Expert: Christopher Littrell - 9/9/2007

Question
I have four pitcher plants, some of which are hybrids. They are the Sarracenia x 'Doodle Bug' (hybrid), Sarracenia x 'Diana's Delight (hybrid), White Top Pitcher, Tarnok (Sarracenia leucophylla), and Canebrake Sweet Pitcher (Sarracenia rubra). I have only had them for a few days. I am keeping them on the back deck where they will have lots of sun. I have a problem, though, because I am supposed to let them go into dormancy during winter and (with the Canebrake Sweet Pitcher and White Top Pitcher) cut of their leaves in spring to make room for new growth. However, there is a problem with the winter dormancy because I live in California, around the San Francisco Bay area, and snow doesn't exist here. The winter weather, at its worst, has a little frost in the mornings, but rarely. It has very little cold weather at all. My plants might not go through winter dormancy, which might mean that they won't have excessive spring growth, which could mean clipping leaves would be bad, and that they won't grow very big! What should I do?


Answer
Hello Clio,

The main aspect of winter will be photoperiod in which the hours of sun per day will shorten during late fall and lengthen in late winter... telling the plants when to go dormant and when to come out of dormancy. If you left the plants outside where the weather at least gets frosty and temperatures are consistently in the 40-50 degree range in winter, they will be fine.

If in doubt about having a consistent winter (if the temperature is not going to fall below 50-60 degrees for any length of time), you can use an ice chest to winter the plants by placing the plants in the chest with ice water bottles and replacing the bottles every 12 hours. Make sure to keep enough ice bottles in the chest to keep the temperature at least 40 degrees as that is a good range at just above freezing. That keeps them from freeze drying in their pots while allowing them to get just cold enough to experience winter weather in simulation. Some people also winter their plants in a refrigerator (not a freezer) if they have room. The main thing is to make sure the plants have slowed in growth in late fall before doing that so you know they are going dormant. Just placing them in cold, lightless environments without them being dormant will kill them. When they get ready for winter, it is slowly with the shortening days when they stop relying on sunlight so much and live off their root starches while producing hormones that protect their cells from freezing weather. It just takes them a little time to get ready before winter.

In any case, San Francisco winters look like they are cool enough to keep the plants outside most of the time.

Keep up the good care of your Sarracenias,

Christopher