Question
Hi, I'm a novice at growing carnivorous plants (or any plants, really), so I started this spring with a couple of species that sounded hardy: Drosera adelae and an Asian pitcher plant.   I have both plants sitting in a west-facing window, where they flourished beautifully through the summer.  Now fall is ending and it's turning wintery in Wisconsin, and I'm wondering what to do with them.  Both seem to have halted their growth, and the Drosera isn't very dewy anymore.  I've read several posts about people winterizing their plants, but it seems those people are mostly growing outdoors.  I don't think either of these will survive a Wisconsin winter outdoors, so what should I do?  Do I need to stick them in a fridge?  Should I leave the window open one night to give them a taste of frost?  I'm a little clueless, but I don't want my babies to die on me.  Thanks in advance,
- Tim

Answer
Hi Tim,

Fortunately, both of your plants are true tropical plants.  The decrease in vigor is due to short days.  Since they are tropical they have no dormancy, so there's no need to put them in the fridge or anything like that.

If you want to get them perked up try supplementing them with additional light.  With just a couple of plants you can use a fluorescent desk lamp brought down within 3 inches of the plants.  It's best to put the light on a timer to give them a 12-14 hour day.  You may also want to check how cold it is in the window, and move them back a bit if it's real cold there.  These plants rarely see temperatures below the 50's in nature.

When you get a chance visit our caresheet pages at http://www.cobraplant.com/caresheets  You can get a better idea of the natural history of many of the plants, and their general care.


Good Growing!

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