Question

August  

December   Hi Jeff and Jacob,
I bought my first ever cp in May this year and first struggled to find the right location and growing conditions. After some web searches, I decided to just leave it in the garden where it got full sunlight, rain and plenty of bugs. It did really well and developed lots of new pitchers  (see first photo).
My problem now is that I need to find a place to keep it over the winter and I have basically 2 options:
1. I leave it outside under a glass roof in fairly but not completely wind-sheltered conditions. It would still get full sunlight (if the sun shines) but also extended periods of frost even during the day, though rarely below -8癈.
2. I keep it indoors in a room that is usually not above 16癈 but never colder than 10 and doesn't get too much light (2. photo taken today). Which one would you recommend?
I live in northern Germany.
Thank you very much for your advice.
Best regards
Julia

Answer
Hi Julia,

From a little research, I found that Hamburg is the equivalent of USDA climate zone #7 in the US.  Your plant definitely could survive outdoors for the winter, but you would need to wrap it up during the coldest parts of the winter.  It looks from the colors and shapes of your plant that it is a hybrid of Sarracenia leucophylla and S. minor, both of which come from the warmer areas of their range.

Based on the parentage, and that you have only one plant, I'm going to say keep it inside until early spring, then it can go back outside.  What you'll need to do is make sure you are cutting off any leaves that start to brown; be pretty ruthless about this.  Keep the soil wet, but not waterlogged.  You'll need to watch for mold.  It would be a very good idea to spray the crown of the plant with a sulfur-based fungicide to prevent this.  The main problem will be botrytis developing on the plant crown, and if you don't see it, it will progress and kill the plant.  When you water, top-water and allow the water to run through the soil.  It will help wash away mold spores and keep the soil more oxygenated.

Good Growing!

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