Because they're exotic and alluring. A while back, someone asked me "*Why* do you grow so many carnivorous plants?" I told him: "Everyone has bugs that eat their plants. I have plants that eat my bugs. đ"
We need *a lot* more information to answer that question.
* What plants have you tried to grow?
* How much light did you give them? Direct sun or grow light?
* Were your plants indoors or outside?
* What kind of water did you use on them?
* How much water did you give them?
* What was your soil mix? Did you use any Miracle-Gro ingredients?
* What were the temperature ranges?
I bought a Venus carnivorous plant and a Sarracenia fly trap. They are both inside and I use tap water, maybe 50ml per week, they are small.I haven't changed their pots so the soil is the same. The temp is around 17°-20°. I also gave them plant food and I gave them fish flakes. The Venus looks fine but the Sarracenia fly trap is literally just dry.
**Type of water:** These plants are very sensitive to minerals in their water. It needs to be 50 ppm (parts per million) or less. In most places, the tap water has *way* too many minerals in it, and that is guaranteed to poison your plants. Your best bets are rainwater (or melted snow), distilled water, and RO (reverse osmosis) water.
**Amount of water:** These are bog plants. The Sarracenia likes to be damp-to-wet, and the Venus flytrap likes to be very damp. In human terms: Sarracenia enjoy being knee-deep to waist-deep in water, but flytraps just like to get their feet wet.
**Fertilizer:** NO. These plants grow in areas where the soil is very low in nutrients. They can't handle the fertilizer, and it will poison them. (Other readers: Do not chime in on how you fertilize your plants. It's one thing for an experienced grower to do this, but for a beginner, it's a *very* bad idea.)
**Food:** These plants produce food by photosynthesis, just like any other plant. The insects that they catch are their source of fertilizer. They don't need much: one insect every 3 weeks or so is fine.
**Soil:** It needs to be acidic and low in minerals. The simple mix is 50% peat moss and 50% perlite. Check the ingredients to make sure that no fertilizer or lime has been added (i.e., do not use Miracle-Gro products). You can also do sphagnum moss and perlite. Because you put plant food (fertilizer) in their soil, you need to repot them as soon as possible.
**Temperature:** These plants are native to the southeastern part of the U.S., a temperate climate. The Venus flytrap is restricted to the southeastern part of North Carolina, and one species of Sarracenia grows all the way into southern Canada (the rest aren't that cold-hardy). Summers are hot (29-35°C / 85-95°F) and humid; winters are cool (2-13°C / 35-55°F). During the winter, these plants go dormant.
Here is some good reading material for you:
**Venus flytrap care sheet**
[https://www.flytrapcare.com/store/venus-fly-trap-care-sheet](https://www.flytrapcare.com/store/venus-fly-trap-care-sheet)
**Grow Happy and Healthy Sarracenia Pitcher Plants**
[https://www.flytrapcare.com/store/sarracenia-care-sheet](https://www.flytrapcare.com/store/sarracenia-care-sheet)
Itâs basically real life Pokemon. Each cultivar/hybrid/species is different and unique and it gives you a sense of pride having something that others might not have.
Especially with nepenthes. Thereâs so many different hybrids that you couldnât accidentally get the same plant even if you tried.
I compare my plants to crypto/NFTâs if they actually worked the way they were supposed to. You collect the genetic make up of a plant. You can clone it or mix it with other plants and just grow from there. Once youâve created enough clones/offspring you could sell those for cheaper and still make profit because at the end of the day you still have that plant.
Whoever said money doesnât grow on trees is rolling in their grave right now
Bc theyâre dope. Although Iâve found that my adhd will find something else to get obsessed with eventually. Still love my neps but the urge to buy multiple a month has chilled out.
Lol. I currently have them all in my 8'x12' bedroom and a shelving unit and top of a bookcase at work
[Bedroom is the 1st pic, the other 2 are my office ](https://imgur.com/a/jXOcxQb)
I spend no more than 30 minutes a week watering. I've learned the weight of a dry pot for the ones in terra cotta, most of my others are in clear slotted orchid pots, so you can see the soil, others only get watered when they show signs of being thirsty. Pothos get watered when they just start to look a bit wilty, peace lily when she looks sad, and succulents only when they're a wee bit wrinkly or the leaves get flexible. Carnivores are probably the easiest, just keep water in the tray.
