Question
Hey Jeff and Jacob,

Long story but I want to know if my flava still has a chance at coming back and if you might have any ideas on what caused them to decline.  Anyway dormancy was going better then expected, all my plants looked healthy, including the flava I ordered from you guys in january.  I decided to repot on march 13th, since it was above freezing but since then everything has been downhill.  First I made a mistake of repotting as soon as possible.  Even though the temperatures were in the mid 40s the soil was still frozen.  So each plant took about 30 minutes of swishing in water to rinse the roots off.  After that I devided the flava, sprayed with fungucide and repotted all my sarrs  My dianas delight browned completely in a couple of weeks so I took it out of the soil to inspect it.  I read that you should slice off the end and if it's orange keep slicing until you hit nice health white.  It was all orange so I am guessing it was dead.  My flava's philodia was turning a bit orange but the rhizome still had nice color.  Then over the last week we had tempuratures drop below freezing so I brought my plants inside to shield them from that.  When I brought them out again today I noticed mold on them.  So I decided to inspect them.  I dug up one half of my flava and started slicing in the rhizome.  The first slice was healthy looking so I started from the other side.  After I got past all the philodia the rhizome was a nice white color.  However the rhizome has no current growing points so I made a little notch in it, repotted it and sprayed with a fungucide.  I also repotted the first slice since it was kinda big, had white in it, and had roots.  The second half of my flava was orange inside so it was all dead.

So after all that I would like to know if the rest of my flava still has a chance?  Also can that slice grow since it has roots?  And do you think that root disturbance was the reason these all died or could it be the soil?  I am using premier brand canadian sphagnum peat moss and some perlite I ordered on ebay(the seller said nothing was added to it).

Answer
Hi Shayne,

The only other bit of information I needed was your location to assess your climate.  We don't recommend dividing rhizomes in mid winter when there is a chance for a deep freeze or extended periods of frost.  If you do it when the temperature is too cold, you risk losing the plant because you're doing it at a time when the plant should be dormant.  Breaking the rhizome means that the plant needs to repair the damage, but since the temperature is too cold (freezing), it can't do so metabolically.  The idea of winter dormancy is to shut down all metabolic processes to conserve energy and to protect the plant from cold temperatures.  So essentially the plant is at risk for frost damage when you break the rhizome.  

This is why we recommend dividing in late winter and early spring.  If the soil is frozen, that's a clear indication that you should wait.  When the weather is warm enough to thaw the soil, then you can proceed with division.  

We also recommend early spring rather than in mid season or in early fall because you'll be giving your plants ample time to recover from the division before the onset of winter.  Folks in the south can get away with dividing rhizomes in late fall because they don't experience the kind of freezing temperatures that folks in the north do.

Only time will tell if your plants will make it.  Just give them warm temperatures, lots of sunlight and time.  You will know by late May or early June if you have any survivors.

For more information about growing Sarracenia, I strongly recommend watching our DVD Grow Carnivorous Plants Volume 1.  We show you how to properly care for Sarracenia during the winter months.  The techniques we show have worked well for growers in many parts of the country, including USDA zone 5.

http://www.cobraplant.com/DVD

Good growing!
Jacob Farin