Question
Hi!
So, in the instructions on the care sheet I received today (thanks again for the great packaging), it said that it's OK to bring your Flytrap out of dormancy early, and grow it inside like other carnivores until spring for the first year, if you live in zones 7 or colder.  Does that mean that I can grow it like a tropical sundew just for this winter, starting now, or that I should give it a dormancy this year?
Thanks for your time,
John

Answer
Hi John,

"Does that mean that I can grow it like a tropical sundew just for this winter"

No.  Bringing it out of dormancy early would mean around the end of February, which is in some years is when they can start growing in nature.  Here in the Pacific Northwest they usually start coming out of dormancy around the first of April.  If you don't give Venus Flytraps at least two solid months dormancy (and your plant is dormant right now if it came from us) they tend to shoot up flower stalks prematurely, often doing vegetative apomixis, which is where they grow a plant on the flower stalk.  When that happens the mother plant usually dies.  Even if that doesn't happen you can often see a slow decline in them which is what usually happens if they are kept at room temperatures all winter.  They then slowly rot out.

If you keep the plant in the 30's and 40's combined with natural daylight hours it will stay dormant.  If your location is too cold for overwintering outside (Ellensburg, WA?), then a cold North window will often do the trick.  When the days lengthen it will get the photoperiod clues to start growing again.  When you see those new signs of growth, then it will be time to put it in a sunny, warm location.

Good Growing!

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