Question

Flower shriveled up   Hi i have a dosera filiformis plant that i bought 2 months back. I live in virginia and the plant gets about 6 hours of direct sunlight and sits in a distilled water tray. its been doing absolutely great but over the past week it has flowered and then the flowers shriveled up. I was wondering if thats normal and if it is when will i be able to collect seeds? Thank you!

Answer
Hi Andrew,

It looks like the plant is done blooming, and is now in the process of developing the seeds.  It will take a week or two, but the stalk will turn black now, and when the seeds are ripe the pods will crack open slightly.  I like to tap the stalk over a large sheet of white paper.  If the seeds are ready, they fall out easily.  Pods will ripen from the bottom up.  This is all very normal for this plant and many other sundews.

At this time the plant itself is likely to stop producing new leaves and begin developing it's winter resting bud.  The plant will look pretty dead in about a month.  It will re-emerge next spring.

Good Growing!

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