Expert: Christopher Littrell - 8/13/2007

Question
Hey,
   I have this Drosera Rotundiflora growing in a live spagnum medium,
outside in full sun (in a vegitable garden, with the rest of my well-off
carnivorous plants), and watered with rain water, using the tray method. I
bought it not too long ago, and it looked rather healthy, but i didnt see that it
was about to bloom. Once the stalk grew high enough, i cut it back, becuase i
didnt want the plant to waste all that energy. But then, it wigged out on me,
and died just about all the way back. Its starting to grow again, but the leaves
are very small, only a few centimeters long. As far as i can tell, i did
everything right, but why did it wig out on me?

Answer
Hi CJ,

From your description, your Sundew should be fine since it is growing back. Since you recently bought the plant just before it died back, it probably was not the clipping of the flower stalk that caused the leaf die back. Where did you obtain the plant from? If the place you bought it from had the plant in low light (not full sun) to begin with, the plant probably needed a time of adaptation before being placed in full sun. Drosera rotundifolia is a full sun plant, but when grown in low light conditions, looses it's ultraviolet defense. When placed back in full sun, it will burn and die back, then grow UV resistant leaves. A slow adaptation in successively less shady conditions over several weeks would have given the plant some time to adjust and it would not have died back so badly. It was a good idea to clip the scape on a new plant before you know how healthy it is. The conditions you are growing it in sound great to me.

Keep nurturing your D. rotundifolia and it should come back as strong as your other plants.

Christopher