Expert: Christopher Littrell - 10/26/2007

Question
Where has your area of study brought you

Would you recommend your job to college students

How has your study changed you

What inspired you to take this job

Do you still enjoy work

What do you do during your job

how many questions do you usually get

is it hard work doong what you do

what type of plant would you most reccomend

what type of plant woould you least reccomend

Answer
Hello Ibaad,

My area of study, educational psychology, has terminated in a Master's degree. My interest in carnivorous plants has terminated in an obsession to cultivate them.

I would recommend educational psychology and carnivorous plant botany both as specializations as they are both interesting. Go with what interests you.

I have learned more about people in general and am able to apply my knowledge to help them learn more about the world around them.

Allexperts is a voluntary service, so I do not so much work here as simply help out where questions need answering about carnivorous plants. In any case, I simply like helping people.

I cultivate carnivorous plants and offer support and advice to other growers because I enjoy it.

As of now I am actually seeking real employment as an Educational Psychologist or, even better, working with carnivorous plants. I would actually like to conjoin my degree as an educational psychologist with teaching other people about carnivorous plants. That might be a bit difficult to manage, but I feel it is worthwhile. On this site, I simply wait for questions to show up in my inbox and answer them as I get them, conducting research as needed.

I usually get an average of about one or two questions a day, but I can answer up to five a day.

If you enjoy what you do and acquire the skills to perform the tasks required, any job really is not hard work. Hard work occurs when people obtain a job they do not like and have little skill in.

It would be according to how skilled a grower is and what type of plant they individually prefer to cultivate. Some people like Venus Flytraps and others like Nepenthes. I would suggest that a new grower try a tropical indoors plant like a Nepenthes sanguinea, ventrata, alata, or ventricosa, or a sundew like Drosera capensis or Drosera adelae. As they become more skilled, they can add more difficult plants to their collection and move on to temperates that require dormancy.

There is no one plant I could least recommend other than by difficulty and individual interests. I would inform a new grower to avoid the more difficult plants, like Nepenthes rajah and Darlingtonia californica (Cobra pitcher plants) until they are ready for a challenge and have an environment set up for those types of plants. If someone were interested in observing the trapping mechanisms I would inform them to go for easy to see plants with visible traps and avoid buying plants like bladderworts (unless they have a good microscope and infinite patience) since their traps are tiny and grow underwater or underground. If pretty flowers and simple growing is what one wants, then a bladderwort might be perfect.

I hope this helps answer your questions. You probably want to ask these questions of Sarracenia Northwest since they actually own a carnivorous plant nursery and work daily at cultivating and selling carnivorous plants.

Thanks for your interest,

Christopher