Venus Flytrap

Good Morning Permies!

I have recently gotten the teeny tiniest flytrap and somehow I have kept it alive for a couple months! It has not been without it's scary moments where I almost killed it but I managed to keep it going.

Two big things I have struggled but managed to figure out.

1. Distilled Water! DON'T RISK TAP! I tried to cut some tap because I needed water and ended up doing more harm than good.
2. Grow lights work in a pinch in winter when cold windowsills might not be the best place for flourishing.


I'm amazed the amount of bugs that it captures so the added 'special' care is evened out for me. I have it near my potted figs and I don't have as many bug issues as I used to.

Does anyone here keep Venus Flytraps or other Carnivorous plants as house plants?

I thought I would bump your topic with this article from my Electric Co-op Magazine:

https://texascooppower.com/caught-cuisine/

I hope you or others will enjoy this as much as I did.

I have a friend that grows a number of Carnivorous plants. She put up a special rod in her kitchen window for overwintering her Pitcher plants. I think a number of her Venus Flytraps are supposed to be hardy in our zone - at least in a "normal" year, which this year hasn't been.  

I wonder if any of her plants would deal with the tiny moths that come in on the wood from the wood-shed? They don't seem to do any harm, but are annoying on my computer screen!

Flytrap humour: I have a duck named Venus. My friend thought that was a lovely name until I told her that was just her first name. She was soooo... good at catching flies, that her full name is Venus Flytrap! She's very sweet, unless you're a fly, in which case, she's deadly!  

At some point we want to get some sort of carniverous plant, preferrably something that can live outdoors in zone 8b, if needbe we can bring it in in the freezing.

I've recently expanded my selection of carnivorous plants to two flytraps and a pitcher. They definitely struggle in the winter with only LEDs but they bounce back in the spring.

Distilled water is still my go to, and I found keeping about a quarter inch water level in a tray with the plant pot sitting in its suffices. You don't want to drown the growth point of the plants so it has to be a balance of not too dry and not overly wet.

I'm still trying to figure out the best planting container/tray combo. More experiments to come.