Question
Hi! I have been gardening for a couple years now...still a newbie. But I've learned so much and have been successful with seeds just this year. So, I got crazy and bought some Venosa Burkii seeds. I had read that they were one of the easier of the carnivorous plants to grow from seed, so I ordered a pack of 10 seeds. The directions that came with them said to do cold stratification 4-5 days and then to plant. So This is where I'm at: I put my seeds in a glass with distilled water, strain them every 24 hours and replace with clean distilled water. I'm on my 3rd day of this currently and will do so another 2 days. I have perilite and peat moss ready, and small planting cups with drainage holes. I plan on doing a 1:1 ratio of perlite/peat moss, rinse the mixture thoroughly before planting to make sure there aren't any contaminents and then sprinkle a seed or two in each cup, watering daily with only distilled water and to put in a sunny spot in my house with a plastic cover to help keep the humidity. This is all what I have gathered from random research, but haven't found anything that has given me direct instructions for my specific species of plant. Please help! I need your expert advise!!

Answer
Hi Cherish,

Sarracenia purpurea venosa var. burkii was recently given a species status, and is now known to be S. rosea.  It comes from the Florida panhandle, a zone 8 climate, meaning that the seeds would need a normal stratification period common to all Sarracenia.  That's going to mean a minimum of four weeks of cold, damp to trigger the seeds to germinate.  The four to five days instructions you received may have been a typo or misread, and is actually 4-5 weeks.  Here's our directions on doing that:  http://www.growcarnivorousplants.com/Articles.asp?ID=270

Here's another reputable set of directions:  http://www.carnivorousplants.org/howto/Propagation/SarraceniaSeed.php  John does his homework, and I've gotten some good tips from his information.

Good Growing!

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