Some last flytrap questions

First I'd like to thank everyone for their great advice so far. I don't think I will be able to winter over my flytraps this year, but I plan to have them ready by next year. Will skipping one dormancy hurt them or do you think they will be all right till next winter?

They flower this coming year, and they're health will probably decline due to not having a rest.

But, in my early years of growing fly traps I did this exact thing out of ignorance and my plants pulled through.

So I think you'll be fine

Hope I'm not robbing your thread here, but I had a question regarding a flytrap of mine. Some of the traps seemed to be dying off, so I decided to dig the plant up and take a look at the rhizome. It seems to be in good health, but the roots are all brown. They don't appear mushy or anything. Is the plant dead or dying? If so, is there anything I can do at this point?

If the leaves are low to the ground and traps are dying off, its dormancy time. Since u posted this on december, it is time for them to go into dormancy mode.

Could flytraps be wintered in a cold refrigerator?
And,if so,should they be kept dark...and for how long?

Louise E. Rothstein said:

Could flytraps be wintered in a cold refrigerator?
And,if so,should they be kept dark...and for how long?

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Yes, they can. I done mine and now they're beginning to sprout again, although im not sure if i did it correctly. I kept mine in the fridge for about 3 months, but people do from december - april, around that time.

How long do they stay dormant for? Mine went dormant about a month ago, so I'm wondering if I should bring it out of dormancy in say March?

April shod be better .

So, I think I will let mine be till this upcoming winter. And sometime this summer plant the flytraps in a new home I can winter over on my front porch then bring back inside. I haven't lost a plant yet in the "sphere of success" yet I am just hoping the flytrap one only will be such a success. It only couldn't grow pitcher plants. I will have to research that one further....always wanted those...

They do need to go dormant, it doesn't have to be for 3 months though. I grow them outside in a "bog" in my yard which is basically a big hole I dug and lined with plastic with only a few tiny holes so it drains very very slowly, then refilled with gravel and peat/sand and various bog plants from the the SE US. I leave the hose on it if the top 4" or so get dry which is almost never. We might only have a few weeks spread out with temps that reach 40 or below a year (average fridge is ~4C). Sometimes more or less, but never sustained and never for that duration, just overnight in general. I think the main thing is making them stay dormant until temperatures outside in your location have increased enough that being outside and coming out of dormancy naturally is possible. Probably late spring, once the threat of major freezes harder than those in the Carolinas would get is over.

The mother plant will die after it flowers, it's just the normal cycle. It will reseed and sprout pups often. Might be able to prolong their life by removing inflorescence consistently, I'm not sure as mine have naturalized in their artificial bog so I don't bother because they replace themselves as they die off with seeds from the previous year.

---------- Post added 02-18-2012 at 10:18 PM ----------

BobGrill said:

How long do they stay dormant for? Mine went dormant about a month ago, so I'm wondering if I should bring it out of dormancy in say March?

Click to expand...

Yours can stay outside unless you live South of the Ocala-ish area, didn't see that post. They're native to the southeastern US, just need a small dormancy so if you get a little cold in the winter and it goes dormant naturally just leave it outside (it can dry out some during the winter too, dry season is winter and early spring loosely).