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jenfren

By Jenfren

Herefordshire, United Kingdom

hi. I have bought two small carnivorous plants that were sold off for £1 each at a local garden centre.Seemed a bargain but have no idea how to look after them. One is nepenthes alata the other is a sarracenia any advice appreciated




Answers

 

I did the same and am learning slowly with the help of one of our members on here. He gave me such good advice, here it is :

Re your Saracenia, first you need to know the name of it as a lot of the species sold in England will go to -15c to -20c. They will really need to have a cold winter. You can add on top of the soil, a light amount of ericacious bark (pine) and it is better to leave the pitchurs (trumpets) until the spring. When the new shoots appear in the spring, all the old ones can be removed completely (cut right back) and the bark removed. Then you can repot them.

When you repot them in the spring, it is very important to remove all the soil that is in the root system of the plant and make a fresh mixture of Irish Moss Peat (made with sphagnum moss - I use the make Shamrock) and perlite at equal proportions. As you mix the moss and perlite add a large quantity of water and when everything is perfectly mixed together you can put it in your pot without compacting it as the root system need air ventilation. Lay your Saracenia with the rhizomes superficially buried (like an iris) as the rhizomes need to see the sun. Then water well with rainwater.........
Hope this will help, I am going to re-pot mine in the spring and I also found that they needed to be watered every day in the warmer months. Good luck.

8 Feb, 2012

 

And I am learning with the Nepenthes alata, So far so good. It is not hardy so I have it hanging in my kitchen window. I spray it with rain water every two days and water it again with rain water twice a week. The cups should have a couple of cms of liquid in the bottom, again rain water. this week for the first time since I bought it in september I added a VERY weak tomato feed to one of the waterings...Not had many bugs for it in the Winter.

The older "Cups" will shrivel from the top lid part down, don't worry about it. I have lots of new leaves with the tiny cups forming at the end. Hopefully I can put it outside for the days in summer. Sorry it is not a lot of info...but it should be enough to start with..in a few months hopefully you will be teaching me.. ;0))

Picture on page 6 of my photo's..

9 Feb, 2012

 

thanks both.Sadly dont know the name of sarencenia as the label was damaged it seems a healthy little plant with lots of baby trumpets i dont know if it has been kept cold at all so dont know if i should put it somewere cool or just keep damp & hope. The nepenthes is a little less developed and has only a couple of slightly battered cups will keep in kitchen .Do you have to repot every spring or just when they get to big for current pot ? I might try the sarencenia in the garden in the spring.

9 Feb, 2012

 

http://www.growsonyou.com/question/show/69622

I asked a similar Q Jen. I don't think they need repotting as frequently as that, mine is still in the same pot and doing well. I will wait till spring and that should do a couple of years I hope.

9 Feb, 2012

 

My Saracenias are out in the garden now and covered in a layer of mulch on garage shelf, I was told to re-pot them as the ones you buy are usually crammed into a small pot, havnt re-potted yet but will do this spring and then as Pim says they should last a couple of years at least. i am going to put mine in a much bigger pot so should last ages.

9 Feb, 2012

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