ALL PLANTS
The water you use with carnivorous plants has to be pure, so don't use tap water. These plants all come from low nutrient environments and even the nutrients in tap water are too much for them. I use rain water, dehumidifier water, or air-conditioner water, but reverse-osmosis or distilled water are great too. If buying from a shop look for the words "reverse-osmosis" or "distilled", because spring water is often not pure enough (they add sodium for taste), and "de-ionized" water adds more chemicals to de-ionize the water. Tap water is almost never okay as the chlorine and calcium in tap water will kill the plant in a matter of weeks. Normally maintain about an inch of water in the tray under the pot at all times.
Dionea Muscipula - Venus Flytrap
Plant in spring or early summer. This plant goes into a winter dormancy and if it doesn't get big enough by the time winter comes around it might not come back the next year.
Sprinkled on top of a 50/50 mix of propagating sand and sphagnum peat moss (both available from most hardware stores).
Sit the pot (about 10cm pot to start with) in a tray of water, spray the surface lightly with water and sit it in the sun. After a couple of weeks the seeds will germinate, with the seedlings growing little traps almost right away.
Drosera - Sundews
Sprinkle the small seeds on top of a 50/50 mix of propagating sand and sphagnum peat moss, and when the weather warms up the seeds will start germinating. Almost all species will germinate in most seasons, as long as they have a couple of days of strong sunlight.
Sit the pot (about 10cm pot to start with) in a tray of water, spray the surface lightly with water and sit it in the sun. After a couple of weeks the seeds will germinate, with the seedlings growing little sticky leaves almost right away.
Sarracenia and Darlingtonia - Trumpet Pitcher Plants and Cobra Lily
There are two steps to germinating Sarracenia seeds. The first step is to make sure you are germinating the seeds in late winter. The second step is to stratify the seeds before germinating. Stratifying is a process that adds water to the seeds and makes the seeds think they have had a cold winter, because Sarracenia seeds need this trigger to germinate. This can be done one of three ways:
1. If you live in a climate that drops to freezing to light frosts (about the temperature of a refrigerator), then simply put the seeds on the growing medium during winter. When spring comes along they will germinate naturally.
2. In mid-winter add a little moist long fibre sphagnum moss to the zip-locked bag provided and place in the refrigerator for 2-4 weeks (longer might lead to fungus, and less might not germinate the seeds). Then place the seeds on the growing medium and the seeds should germinate within a couple of weeks.
3. Place the seeds on damp growing medium in a pot. Place the put into the fridge, wrapped in a plastic bag, for 2-4 weeks (see below). Place the pot outside and in a couple of weeks the seeds should germinate.
Plant in spring or early summer. This plant goes into a winter dormancy and if it doesn't get big enough by the time winter comes around it might not come back the next year. This means you should begin stratification process in winter or early spring.
The seeds should to be sprinkled on 100% long fibred sphagnum moss (not peat, but the actual moss), available from most hardware stores. Sit the pot (about 10cm pot to start with) in a tray of water, spray the surface lightly with water and sit it in the sun. After a couple of weeks after germinating you will see the first miniature pitchers.
The key issues to growing Sarracenias are soil, water, light and dormancy. The soil should be 100% long fibre sphagnum moss, or a mix of approximately 50/50 sphagnum peat moss and course river sand. I have used both but to great success.
Sarracenia love lots of light. They need at least 4-5 hours direct sunlight a day. They can sit on a windowsill as long as it gets enough light, but normally do better on a balcony or veranda.
Over winter Sarracenia go dormant, not sending up more growth, but in spring growth comes back stronger than ever. So don’t think that the plants are dead, even if they don’t look good during winter, just trim off any old pitchers as they brown off.. They don’t need quite so much water in winter, so let the tray dry out before re-filling (but never let the soil dry out completely).
Never fertilize the plants as it will kill them. If they are left outside they will catch lots of flies, beetles, ants and other insects. Plants that are left inside might need a visit outside every so often to catch some insects.
Sarracenia will take about four or five years to reach their full size, but they will only take about two to three years to reach the size they are normally sold at in nurseries.
How many weeks to stratify
We have found that stratification (see previous links) can be performed for 2 weeks. Many sources indicate that a minimum of 4 weeks is required, however scientific investigations shows this is simply not needed. However, the best results will be gained by stratifying for 4 weeks - not longer and not shorter.
As a rough guide you can expect about 10% better germination rates given the full 4 week stratification over 2 weeks.
Here is a link to the study with graphs.