Question
Hi! I grow 5 dionaeas together in one wide plastic pot mostly in mix of about 30% peat and 70% silica sand. I grow them inserted with a pot in my bog garden with sarracenias, sphagnum and other bog plants. They are receiving around 6-7 hours of direct sun. I overwintered them in fridge. When I moved them out, they started to grow flowers, which I removed immediately. What I was about to tell is that they are growing pretty slowly. When can i expect them to grow to some substantial size? Do they really don't like higher water levels? If that's so, I am thinking of putting them in some kind of plastic bag and then putting them in bog. That would make my job much easier in pleasing both of my sarracenias, which grow permanently in bog, droseras rotundifolias and dionaneas... what do you think?

Answer
When Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap) begins to produce a flowerstalk, the leaf growth stalls or stops entirely for a period of several weeks. If the flowerstalk is removed, then leaves will begin to grow sooner. Under the conditions you describe and having had a false dormancy in the refrigerator, I would also have cut the flowerstalks.

A refrigerator dormancy is not ideal for Venus Flytraps, because they benefit greatly from sunlight during dormancy. The leaves continue to photosynthesize even in the cooler, drier conditions that are comfortable for dormancy, and the plant continues to manufacture and store food to create a nice reserve for rapid and robust growth in the Spring. In the refrigerator, in total darkness, the plant cannot create that food. It would be better to find a place to put the pot of Dionaea in late fall that is relatively cool but never freezing and that receives plenty of sunlight. It is best to greatly diminish the frequency of watering because the water needs of Venus Flytraps during dormancy decreases very much. "Moist, not wet all the time" is a good rule, and during dormancy the growing medium can be allowed to dry until just barely moist before watering again. With too much water, Venus Flytraps can develop fungal and bacterial infections that can be very damaging or fatal.

If I were growing Venus Flytraps in an outdoor bog garden, I would either grow them separately in their own bog garden that I would keep less wet than a bog garden of Sarracenia, or I would make a mound of growing medium in the Sarracenia bog and plant the Venus Flytraps on the mound, so that they are growing some centimeters higher than the Sarracenia and so that the Venus Flytraps' roots and rhizome are higher than the water level in the bog. Then they would be protected from being too wet, but their roots can grow downwards into the water-saturated medium. I don't think that planting them in a bag that has been sunk into the bog, to try to isolate the Venus Flytraps, will work if there are drainage holes in the bag (the water will seep in and the water level will be the same as in the medium outside the bag), and without drainage holes I would find it too difficult to regulate the Venus Flytraps' watering, unless the bag were fairly large.

Other people may have some very good suggestions and ideas, so please consider asking this question at on online carnivorous plant forum--

FlytrapCare.com Forum
http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/

CPUK Forum
http://www.cpukforum.com/

Best wishes and good luck.