"Nathaniel" wrote in message
s.com...
Andy Spragg wrote:
*A couple of weeks ago, at a county show nearby, there was a bloke in
a
little white van, wedged in among the legions of Barbour vendors. He
was selling carnivorous plants, and I was particularly taken - taken
enough to shell out £7 for one - by the "slug-eating plants" that
occupied one of his tables. They were described as peat-bog dwellers
of North America/Canada, cold-hardy down to -8 deg C or so, and
slug-eaters: the more they eat, the bigger they get, up to a couple
of
feet across or so.

So now I have this plant in my possession, certain questions spring
to
mind. Like: given that (in a pot context) it likes to sit in a
saucer
of (rain)water, how are the slugs going to get across the moat? I
would like to plant it out in the garden, in a simulated peat-bog
micro-environment. Is this a reasonable thing to do (for instance,
sink a large container filled with peat, plant it in that and keep
it
well watered at all times)? And like: is it possible to propagate
this
plant? The thought of dozens of slug-eating plants dotted around my
allotment is almost too awesome to contemplate .....

What you have described is the common "pitcher plant". It is insectivorous.
I doubt if it will manage to devour a slug. It is *not* hardy. Your -8 deg
C is a load of codswallop. Minimum temperature +5 deg C (41 deg F),
according to the RHS Encyclopedia. It will grow into a plant about 12" high
and 12" diameter.

Franz