Carnivorous Plants

Micro

I'd would love to own a Pitcher carnivorous plant esp one of the larger variety. The prices are exceptional though ! I am sure that they take a considerable amount of looking after but I am loathed to risk £50 - 60. Does anyone have any suggestions. I have thought of purchasing seeds but I'm sure that growing from seed is to technical that its out of my league !!

alanobrien

If you have never looked after one i would strongly recommend you start off with something like a venus fly trap. They are equally demanding but a lot cheaper so if you are sucessful with that then you should be ok with the pitcher.
Wyvale and the like sell venus fly traps for a few pounds and there are also several ebay sellers.

mary43

It is possible to get the pitcher plants a lot cheaper than £50 though they wouldn't be so big. We've had smaller ones (can't remember which sort as there are so many) on our kitchen window sill as fly catchers......they did their job but I could never manage to keep them through the winter.

Micro

alanobrien wrote: »

If you have never looked after one i would strongly recommend you start off with something like a venus fly trap. They are equally demanding but a lot cheaper so if you are sucessful with that then you should be ok with the pitcher.
Wyvale and the like sell venus fly traps for a few pounds and there are also several ebay sellers.

Thanks, had and still have had a venus fly trap and its still going strong. Have also a 'sun dew plant' which is also donig well. I just wanted to beven a little more adventureous

Esmerelda

I have two pitcher plants, that I have had for several years. They're very easy to keep - no harder than the average houseplant. The only special requirements are that they're planted in peat that is kept damp all the time, and should be watered with rainwater (easy if you have a rain butt) rather than tap water. Mine live on a south facing window sill and often go outside in the summer - although you have to be careful if it's very windy as tall pitchers can be damaged.

£50-£60 is a huge amount to pay for a plant, especially if you're not confident about the care. Why don't you try a smaller pitcher plant first? You can buy them from garden centres or DIY stores for about £10. These are what I bought and within five years they've grown so the pitchers are about a foot long.

moo2moo

I got mine from a local garden centre for £3. Its been easier to look after than the many Vnus flytraps I've tried. The main stem reached 2' long in the first 2 years (its one of the climbing kind rather than the clumping mound), 2 new plants appeared at the base and the original died back. Keeping it constantly sitting in 1/2" of ordinary tap water on the kitchen windowsill works for me.

alanobrien

Micro wrote: »

Thanks, had and still have had a venus fly trap and its still going strong. Have also a 'sun dew plant' which is also donig well. I just wanted to beven a little more adventureous

In which case you should not have any problems, just search around and make sure you get the pitcher as cheap as possible.

Micro

Esmerelda wrote: »

I£50-£60 is a huge amount to pay for a plant, especially if you're not confident about the care. Why don't you try a smaller pitcher plant first? You can buy them from garden centres or DIY stores for about £10. These are what I bought and within five years they've grown so the pitchers are about a foot long.

Really !! Thats good news - can you remember wher you got them from ?

Poppycat

I got my pitcher plant from Morrison's, last year they were also selling Venus fly traps. I keep it in front porch as said it likes to keep wet but other than that its fine, or and don't feed them

Esmerelda

Really !! Thats good news - can you remember wher you got them from ?

Sorry, I don't recall where I picked my plants up. I have seen carnivorous plants in Homebase and B&Q lately though and most garden centres (especially those part of large chains) should have them. Pitcher plants seem pretty popular, and like venus fly traps tend to be relatively easy to find.

Let us know what you get!

krysus

Try here:

http://www.littleshopofhorrors.co.uk/