Question

Capensis flower   Hello and sorry for the lack of information last time. My capensis is constantly sittin in water about 1/4 way up the pot. It is in a south facing window which can get up to 5 hours of direct sun and lots if bright indirect. I attached an image of the flowers. The flowers look like they're about to open but then suddenly start to wilt and die like the ones behind it in the picture. Is there a reason why this is happening?

Answer
Hi Victor,

Thank-you for sending the photo.  This really helps, and I have good news, your plant is fine.  Your growing conditions sound good.

Flowers on most sundews are a inflorescence known as a raceme.  They bloom from the bottom up, and in the case of sundews they the individual flowers only open for one day.  In your photo it looks like the flower has already opened and is now closing.  Cape Sundews self-pollinate their flowers, so it's very likely the buds that are already closed are developing seedpods.  You can increase seed-set by tickling the floral parts with a little paint brush when they are open, provided you can catch them.  Sometimes the flowers are not open very long.  I find some of the smaller sundews such as D. spatulata and D. rotundifolia will only have their flowers open a few hours, and you Cape Sundew may be doing the same thing.

Once the buds are totally black they will open up and you'll probably have seeds falling all over the place.

Good Growing!

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