Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 5/11/2011

Question
ive been growing my king sundew for almost 3 years now. im in South Dakota, and last summer was its first summer outdoors.  i brought it in this fall and repotted it this winter, and am wondering when is a good time to put it back outside. because it is beginning to flower, and i wouldnt mind letting the flower mature so i could spread some seeds and increase my number of king sundews.  any suggestions?

Answer
You can move your plant outdoors if you feel confident that you are passed the risk of frost.  However, regia is technically a zone 9 plant and will handle a very light frost.  But if you want to preserve the flower, definitely wait until you are absolutely confident that you won't have another frost this spring.

As for seeds, we haven't figured out how to get viable seeds from this species.  It may be that you need to genetically different plants, but I'm not sure.  So far, nearly every grower that were lucky enough to get seeds had a lot of difficulty getting them to germinate.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Good growing!
Jacob Farin