Question
In August I received a D. Muscipula from California Carnivores and there was a note in the package saying "some plants are dormant." The plant had nothing but autumn leaves on it and looked a little sad, so I'm assuming that (and the note) meant the plant was in dormancy over the summer at their nursery. Currently I have the plant growing under adequate artificial lighting running at 10.5 hours a day and it is thriving--all the new growth is stiff, upright summer leaves with bright red traps and new plants seem to be popping up. My question is, now that winter is rolling around, should I force dormancy, or just let it grow and send it into dormancy next season? Also, should I keep lowering the photoperiod? I've got a D. Capensis growing under the same setup, so I'm not sure whether any adjustments would really bother it or not.

Thank you for your time,
Sean

Answer
Hi Sean,

You may need to contact California Carnivores directly regarding your flytrap.  August is peak season for flytraps and other types of North American carnivorous plants, and they don't go dormant until fall.  Some Sarracenia species will go into a pseudo-dormancy in summer when the temperatures get really warm, but flytraps are not one of them.  So I'm not sure why there was a note stating that some plants would be dormant in August.  In this case, contact California Carnivores for more information about the note and how they cared for the plants during the summer months.

In any case, since you have your flytrap indoors, it may be too late to acclimate them to outdoor growing, particularly if you've already experienced a frost in your area.  If you've already experienced a frost, grow your plant just as you've been doing.  In spring, when the risk of frost has passed, acclimate your plant for outdoor growing.

At our nursery, we grow our flytraps and Sarracenia strictly outdoors, so they are acclimated to outdoor growing at any time of the year.  For more information about growing flytraps, read our care sheet online:
http://www.cobraplant.com/caresheets

Good growing!
Jacob Farin