venus fly traps

[aquilegia]

And I also got two venus fly traps for Christmas. Any tips?

I know they must by well watered and stood in a dish of rain water and you shouldn't shut the traps on purpose. but that's about the extent of my knowledge.

how warm should they be kept in winter?

[aquilegia]

[Len]

Try this link I found it good [url][http://www.littleshopofhorrors.co.uk/customer/pages.php?pageid=3/url]

[Mrs Ava]

daughter number one bought one last spring and can you believe it is still with us!  Lived outside, well, in the greenhouse all summer, coming in around October time.  Only water with rain water or I believe you can use boiled and cooled water.  They need to be kept constantly wet...apparently, altho ours dries out periodically and looks rather sad, but soon perks up after a good drop of the wet stuff.  If they are going to be in a bug free zone then I believe you can feed them tiny pieces of raw meat!  Yucky!!  Oh, and if they start to flower, remove the flower as it weakens the plant.

[Lady Cosmos]

Aqui, a venus flytrap should indeed be on a saucer with 2 cm water in it (with pebbles). use distilled or rainwater.Tapwater leaf for 48 hours to get rid of chlorine. Growing and feeding time  2 flies in 4 weeks, in May- Oktobre. keep damp and about 80F. In winter, 3 months dormant, foliage dies back, temp 45F. Take dead leaves away (fungus).  Good luck

[Travman]

As a member of the carnivorous plant society and a avid collector let me say congratulations on your first
VFT. ;D
I have in my collection around 800 different species of carnivorous plants and around 50 Venus fly traps at any one time.
Tips......
leave the plant sitting in RAINWATER at around 2-3Cm's
during the growing season never let it dry out.

Chlorine is not the only killer in water it is the hardness and leaving it a while will NOT get rid of this. Distilled water will do but rain water is cheaper (during summer i use around 20 gallon a day !!)
Flower stalks should be cut off when they are around 1" high or the plant will suffer, unless you want to collect seed.
DO NOT feed raw meat or dead flies.The trap works by sensing the insect on the tiny hairs inside the trap, when 3 have touched to trap closes on the prey.If the plant feels the insect moving it compresses and starts to digest the prey-It may be the case a twig or leaf as fallen on to the trap so if no movement as been felt the trap will open in around 24-36 hours but the raw meat will have started to rot the trap. The hairs are a very delicate,fingers and pen's will break them!

Each trap usually catches around 3 flies before the trap will blacken and die ,but others will grow to replace them. You can overfeed  VFT ,it only needs around 1-2 flies a year to survive constant feeding will stress the plant and lead to its death,the best way is to let the plant decide what it wants and leave nature alone.

The more sunlight the better the traps will get a lovely deep red colour  depending on the type..Mine have direct sunlight for around 9 hours a day.

This time of year they should be dormant but if your is not it as either just been bought or kept to warm.

They will survive in a unheated greenhouse during winter to just below freezing- Mine have the pots freeze solid!
During winter (Oct- Feb ,depending on location) watering should be stopped with the plant not standing in water but just kept damp.

Check out my web-site and follow the links for the CPUK forum for more advice or help. Feel free to e-mail me for any assistance
I usually have many CP's for sale if any anybody else needs one ;D

[aquilegia]

Thanks all - especially Travman (gorgeous picture!).

Mine is still partially green - although some of it's going black. some of the middle of the traps are going red! I will get them out of their water tonight, when I go home. They are in the kitchen which gets pretty cold - no heating in there and big drafty window. I must get one of those min/max thermometers to check out how cold it gets.

[Travman]

It's amazing what they will catch and eat


depending on the type they may grow pure red