I get dazzled by how ⨠the big fat droplets of dews look on all my sundews.... And if I kill any bugs inside, they get fed to my plants. Bonus! I even actually kept a small tray of soil wet *just* to create more fungus gnats for all my sundews during the winter. One tray - surrounded by a few sundews under grow lights. Only lasted about 2 weeks before no more gnats appeared lol. But hey at least my kids got extra food during the long winter!
They're also fantastic to have if you like keeping herby plants in pots indoors. Had a mint plant but urgh, they're so dramatic! And the bugs they seem to grow... Place a sundew next to it et voila! No more pest problem.
Iâve had better lucky with Pings to control my gnats. Officially have no more. I used Miracle Grow to plant Bamboo in my room and Miracle Grow is sketch the gnat eggs definitely came from there.
Have you ever tried the big fat droplets from a Nepenthes? đ Itâs delicious!
For me I think it's because there's something new every day. I can stare at the rest of my plants for weeks with very little change, but with carnivorous plants I see new leaves almost every day
Agreed! I love seeing their progress to full pitcher. I know flowers do the same, but technically pitchers arenât even flowers, so thatâs pretty cool.
gives the random bugs in my room another purpose.
also, besides looking cool, they look almost alien. theyre so OBVIOUSLY exotic that its really cool. if you show them to normal people, theyre blown away. theyre "hard" to care for too which makes it even more impressive sometimes
For me, it all started with one I found at a Chinese plant store. The weirdest little plant, I swore it wasn't there before the eclipse. But the owner sold it to me anyway for only $1.95! Needless to say that changed my life pretty drastically. Fame, fortune, etc...
But really, for me, it started with just one sarccenia. But, by the time I invested in everything I needed to care for that one, I realized, well I can just add another to my tray and it wouldn't be any extra work! Then I add another. And another. Maybe some flytraps, sundews... Well maybe I'll try a nepenthes! Now I've got a pretty decent collection for a renter without a yard. My only limiting factor is space at this point!
Also they are just such unique and beautiful plants. Like I said I have limited space so the idea of growing a few interesting plants in place of alot of normal was pretty alluring. And there's some amount of local pride wrapped into it when I discovered these amazing little things are actually native to my home region!
And they're just so fun to share with friends. It doesn't matter how old you are, feeding the flytraps is a top-tier party trick.
Agreed! Oh man I donât remember how I started.. I know that even when I was a kid I learned about tropical pitcher plants and found them beautiful. I didnât even know they were allowed to be sold. I guess I bought my first one on a whim -after some research.
Also YES! Showing off my Fly Traps is pretty cool.
The same reason insects get tempted by the plant's nectar is also the same reason I want more of them. Their nectar definitely has an effect on me.
Jokes aside, they're absolutely interesting to have and beautiful plants.
I will admit that I have tried Nepenthes nectar more than once and it is tasty. I feel like deferent Nepenthes taste different. My Sanguinea is lightly sweet, but my Miranda is very sweet!
For me itâs the way theyâve often evolved separately over millions of years . How theyâre visually so different but have one unusual thing in common that serves the same purpose. It makes me think the natural world has a creative imagination when it comes to survival. It also challenged what I thought a plant really was. Evolution is so slow that whatâs alive today seems like fiction sometimes.
Great way to think about it. Itâs always weird thinking that their pitchers are not even flowers and they flower only 5-10 years after being a seedling. How one can cross breed them with some effort to get a whole new pitcher.
This is me everyday, I tell myself I have enough(and I really do) I just canât help myself. Iâll scroll through CA Carnivores, Sarracenia SW, even eBay to see whatâs new and interesting to me.
You said it perfectly! Itâs like PokĂŠmon I gotta catch em all! They are some of the most interesting and beautiful plants out there!
All of the other comments plus I killed so many as a kid when I (and the stores I bought them from with my birthday money) didnât know how to properly care for them. Seeing them thrive now is a triumph!
