Question
My venus fly traps traps wouldn't  close ,then the leaves started to go to far with the trap , the leaves that the trap is attached to are way to skinny ,and now the traps are turning black before they even open. What should I do? I am also giving it full sun, it is getting distilled water, and the room is in a good temperature for it. P.S It is in a room by a good window and im also using a good lightbulb just incase it doesnt have enough light and my venus fly trap cup form is doing good by it. Ive also had it for around 5 months and it was doing great, it has the same soil i got it in from bugbitinplants. I know im making these questions very long and this is my final one my drosera adelae isnt producing dew it is getting distilled water and enough sunlight to stay very healthy and the room temp is 73f. I am sorry to keep these questions very long but i really want my carnivorous plants to be very healthy.

Answer
Hi Ryan,

Let's start with your Venus flytrap.  Despite what you may have been told or read, the Venus flytrap is a North American perennial plant, native to the coastline of North and South Carolina.  The weather there is not unlike yours in Louisiana. (Insert "Ahaa" moment here. :) Your Venus flytrap should be outside.  To get it ready to be outside you should transplant it to a 5" standard plastic pot with a mix of 1/2 perlite or clean sand to 1/2 peat moss from a bale of peat moss. (Little bags contain fertilizer that will kill your plant.)  If you don't want to mix your own you can buy soil online from us or any other reputable carnivorous plant dealer.  Make sure your soil is well saturated with your distilled water before you transplant.

After transplanting move your plant outdoor first to an area with partial sun.  A little dappling from a tree or bush would be perfect.  It will need a little tray of water to sit in.  If you have a way to keep it up off the ground to protect it from animals or snails that would be good.  After a week, move it to a full sun location.  When I say full sun, I mean full sun like you would need for a vegetable garden.  Make sure it always has some water in the tray, and protect it from thunderstorms so heavy rain doesn't wash soil out of the pot.  Some top dressing with orchid bark or long-fiber sphagnum moss is helpful, but not vital.  Regular or lite rain is no problem.  

At first when your plant goes outside you may experience some leaf burn.  Don't worry about that.  Just cut off any that look bad.  You should see a dramatic improvement in your plant in about a month.  For more information on growing Venus flytraps visit our caresheet pages:  http://www.cobraplant.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=7&chapter=1

Your Drosera adelae is a simpler matter.  Just make sure the plant always has water to set in, and move it to a sunny window.  It's important for this plant to never dry out.  When I say sunny window I mean either a West or South window that gets no less that 2-3 hours of direct sun.   Any leaves that have lost dew will not produce dew again.  When new ones grow out they will be redder and dewy.  Check our our caresheet pages on tropical sundews for this plant.

Definitely consider taking a look at our instructional DVD's.  For about the same as you paid for these two plants you would have a full course in our volume 1 and 2 on how to grow these plants.  We go into great detail, and we don't just tell you, we show you, along with lots of footage of our nursery and examples of how we grow plants.  They will help avoid the pitfalls like your experiencing so common to new growers, and ultimately save you lots of money if this becomes a bigger hobby.  Here's a link:  http://www.cobraplant.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=38

Good Growing!

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