Expert: Christopher Littrell - 12/13/2007

Question
ok now i want a sundew but i don't know what kind, can you help me? I think I want the one with the fronds like ferns but I don't know there names. Could you give me tips for get and raising a sundew please? By the way if this helps I think i want to grow it inside, and i live Georgia near Atlanta.

Answer
Hello Justine,

The sundew your describing sounds like Drosera capensis or Drosera adelae. Both are easy to grow tropicals and good for indoors houseplants.

All you need to do is basically the same as for any other plant. If you order the plant from cobraplant.com it will come with a care sheet that gives you all the information you really need to keep the plant alive and healthy.

Drosera adelae would like only indirect sunlight or strong florescent light while Drosera capensis would like stronger light and can take full sunlight.

Just water them with distilled water, reverse osmosis water, or rain water. Use a tray under the pot with up to 1/4 the pot depth in water.

If you repot the plant, just use peat moss and perlite... the easiest would be to obtain a bag of premixed soil from an online supplier as sometimes stores have fertilized moss in bags (any soil with fertilizer in it will harm and kill carnivorous plants).. cobraplant.com also has this mix on their site without fertilizer added. Carnivorous plants do best when repotted once a year into a slightly larger pot each time until you get a pot that can contain their root growth completely.

That would be pretty much all their is to keeping a carnivorous plant happy.

Christopher