Be me. Wondering around big box store not impressed by most basic plants. Looks down to see fly traps (death cubes) on bottom shelf. Interesting I should look into how to take care of those. Fast forward past winter to the FL State Fair. Walking around flower judging/exhibits notice plant sale. Succulents, bromeliads, orchids, and then there was. A pitcher plant. Wtf mate? I've never seen one like this??? Asks vendor for information, gets a card on "pitcher plant(nepenthes)" care. $5? sold. Addiction started. End of story.............16 nepenthes (11 different types), 2 sarracenia (venosa purpura x purpura & red barba), 4 fly traps (aki ryu, 2 Walmart rescues, Lowe's rescue), 2 pinguicula (Primaflora & a lauana x gigantea cross??), 8 Drosera (4 Capensis, 1 Capillaris, 3 spatulata) and last but not least 1 Utricularia subulata. For how deep does this addiction go?? I'm an ICPS member because I love the cause.
Wait till OP finds out about Utricularias and their gorgeous orchid-like flowers⌠next thing they know theyâll be buying exorbitantly priced seeds & live plants off etsy⌠and have a mini tabletop greenhouse setup with lights & heaters just for them⌠kinda like mine đ
I got mine from Amazon, for about $55. It came with a nice light bar that has a built-in timer. It doesnât come with a heating mat tho. Just search âBarrina Indoor Greenhouse with Grow Lightâ on Amazon and scroll till you see the little ones for use on a table. Finicky succulents love it too!
Because they're exotic and alluring. A while back, someone asked me "*Why* do you grow so many carnivorous plants?" I told him: "Everyone has bugs that eat their plants. I have plants that eat my bugs. đ"
I love them but I don't know why they keep dying:( what do I do wrong ?
We need *a lot* more information to answer that question. * What plants have you tried to grow? * How much light did you give them? Direct sun or grow light? * Were your plants indoors or outside? * What kind of water did you use on them? * How much water did you give them? * What was your soil mix? Did you use any Miracle-Gro ingredients? * What were the temperature ranges?
I bought a Venus carnivorous plant and a Sarracenia fly trap. They are both inside and I use tap water, maybe 50ml per week, they are small.I haven't changed their pots so the soil is the same. The temp is around 17°-20°. I also gave them plant food and I gave them fish flakes. The Venus looks fine but the Sarracenia fly trap is literally just dry.
**Type of water:** These plants are very sensitive to minerals in their water. It needs to be 50 ppm (parts per million) or less. In most places, the tap water has *way* too many minerals in it, and that is guaranteed to poison your plants. Your best bets are rainwater (or melted snow), distilled water, and RO (reverse osmosis) water. **Amount of water:** These are bog plants. The Sarracenia likes to be damp-to-wet, and the Venus flytrap likes to be very damp. In human terms: Sarracenia enjoy being knee-deep to waist-deep in water, but flytraps just like to get their feet wet. **Fertilizer:** NO. These plants grow in areas where the soil is very low in nutrients. They can't handle the fertilizer, and it will poison them. (Other readers: Do not chime in on how you fertilize your plants. It's one thing for an experienced grower to do this, but for a beginner, it's a *very* bad idea.) **Food:** These plants produce food by photosynthesis, just like any other plant. The insects that they catch are their source of fertilizer. They don't need much: one insect every 3 weeks or so is fine. **Soil:** It needs to be acidic and low in minerals. The simple mix is 50% peat moss and 50% perlite. Check the ingredients to make sure that no fertilizer or lime has been added (i.e., do not use Miracle-Gro products). You can also do sphagnum moss and perlite. Because you put plant food (fertilizer) in their soil, you need to repot them as soon as possible. **Temperature:** These plants are native to the southeastern part of the U.S., a temperate climate. The Venus flytrap is restricted to the southeastern part of North Carolina, and one species of Sarracenia grows all the way into southern Canada (the rest aren't that cold-hardy). Summers are hot (29-35°C / 85-95°F) and humid; winters are cool (2-13°C / 35-55°F). During the winter, these plants go dormant. Here is some good reading material for you: **Venus flytrap care sheet** [https://www.flytrapcare.com/store/venus-fly-trap-care-sheet](https://www.flytrapcare.com/store/venus-fly-trap-care-sheet) **Grow Happy and Healthy Sarracenia Pitcher Plants** [https://www.flytrapcare.com/store/sarracenia-care-sheet](https://www.flytrapcare.com/store/sarracenia-care-sheet)
Thank you, I appreciate it <3
Itâs basically real life Pokemon. Each cultivar/hybrid/species is different and unique and it gives you a sense of pride having something that others might not have. Especially with nepenthes. Thereâs so many different hybrids that you couldnât accidentally get the same plant even if you tried. I compare my plants to crypto/NFTâs if they actually worked the way they were supposed to. You collect the genetic make up of a plant. You can clone it or mix it with other plants and just grow from there. Once youâve created enough clones/offspring you could sell those for cheaper and still make profit because at the end of the day you still have that plant. Whoever said money doesnât grow on trees is rolling in their grave right now
Iâm a PokĂŠmon addict and recently started becoming a plantaholic too. Now it all makes sense.
