Question
Hi Jeff,

hope by this time you get the chocolate :-)

One quick question. I have cut back all my Sarracenias and repotted them. I top dressed the containers with life sphagnum moss.

Is it ok if I slighly cover the rhizome with LFS? Or should the rhizome be "free" to catch most light as possible?

Thanks and have a nice weekend,

JP

Answer
Hi JP,

We did get the chocolate this week, and it's so good!  Thank-you for that, and the wonderful letter too!  We really do try to help.  A big part of our business mission is the education.  We/I discovered many years ago when I first started selling plant at Portland Saturday Market that the biggest stumbling block people have to growing carnivorous plants had nothing to do with whether or not a particular plant was difficult to grow.  Failures seemed to be due to a weird mix of myths, long-held misconceptions about cp and unrealistic expectations.  The first time would-be Venus Flytrap grower is often dealing with all three.  The myths and misconceptions are often so deeply ingrained that when the potential grower is given the correct growing information, they reject it.  To this day, almost every day, when I'm selling plants during the summer at PSM, I get total disbelief when I tell people the Venus Flytrap is a hardy perennial and is best grown outdoors.  People start being successful when they start thinking about carnivorous plants the same way they do regular plants.

Ok, off my soap box and on to your question. :)  The long-fiber sphagnum topping is fine.  Maybe avoid it if you've been having a mold/fungus problem, but if you haven't, it can be really nice to prevent splash erosion in rain.  We actually used to do that, but when we sell plants people didn't like the appearance of it.  One woman said it looked like chewed food.  :(

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.growcarnivorousplants.com