GardenForum - for everyone interested in gardening
If there's anything you want to know about gardening - get in touch
Professional services
My professional horticultural services
Need a speaker?
For horticultural societies & clubs
Garden Answers FAQ
Answers to commonly asked questions
Question time
How do I look after container plants?
How do I look after my lawn in spring?
How do I prune clematis?
Why aren't my daffodils flowering?
How do I cope with flooding?
Pest Watch
Lily beetle control
Vine weevil control
Whitefly control
Clematis wilt
Links
Links to useful websites
My blog
View my blog
Gardening products & plants
You can buy a wide range of plants, seeds & products from the follwing recognised companies in confidence.
Garden answers
Carnivorous plants
Help solve your gardening problem. Here are the answers to some commonly asked gardening questions about carnivorous and insect-eating plants.
If you are unable to find the answer here, then send me an e-mail
We have a sarracenia plant in a bowl of rain water. What do we do in winter? It is in a conservatory, which has a radiator, but will get cold at night. I could put it in the greenhouse which has a heater to keep it frost free, but I think it would be warmer indoors. There aren't many flies about for food. Should I cut off the trumpets as they die?
Sarracenias need a minimum winter temperature of 5C (41F), so put it wherever it gets this temperature. Under glass, make sure that it doesn't get too hot either and that it is shaded from any strong, burning sunlight - should we ever get any! The greenhouse may be better as it is more likely that there will be a few flies around in there for food.
These plants prefer to be kept slightly drier in winter, so I would take it out of the bowl, place it in a saucer and just top up the water every now and again so that it isn't constantly standing in water; but never let the compost dry out.
You can remove the dead traps as they die, but make sure they are completely dead and try to carefully (and gently) pull them off rather than cut them off.
Back to GardenForum Horticulture homepage