Question
I see that at your nursery, the plants are kept in large tubs. I am thinking about installing a raised bed, lining it with plastic, but am concerned about excess water rotting the plants. I grow mostly hardy pitcher plants and Venus fly traps. I live in Zone 8, in Tigard, Or. I was hoping to get some info from the DVD series, but did not get what I was looking for. It's a great series and was very helpful for some other questions I had. I'm looking forward to getting some new species for my collection.
Thanks.

Answer
Hi Roger,

Depending on how deep you plan on making your raised bed, you can just put drain-holes in the bottom.  When you have a large volume of soil, the water tray method of watering isn't always needed since the peat holds on to lots of water.  You just need to be more diligent in the summer about watering the bed.  You can also put holes about 3-4 inches down the sides in the plastic so some water stays in the bottom, but the plants are not waterlogged.

One caution with raised beds.  If the bed is going directly on the ground, be sure and put something like chicken wire across the bottom to keep moles from getting up into it.  Also, I wouldn't put any Darlingtonia (Cobra Plants) in a bed directly on the ground.  They are very prone to Phytophthora fungal root rot, and ground water seepage can facilitate this.  They need to be in something elevated, or on a concrete surface.  Other cp species are not affected by this.

Good Growing!

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