Question
This is my first overwintering of my carnivorous plant collection that i started last spring.  I decided to repot an Oreophila that i acquired from a local grower.  The problem is that the rhizome seems to have been growing down into the pot and not along underneath the surface.  Think of its orientation sort of like a tobacco pipe and the growing point is the bulbous end for tobacco.  I re-oriented the plant when i repotted it so that the rhizome is correct but the growth point of the plant is angled now from the surface of the soil..  Will the plant correct itself when growing this spring or will all of its pitchers form at a sideways angle?

Thanks

Answer
Hi Chad,

The pitchers will grow correctly.  What you're seeing is not unusual.  When we unpot older plants we see rhizomes growing every which direction, and it happens in nature too.  It's a result of the growing shoot encountering some kind of obstruction, sometimes even older parts of the rhizome, then it tries to grow around it.  Once the rhizome is not obstructed in anyway, the leaves will grow up.  Plants send leaves and shoots up in response to something known as gravitropism.  We even have a very annoying thing happen all the time in our Sarracenia pools where a pot gets knocked sideways from wind, and we don't see it.  If it's allowed to grow, the leaves grow upright, often at 45 and 90 degree angles to the pot, rendering the plant totally unsellable that year.

Good Growing!

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