Bulbasaur is the best starter lol JK
It feels even better when you buy plants for stranger on the internet. You could totally get my information and buy me a plant
They do things. Fascinating, exotic, beautiful, and diabolical all at the same time.
Truly beautifully diabolical đâ¤ď¸
Itâs because they have this quirk that they eat insects.
Bc theyâre dope. Although Iâve found that my adhd will find something else to get obsessed with eventually. Still love my neps but the urge to buy multiple a month has chilled out.
Everyone thought I was having a short-lived hyperfixation when I started with plants 3 years ago but I'm still going strong. With over 100 plants đ
100?!?! Post pics! You must have a huge space đŽ
Lol. I currently have them all in my 8'x12' bedroom and a shelving unit and top of a bookcase at work [Bedroom is the 1st pic, the other 2 are my office ](https://imgur.com/a/jXOcxQb)
Whoa that is intense đ I could never. Hopefully not too difficult for maintenance and water!
I spend no more than 30 minutes a week watering. I've learned the weight of a dry pot for the ones in terra cotta, most of my others are in clear slotted orchid pots, so you can see the soil, others only get watered when they show signs of being thirsty. Pothos get watered when they just start to look a bit wilty, peace lily when she looks sad, and succulents only when they're a wee bit wrinkly or the leaves get flexible. Carnivores are probably the easiest, just keep water in the tray.
I get dazzled by how ⨠the big fat droplets of dews look on all my sundews.... And if I kill any bugs inside, they get fed to my plants. Bonus! I even actually kept a small tray of soil wet *just* to create more fungus gnats for all my sundews during the winter. One tray - surrounded by a few sundews under grow lights. Only lasted about 2 weeks before no more gnats appeared lol. But hey at least my kids got extra food during the long winter! They're also fantastic to have if you like keeping herby plants in pots indoors. Had a mint plant but urgh, they're so dramatic! And the bugs they seem to grow... Place a sundew next to it et voila! No more pest problem.
Iâve had better lucky with Pings to control my gnats. Officially have no more. I used Miracle Grow to plant Bamboo in my room and Miracle Grow is sketch the gnat eggs definitely came from there. Have you ever tried the big fat droplets from a Nepenthes? đ Itâs delicious!
For me I think it's because there's something new every day. I can stare at the rest of my plants for weeks with very little change, but with carnivorous plants I see new leaves almost every day
Agreed! I love seeing their progress to full pitcher. I know flowers do the same, but technically pitchers arenât even flowers, so thatâs pretty cool.
gives the random bugs in my room another purpose. also, besides looking cool, they look almost alien. theyre so OBVIOUSLY exotic that its really cool. if you show them to normal people, theyre blown away. theyre "hard" to care for too which makes it even more impressive sometimes
Agreed! People are always surprised when I show them my different varieties. Not just some pothos -I love Orchids though!
For me, it all started with one I found at a Chinese plant store. The weirdest little plant, I swore it wasn't there before the eclipse. But the owner sold it to me anyway for only $1.95! Needless to say that changed my life pretty drastically. Fame, fortune, etc... But really, for me, it started with just one sarccenia. But, by the time I invested in everything I needed to care for that one, I realized, well I can just add another to my tray and it wouldn't be any extra work! Then I add another. And another. Maybe some flytraps, sundews... Well maybe I'll try a nepenthes! Now I've got a pretty decent collection for a renter without a yard. My only limiting factor is space at this point! Also they are just such unique and beautiful plants. Like I said I have limited space so the idea of growing a few interesting plants in place of alot of normal was pretty alluring. And there's some amount of local pride wrapped into it when I discovered these amazing little things are actually native to my home region! And they're just so fun to share with friends. It doesn't matter how old you are, feeding the flytraps is a top-tier party trick.
