Its not march and my venus fly trap has been in the back of a cool
cupboard since about october. Given its starting to get warm outside,
and that the plants has started to spring a few traps in the last few
weeks (just one has come up sice December) is it a good time to get it
out, start giving it plenty of water and put it down in the compost
heap to get some lunch??


Thanks!



peter

On 7 Mar, 14:01, wrote:
Its not march and my venus fly trap has been in the back of a cool
cupboard since about october. Given its starting to get warm outside,
and that the plants has started to spring a few traps in the last few
weeks (just one has come up sice December) is it a good time to get it
out, start giving it plenty of water and put it down in the compost
heap to get some lunch??

Thanks!

peter

I would say yes! I have two VFTs, which are now in their third year. I
actually forgot all about them over the winter and they were sitting
on a windowsill with the compost dried up. All of the old traps had
completely shrivelled up and turned black and they looked totally
dead. But on the off-chance, I removed all the dead bits and gave the
empty-looking pots a good soaking with rainwater. Now, three or four
weeks later, both have sprung into life with a good cluster of new
growth. There are one or two full-size traps on each, but the majority
are still tiny. I've put them outside on a few sunny days to get some
light onto them.

Last winter I purposely allowed them to go dormant, leaving them in an
unheated garage with only very occasional watering. This winter, just
forgetting about them on a windowsill seems to have done just as good
a job. Who says they're hard to keep alive?

Rob

wrote in message
oups.com...
Its not march

It is here.


Steve

Should I have allowed my plant to go dormant over Winter?
I've just kept it on a South facing windowsill standing in a saucer of water
all the time.
It looks healthy enough. It has even had a couple of flower stems, though
the little white flowers were nothing to shout about. Are they supposed to
rest over Winter?

David.

"David France" asked:
Should I have allowed my plant to go dormant over Winter?
I've just kept it on a South facing windowsill standing in a saucer of
water all the time.
It looks healthy enough. It has even had a couple of flower stems, though
the little white flowers were nothing to shout about. Are they supposed to
rest over Winter?
---
Yes, Venus fly traps DO rest during the winter. Some die down whilst others
retain their green growth.. Keep your fly trap pot standing in water, on the
south facing windowsill. Although standing it in a saucer of water for the
winter is fine, during the summer months go for a deeper container. The
water should be at least half way up the side of the plant pot. You will
have no doubt found that a few of the traps blacken and die, these should be
carefully cut away. I grow fly traps, most are resting, one flowering now
and a few just starting new spring growth. Once the flowers on your fly trap
have died, you will most likely find that you have very fine, black seeds.
These can be sown onto an ericaceous compost mix, spray and cover the pot
with Clingfilm and wait for germination. Keep the pot standing in water on
your south facing windowsill. The seeds take some time before they
germinate, but it's well worth the wait.

MikeCT

Mike,
You say you sow in an ericaceous compost mix do you then re pot the
seedlings into the more normal peat/sand mix?

David,
Cut the flower stems off as soon as you see them IMHO the flowers are
nothing to look at and sap a lot of energy from the plant.
Ford.

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 09:08:55 GMT, "MikeCT"
wrote:


"David France" asked:
Should I have allowed my plant to go dormant over Winter?
I've just kept it on a South facing windowsill standing in a saucer of
water all the time.
It looks healthy enough. It has even had a couple of flower stems, though
the little white flowers were nothing to shout about. Are they supposed to
rest over Winter?
---
Yes, Venus fly traps DO rest during the winter. Some die down whilst others
retain their green growth.. Keep your fly trap pot standing in water, on the
south facing windowsill. Although standing it in a saucer of water for the
winter is fine, during the summer months go for a deeper container. The
water should be at least half way up the side of the plant pot. You will
have no doubt found that a few of the traps blacken and die, these should be
carefully cut away. I grow fly traps, most are resting, one flowering now
and a few just starting new spring growth. Once the flowers on your fly trap
have died, you will most likely find that you have very fine, black seeds.
These can be sown onto an ericaceous compost mix, spray and cover the pot
with Clingfilm and wait for germination. Keep the pot standing in water on
your south facing windowsill. The seeds take some time before they
germinate, but it's well worth the wait.

MikeCT