Question
I have had my vft for about six months. i don't know what type specifically because i bought it at a local supermarket. it sits in a west window, and i water it with distilled water. i feed it tiny bits of chicken one every two weeks or so. it has been doing well so far, but now it has produced to flower stalks. one bloomed and died because it was not pollinated and i did not know you could propagate it that way. the other stalk bloomed, but instead of dying, it has started producing tiny traps of it's own, about three or four. what do i do now? i couldn't find any mention of this happening on other websites. do i leave it and let it grow or cut it and plant it in another pot? thank you for your help.

Answer
Hi Tiffany,

What you're observing with your flytrap is something know as vegetative apomixis.  It can happen in many plants, but often occurs in Venus flytraps and some sundews when they've not had adequate dormancy.  It can have some odd effects on the plant.

What you can do is either leave the plantlet to develop, then remove it and pot it up, or cut the flower stalk off.  It's not uncommon for the mother plant to die when you leave the plantlet to develop, but it doesn't always.  It just depends on your overall growing conditions.

Depending on where you live in Washington, the Venus flytrap will do best long-term as an outdoor container plant.  Even under the best conditions, Venus flytraps tend to live only a year or two indoors due to lack of dormancy, and inadequate light.  If you're in Western Washington, it's definitely best to grow it outdoors, and if you're in Eastern Washington it would benefit from being outdoors during the summer.  The Venus Flytrap is a USDA Zone 8a perennial, similar to many locations in the Pacific Northwest.  Here's a link to more growing information:  http://www.cobraplant.com/caresheets/venusflytraps  You have to take similar precautions that you would with any potted perennial (such as Lavender, lilies etc...) during the winter.  Much more specific, hands-on information can be found in our volume #1 DVD, http://www.cobraplant.com/dvd/volume1

One last note.  Be very careful with feeding the plant any kind of meat.  Often you'll get away with doing that a few times, but if the plant isn't able to digest it, you can get a fungal infection that will progress and kill the plant.  It's much better to feed them insects.

Good Growing!

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