Expert: Christopher Littrell - 5/19/2007

Question
Hi
I was looking for a plant I could plant outside next to a streem we have a natural streem that runs almost all year.there are lots of bugs for them its in santa cruz ca. zone 9 I think...
Thank you
Caryl

Answer
Hello Caryl,

Are you going to create a mini-bog near the stream? If so, make sure the stream does not collect any lime or calcium from the environment as that could harm carnivorous plants. In Zone 9, you could grow any zone 8-9 carnivorous plant just fine outside. Those include Venus Flytraps, Sarracenias (North American Pitcher Plants), your resident Californian carnivore the Darlingtonia Californica (difficult to grow in cultivation), and many of the North American Sundews. So long as the weather does not go over 90-100 degrees in summer and drops to about 30-40 degrees in winter, the plants will be fine there.

I must add that just planting them in the ground where you live would probably kill them unless you live near a natural peat bog as they need acid soil. To make an acidic mini-bog near the stream, you could dig up a plot of earth, line it with a plastic pool liner or put a child's plastic swimming pool in it, then fill it with a mix of sphagnum peat moss (from the dry bales in nurseries and hardware stores) and either horticultural silica sand or perlite in a 50/50 mixture (make sure nothing has fertilizer added). Using sand or perlite is your call and is just to add drainage. If your stream is not laden with minerals, you could just irrigate straight from the stream with a pvc pipe. To give you some good lists of plants and their growing zones, you could visit cobraplant.com and look over their list of care sheets for specific plants you could grow outside in your area.

I hope this gives you some ideas about what you can do to grow carnivorous plants outside in your area.

Christopher