Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 1/19/2012

Question
QUESTION: Hi, I got a Drosera filiformis 'Florida Giant' and a filiformis 'Red' from you guys during one of your open houses. I recently read that those two kinds of filiformis shouldn't be allowed to go dormant and that cold weather will kill them. They have already been outside for about 4 months and they look like the have gone dormant since all of their leaves are gone down to the ground. This is in Vancouver, Washington and the coldest it has been here was about 27 degrees briefly. They are in the same soil they came in and they have been watered with distilled and rain water.

Will cold weather really kill them? Thanks!

ANSWER: Hi Reggie,

The Florida Giant Dewthread comes from the Florida panhandle, and is rated as a zone #8 (like us here west of the Cascades) plant.  We sell this one on our website in the hardy plant section, and all of ours are kept outdoors.  They can be considered tender; I've lost some when unprotected during hard freezes (teens F), and during freak late spring freezes.  If 27F is the coldest you've gotten to, you are probably fine.  This variety always forms a winter resting bud or hibernacula.

The Red Dewthread on the other hand is from Central Florida.  It is rated as a zone 9 plant, so it would only get occasional freezes, probably not below 25F ever.  You're in that window, so they may have survived.  I've had some outside in past years experimentally, and they survived light freezes just fine, but if we got an arctic blast of clear, cold weather, they were toast.  There are also different clones of this plant floating around, and we have probably two or three different ones in our inventory.  Some always form hibernacula, but some don't.  For some it will depend more on photoperiod.  There's no way to tell them apart since they are just variants on the same plant that are identical in appearance.  The plants are most likely from different geographic locations in Florida, so they will have microclimate differences.  We market this one as a subtropical for these reasons.

If you don't have a copy already, our volume #1 DVD can be very helpful in understanding how to protect your plants during extreme winter weather. http://cobraplant.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=38&products_id=205

Good Growing!

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

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

QUESTION: Thank you so much! I will watch the part on winter protection in volume 1. Also, would it be alright to move this plant onto a garage windowsill? It's an east facing window that gets a good amount of sunlight and the temperature in the garage won't be as cold as the outside.

Thanks again!

Answer
Hi Reggie,

A garage window should be perfect.  Just watch for mold.  Having said that, however, we are in a period in the Northwest right now of long rains, so it's not going to be too cold outside.


Good Growing!

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