One of the easiest carnivorous plants to grow. Just water with the appropriate water source, put it in full sun and leave it alone! That’s pretty much it!
Upon arrival, pull the plant out of the box, and carefully unwrap and remove the plastic lid on the top. Carefully replace any soil that has fallen out of the pot. Bottom water with ONLY distilled water (but NO other types of bottled water), reverse osmosis water or clean, collected rain. NO TAP WATER! Tap water contains dissolved minerals that will slowly kill your plant. VFTs cannot tolerate as much tap water as Nepenthes can, and you should attempt to never use tap or well water on your carnivorous plants. Your plant may be tired and stressed on arrival and may not want to eat right away. Give the plant time to adjust and plenty of light and it will be back to normal in no time. Not eating in the future is also an indication that they are not getting enough light.
After cutting out of the bag, place Venus Fly Trap in a bog garden or shallow dish and bottom water with the appropriate water. Some people prefer not to keep Venus Fly Traps in a dish and just water daily with the appropriate water. We use a dish and have never had any problems, however we only allow the water to go about a centimeter up the side of the pot.
Venus Fly Traps enjoy 12 to 15 hours a day of bright FULL blasting sun and will not survive for long inside. Even in a windowsill the sunlight is diffused and weakened considerably and Venus Fly Traps need full sun. Venus Fly Traps are cold hardy in Zones 7 - 10 year round and can survive with protection year round in zones 5 and 6. Provided that the temperatures go above freezing during the day, VFTs can handle temperatures dipping below freezing at night.
In Winter, the plant will die back and go dormant. This dormancy phase is necessary and must be allowed or the plant will burn itself out after approximately two years and die. If you live in one of the safe zones, you can take your VFT out of the shallow dish at this time and just allow it to get rained on periodically, as they do not need as much water in the Winter time. Just do not allow them to dry out completely. If they do dry completely out, they will need to be soaked to be able to absorb water again, as peat is hydrophobic. If you live in one of the areas that requires protection, keep inside an unheated garage or shed or cover to ensure survival. Those who live outside the safe growing zones will need to keep the plant in an unheated shed or inside of the refrigerator for 3 to 4 months until they are ready to come out of dormancy in Spring. From Approximately Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day.
Plants will arrive in the appropriate medium, however if you would like to repot, do so in a carnivorous mix or a 50:50 mixture of peat and perlite. Never use Miracle-Gro or fertilized perlite or potting soil, as you could burn them up and NEVER give your plants people food. Venus Fly Traps will catch all that they need from eating bugs. We do have safe fertilizers in our shop, but we cannot guarantee that others on the market will be safe.
It takes a lot of energy for a VFT to open and close their traps and this will only happen a few times per trap and then the trap will die. Those traps will then be replaced by new leaves and traps that grow out of the center. Do not trigger the traps without food. If the trap is going to close, it is best that the plant is able to get the nutrients from a bug. When the trap opens, you may see the body of the insect that was the plant’s last meal. This does not mean that they are not eating. They absorb the nutrients out of the bug and then their bodies are blown out by the wind once the trap opens. If it bothers you, you can blow it out. Just be careful not to trigger the traps without food. You can give a VFT a fresh bug that you have just killed by triggering the hairs inside the traps twice in less than 30 seconds. After the trap closes, carefully massage the trap to mimic a struggling bug to trigger the traps to produce what is needed for them to digest the bug.
If you have any questions about caring for Venus Fly Traps or we can be of any help when you get the plant or in the future, please don’t hesitate to ask.