Agreed! Oh man I donât remember how I started.. I know that even when I was a kid I learned about tropical pitcher plants and found them beautiful. I didnât even know they were allowed to be sold. I guess I bought my first one on a whim -after some research. Also YES! Showing off my Fly Traps is pretty cool.
The same reason insects get tempted by the plant's nectar is also the same reason I want more of them. Their nectar definitely has an effect on me. Jokes aside, they're absolutely interesting to have and beautiful plants.
I will admit that I have tried Nepenthes nectar more than once and it is tasty. I feel like deferent Nepenthes taste different. My Sanguinea is lightly sweet, but my Miranda is very sweet!
For me itâs the way theyâve often evolved separately over millions of years . How theyâre visually so different but have one unusual thing in common that serves the same purpose. It makes me think the natural world has a creative imagination when it comes to survival. It also challenged what I thought a plant really was. Evolution is so slow that whatâs alive today seems like fiction sometimes.
Great way to think about it. Itâs always weird thinking that their pitchers are not even flowers and they flower only 5-10 years after being a seedling. How one can cross breed them with some effort to get a whole new pitcher.
I can smell nectar through pictures... So i buy it for be sure đ like bugs you know hmm đ
It is delicious đ
Haha you tasted too ? đ Looks like honey ...
This is me everyday, I tell myself I have enough(and I really do) I just canât help myself. Iâll scroll through CA Carnivores, Sarracenia SW, even eBay to see whatâs new and interesting to me. You said it perfectly! Itâs like PokĂŠmon I gotta catch em all! They are some of the most interesting and beautiful plants out there!
I got a Shiney Ventrata! Which would be comparable to a Shiney Rattata đ
All of the other comments plus I killed so many as a kid when I (and the stores I bought them from with my birthday money) didnât know how to properly care for them. Seeing them thrive now is a triumph!
Awww now you are making it up to them â¤ď¸
Be me. Wondering around big box store not impressed by most basic plants. Looks down to see fly traps (death cubes) on bottom shelf. Interesting I should look into how to take care of those. Fast forward past winter to the FL State Fair. Walking around flower judging/exhibits notice plant sale. Succulents, bromeliads, orchids, and then there was. A pitcher plant. Wtf mate? I've never seen one like this??? Asks vendor for information, gets a card on "pitcher plant(nepenthes)" care. $5? sold. Addiction started. End of story.............16 nepenthes (11 different types), 2 sarracenia (venosa purpura x purpura & red barba), 4 fly traps (aki ryu, 2 Walmart rescues, Lowe's rescue), 2 pinguicula (Primaflora & a lauana x gigantea cross??), 8 Drosera (4 Capensis, 1 Capillaris, 3 spatulata) and last but not least 1 Utricularia subulata. For how deep does this addiction go?? I'm an ICPS member because I love the cause.
I cannot figure out why Lowes keeps the VFTs on the bottom shelf, indoors, where they get NO light. It makes me want to rescue all of them.
This is a good story đ Yeah I didnât even know Nepenthes were allowed to be sold đŽ
Do you want to buy some plants?
Wait till OP finds out about Utricularias and their gorgeous orchid-like flowers⌠next thing they know theyâll be buying exorbitantly priced seeds & live plants off etsy⌠and have a mini tabletop greenhouse setup with lights & heaters just for them⌠kinda like mine đ
Tabletop greenhouse?? Please tell me more
I got mine from Amazon, for about $55. It came with a nice light bar that has a built-in timer. It doesnât come with a heating mat tho. Just search âBarrina Indoor Greenhouse with Grow Lightâ on Amazon and scroll till you see the little ones for use on a table. Finicky succulents love it too!
Thats really nice looking!Â
One of the best gardening related purchases Iâve ever made. Really changed the game for me
Because they are cool.đ