Expert: Christopher Littrell - 5/26/2007

Question
what types of plants do you suggest for beginers? (I all ready have a cape sundew)

Answer
Hello William,

A Cape sundew is a good beginning. Once you can keep that plant happy, you will have the basics of growing many other carnivorous plants. Other good starter plants include Drosera adelae (Lance Leaf Sundew), and Drosera spatulata (Spoon Leaf Sundew) all of which, including the Cape sundew, are considered weeds in growth pattern, tolerating incredible root damage during transplanting. The Mexican butterworts are also tropical plants that would be easy growers provided you give them well drained soil and do not disturb their roots much.

Once you have a handle on those plants, you can move on to Nepenthes, particularly easy to grow and adaptable species like alata, ventrata, ventricosa, and sanguinea are good as houseplants in a sunny window.

If you are looking for outdoor plants, the temperate species are easy to grow outside as most require full sun to do well. The Venus Flytraps, North American Sarracenia Pitcher Plants, especially the Purple Pitcher Plant, and temperate sundews like rotundifolia and intermedia all would be easy enough to grow so long as your region provides temperatures within 30-90 degrees to allow for dormancy periods in winter and to keep the plants from cooking in the summer. The main thing to check would be the temperature tolerance and hardiness zone of each plant to ensure that your natural conditions are within it's tolerance limits.

Stay away from the more difficult plants like Drosera regia (King Sundew), Darlingtonia californica (Cobra Pitcher Plant), and the Nepenthes that state that they require high humidity and special temperature changes (like Nepenthes rajah the Emperor Nepenthes) until you have a few years of growing the other plants under your belt. Those plants all require more specialized conditions that even experienced growers occasionally find difficult to maintain.

Check out the site cobraplant.com for their plant care sheets and plant listings as they have growing difficulty and hardiness zone ratings for each plant species in their spec sheets to aid new growers in deciding which plants they should try.

I hope this information helps you out.

Christopher