Question
I've got two species of Australian Sundews whose leaves dry up within hours when removed from a terrarium. The hairs disappear within about a week.
I"m not sure about the exact species of the first, its big for a sundew and the leaves are arrow shaped. The other looks like our rotundafolia. At first they grew like crazy in the terrarium and produced a lot of small plants. Now the large one appears to be dying of mold or fungus. I sprayed the leaves with Safer 3-in-1 insecticide-fungicide. Can you tell me what I should do?
By the way, your DVD is great. My other plants are fine. Craig

Answer
Hi Craig,

Sounds like one of the plants is Drosera adelae, the other may be D. spatulata.  If you want to remove them from the terrarium you need to do it slowly.  This is referred to as hardening off.  You open up the container up a little at a time over the course of a couple of weeks.  If they are already out of the terrarium, just cut off any dead or bad looking leaves.  With D. adelae you can cut it off right to the stem.  It will send out many new health shoots in a few weeks.  The mold should be less of a problem once the humidity is lower.

Glad you liked the video.


Good Growing!

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