Expert: Christopher Littrell - 9/3/2007

Question
QUESTION: Mr Littrell, I am new at growing carnivorous plants. Two days ago I went to my local nursery and saw this gorgeus flower (purple sarracenia). I asked about it and was told that it is a carnivorous plant. Fell in love and brought it home. I live in Colorado just south east of Denver, at the nursery they had the plant in an area without direct sunlight and the flower looked real fresh. Since I don't know a thing about this plants, I researched their care and found out that this particular plant needs 6 hours off full sun, so I placed it by a southeast window and watered it with bottled water, but now the flower seems to be drying up and I am concerned that I am not caring for it properly. The leaves on the plant are green and a couple of them have some small brown spots, otherwise the plant seems ok, and is shooting new growth. One last thing, how often do this plants need to eat insects?
I appeciate your prompt response and your time.

ANSWER: Hello Ana,

From your description of the plant, it sounds like it is fine, just in need of direct sun and mineral free water. You stated that it had a flower, if the plant had a scape with a downward facing red or pink flower, it will last only a few days before drying up and dying off until next spring when it will flower again. Carnivorous plants do not flower constantly during the growing season like roses do as that simply takes too much energy for a plant that is used to growing in nutrient poor bogs.

It was a good idea to look up information on your Purple Pitcher Plant. You indicated that you give it bottled water. Make sure the bottled water says distilled or is reverse osmosis water with no salt, magnesium, or calcium added, not drinking water. Drinking water has minerals added. Salts and minerals build up in the sphagnum peat moss the plants grow in, an acidic medium, and that buildup alters the Ph of the soil and sours it, sickening the plant and slowly killing it. Soft water of less than 50-100 parts per million of those minerals is fine, the lower the better. Provide the plant with a tray of water up to half way up the pot as Sarracenias really like their roots near water all the time. Do not allow the water to drown the crown of the plant and never allow the soil to dry out.

Purple Pitcher Plants are the most sun intensive of all the carnivorous plants, meaning that they are like a garden plant and really do best outside in direct sun. The fact that the leaves are green is one clue that the plant needs more light. It is called a Purple Pitcher Plant not due to it's flower coloration, but because its leaves, the pitcher like traps, develop a beautiful reddish purple color when grown in full sun outside. Best bet would be to place it in more well lit windows each week for 2-3 weeks until it is in the brightest all day sun window you have, then move the plant out to a patio or porch where it will get real sunlight. Window sun is only a fraction of the intensity of full sun outside.

The next part of your question involves feeding, but the plant can take care of that itself. Just place it outside where it will get rained on, and if needed, spray water over the plant heavily until water collects in the pitchers. They are constructed to funnel water inside, not having lids like some other species of pitcher plants, and will use that water to drown unwary ants, flies, and wasps that visit the plant seeking nectar which the plant produces on its pitchers. The plant will then produce a small amount of digestive enzymes to aid the bacteria in the water in breaking down the insect protein into nitrogen. Basically, the plant provides it's own feeding and is less difficult to care for than a rose as you do not even have to fertilize it. (make sure not to fertilize it at all, especially the soil). If you want to, and if the plant is not catching anything for weeks at a time, you can drop an ant or fly into a pitcher that is well formed and has water standing in it every few weeks, but it is really not necessary in the short run. Insects are the last consideration to carnivorous plant health, like vitamin pills for humans. The plant only needs insects as a supplement, not a complete meal. Light is, and always will be, the main course for plants.

With the coming of fall in a few months, you will certainly need to provide the plant with the most natural outside conditions you can as it will go dormant over winter with the shorter photoperiods and colder weather. Purple Pitcher Plants are winter hardy in zone 5 and are found growing naturally in the U. S. and Canada, so are like any other North American plant in their need of a winter rest period. With a good dormancy each year, the plant will grow back stronger and potentially live for decades. In a pot, make sure it is protected from complete freezes and ensure that the soil remains barely moist all winter. Drying out and fungus are two of the most destructive killers of dormant plants.

The last bit of advice is to treat your Sarracenia like any other plant so far as leaving it alone after getting it all that it requires (which is really less than most other plants). Purple Pitcher Plants are the slowest growing of the Sarracenias, so just be patient and enjoy the plant.

I hope this helps you with some tips and ideas about how to cultivate your Sarracenia.

Christopher

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

QUESTION: Chris, thank you for the information about my new plant, I now feel better prepared to care for it than before, although I am still a bit confused about winter. The plant lives now in a glass pot with some kind of very small pebbles in the bottom and sphagnum peat moss on top. I keep the water to the top of the pebbles; we have an indoor pool and we do not heat that room over the winter but just to above freezing, would that be a good place to put the plant during this period or does it need to be outside, and in that case, how do I plant it without using soil? Would it's pot buried inside a hole in the ground work? And last, by when do I have to do this, sometime during the fall? Once again thank you very much, my plant and I are very grateful.

Answer
Hello Ana,

By your description, it is inside the glass pot? Purple Pitcher Plants, and many other species of carnivorous plant for that matter, can adapt to low humidity and be grown in normal pots like regular plants. Terrariums and glass enclosures reduce the amount of light these sun intensive plants need and can cause heat buildup when placed in direct sun, cooking the plant like a pressure cooker. If the plant is merely planted in the glass pot open top, that will be fine, but you indicated that it has no drainage other than gravel in the bottom. The main thing is to keep a careful watch on the soil as a fishy smell means bacteria is building up and souring the soil due to stagnant conditions. The pebbles should help a bit with that. The best setup would be an open pot with drainage holes in the bottom and a large tray that provides a couple inches of water. Top watering increases circulation and airates the soil while the tray provides additional humidity and constant water supply without as much stagnation.

If you were to repot (you also asked about planting it in normal soil) you would need to avoid potting soil. Sphagnum peat moss and perlite in a 50/50 mix is best. Make sure not to get the bags of fertilized moss and perlite. Both are also sold in dry bales at nurseries and hardware stores and have nothing added.

Winter starts around November so that is when the plant will typically begin dormancy. When the risk of frost passes around February to March, these plants come out of dormancy and resume growth. In the wild, Sarracenia purpurea can take temperatures below freezing, however; in a pot should be kept just above freezing, so your unheated pool room sounds ideal for winter. Just make sure the plant is kept where it can get as much sun as possible, after adaptation to Ultraviolet light of course (having been in low light to begin it might experience a bit of leaf burn at first so don't worry), so that it knows when it is supposed to go dormant in fall and when it should wake up in spring. The length of day and the temperature help the plant with timing of this dormancy period. In winter, just keep the plant less moist than usual with about half the water you usually give it. Just keep the soil barely moist and do not allow it to dry out.

At least you have a couple more months before winter to enjoy the plant while it is still growing.

Christopher