Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 4/27/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hi Jacob I know I've been asking you lots of questions lately but this is an emergancy. I order some plants online and they arrived today. I order a sarracenia leucohylla and a drosera capensis. The capensis was pretty small and all it's leaves were floppy and dewless. But the leucophylla needs the most help. Well it's flower was mangled and the stalk was rended in half. So should I just simply cut it off? But the pitchers (none of which fully opened) we like destroyed. The top parts or the place where it's white was browned and smashed. But the central and lower parts were fine but I dont know whether i should cut off the badly hurt parts or the entire pitcher. I need help! What should I do? I'm sorry i dont have a pic because my camera died out.

ANSWER: First and foremost, if you are at all concerned about the health of your plants, you should always contact the nursery that you got them from.  If they have a replacement policy or guarantee, you will need to keep them informed about your plants.  They also have information about how the plant was grown prior to shipment, so they would be best to assist you in nurturing the plants back to health.

You didn't mention if you received the plants bare root or potted.  If bare root, definitely pot them up in the appropriate soil mix.  You can find this information on our website in the care sheet section.
http://www.cobraplant.com/caresheets

Once the plants are properly potted, all you can do is wait for new growth.  There isn't anything you can do about the damaged existing growth.  The damage to leaves and flower stalk is permanent, and there's nothing you can do to reverse it.  Some of the existing growth might whither due to the change in environment and stressful shipping.  This is normal and unavoidable.  As long as the root stalk and rhizome are healthy, the plants will rebound.  It may take a couple months, but they will.  You simply need to be patient.  

Definitely cut off the flower stalk and any leaves that are excessively damaged.  You can keep any leaves that are only minimally or somewhat partially damaged.  They will provide photosynthesis for the plant.  Look for new growth in the upcoming weeks.  All new growth from this point on will be acclimated to your growing conditions.  Again, time and patience are key factors once your plants are properly potted and placed in the recommended growing conditions.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Okay thank you very much! They both came bareroot but i did alreay pot them into the proper soil and pot. All of the leucophyllas leaves are damaged so should I leave them or cut them all off? Also I once talked with jeff before and he said south african drosera respond very well when their leaves are cut off bare to the soil. Can I do that to my capensis o it puts up healthy new growth or leave the ugly growth and wait til it recovers and adapts.

Answer
There is no harm in cutting off the leaves on your plants if they are excessively damaged.  It's a judgement call on your part if you think a leaf is excessively damaged or not.  Either way, it won't harm the plant.  If you choose to keep them, simply cut them off after you see new growth.  Otherwise, you can cut all of them off.  In both situations, you still need to give your plants lots of time to recover.