and oxygen.  Both plants will be fine in a 5 inch pot together, or separate 4" pots.  Use the same peat/perlite mix you've used.  Spraying the tops of the pots with a sulfur-based fungicide is a good preventative of mold also.  Put a clear plastic cup over the top of the plants for now.  Be sure you've cut off any dead leaves.  In February move your plants to a West window that gets full sun.  Remove any older leaves at this time (dead or alive), and take the covers off.  Make sure your plants always have a tray of water to sit it.  For the winter, keep the soil just damp.  Once you move them to a sunny window, always have them sitting in some water.  As the days get longer, and sunnier, the plants should come out of dormancy, and you'll see new shoots developing.  

When all danger of frost is past you can take your plants outside, and now they can stay outside.

For complete information on growing North American Carnivorous plants, including information on rescuing plants from death cubes, check out out volume #1 DVD: http://cobraplant.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=38

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com