Question
Jeff,

I have a question regarding over-wintering Sarracenia and Darlingtonia. The winter temperatures can get well below 20 degrees F where I'm located. Do you think if I put my plants in a location sheltered from the wind covered up with a thick layer of straw, this will provide adequate protection outside? How do you and Jacob winterize your plants outside?

Thank you for your time and attention with my inquires. I look forward to your feedback and insight.

Kind regards,

Derick

Answer
Hi Derick,

If you use a combination of a thick straw layer combined with a plastic covering during the very coldest weather (I realize your area can be very up and down in the winter) Sarracenia and Darlingtonia should be fine.  Remove the plastic to let the plants breath (but leave the straw) if your temperatures get significantly above freezing.

As I write this, we are expecting to have Arctic air here in the Pacific Northwest in the next few days.  For us this means overnight lows in the teens.  What I do is cover and pin down black plastic over all our pools.  I also try to make sure that any plants that are up on any kind of structure are on the ground since the ground provides additional warmth.  Here, however, we rarely get these cold temperatures beyond a week, then we get some nasty snow/freezing rain event, then just back to 45 degree rain which we are so known for.  For us this covering is all it takes to get the plants through a hard freeze. I remove the plastic once we are back to just our typical rain.  The coldest we've ever gotten is 7 degrees, but only for a couple days.  As long as pots were not all out in the open exposed, we've had all Sarracenia, Darlingtonia, North American Sundews, Venus Flytraps and European Butterworts all survive the hard cold this way.

Good Growing!

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