Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 8/7/2011

Question
I recently bought a Drosera filiformis Florida all red as well as a D. dichotoma from you guys and I've acclimated both to full sun outdoors in Oklahoma but the none of the new growth on either plant is red. They are being watered with distilled water and  are in the mixture of peat and perlite that you sent them in. Why aren't they red? Also is the drosera dichotoma that you sell dichotoma "giant" or just dichotoma?

Answer
Hi Jonathan,

The red coloration in the Red-leaf filiformis and other all red sundews like the all-red D. capensis can be a little fickle.  The pigment is often affected by the amount of available tannins in the soil, so you often see darker red in plants that have been in their pots longer.  This is because of the gradual breakdown in the peat moss.  Your plant may have been one recently transplanted into new soil, and that can affect the color.  Just give it time.

The D. binata var. dichotoma normally isn't very red.  They normally have an olive-green appearance with a red hue to the tentacles.  The multifidas, especially the multifida "extrema" tend to be much more red.

All of our dichotomas in our nursery originated from a couple plants I bought back in the early 90's from the Indoor Sun Shoppe in Seattle.  They probably came from Jerry Addington at Courting Frogs nursery.  They are big plants, but whether or not they are the "Giant" form I'm not sure.  After a quick look at what others are calling the giant, I would say it is probably the same plant.

Good Growing!

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