View full sizeA 'Red Dragon' Venus flytrap (Dionea muscipula 'Red Dragon') with a cranefly trapped inside.We tend to think of plants as mild-mannered. But some plants like to eat meat, and they catch their own food. If you're interested in these fascinating carnivores, here are some tips for getting started.
• Don't start with a typical Venus flytrap; instead, try hybrids or cultivars, which are bigger and easier to grow. Look for
(also called 'Dentate Traps'), 'Red Dragon' or
The
group is also a good choice for starting a collection.
• Never fertilize carnivorous plants.
• No need to catch insects for your plants. They will attract and devour them all on their own.
• Never use regular potting soil for them. There are hundreds of recipes, but the basic one is a mixture of half peat moss and half perlite.
• Use pea gravel as a top-dressing in pots. Traps will grow larger because of retained heat.
• Don't worry when your plant turns brown or seems to disappear in winter. These plants go dormant between November and late April.
• Don't poke the traps. Traps close only three to five times, then die. If you poke them, they won't get the nourishment they need from flies.
Native cobra lilies at Darlingtonia Botanical Wayside north of Florence.• See native cobra lilies (
Darlingtonia californica
) at the Darlingtonia Botanical Wayside, five miles north of Florence on U.S. 101.
• You can buy carnivorous plants locally from
. There are many other online sources, including California Carnivores, and you can sometimes find the more common carnivorous plants at nurseries and garden centers.
-- Homes & Gardens staff
If you want to automatically receive a free daily homes and gardens tip, sign up at OregonLive.com's newsletters subscription site.