Question
Hi I have couble of question about my s.flava and sundew. I have orderd a medium s.flava for my birthday a month ago and when I first got it was the most beautiful pitcher plant I have ever seen. But I noticed a little bit of browning around the mouth of the pitchers when I got it. But I thought it was nothing until it started to spread down the pitcher tupes. But it stoped turning brown half way down the pitchers tupes, and the new picthers are very thin they cant even eat ants but two new pitchers look good, and I wonder when the plant is going to produse large and beutiful pitchers again. Also its been rainig a lot lately and a couble of times it rained so hard that it snaped one of my fl.giant dewthread leafs, and it doesent make the plant look good. and the winds were even strong enough to tilt my s.flava and expose some of its roots. I put wet peat moss on the roots to keep them moist I followed the care sheets on your web site. And what tipe of cool white tubes should I use for nepenthes miranda and what wattege, or what tipe of 40 watt tubes.I would like to start growing some nepenthes soon.

Answer
Hi Abdiel,

Sarracenia flava is one of the Sarracenia that is an early season grower.  It's a normal part of their life cycle to produce lots of nice robust pitchers in May and June.  As the heat of summer commences those begin to fade, such as you are seeing, and are replaced with flat, non-carnivorous leaves known as phyllodia.  Sometimes as that transition is occurring you'll get leaves that are half way in between.  Right around late October all of the pitchers will die and only the phyllodia will remain.  Next spring a whole new crop will emerge.

If you are having a spell of thunderstorms with heavy rain and wind you may need to shelter your plants during that kind of weather.  You can easily stake up the S. flava to prevent the wind from uprooting the plant.

If you are using fluorescent lights a simple two tube shoplight fixture is the most cost effective.  Use 40 watt cool-white tubes.  I like the Sylvania "Cool-white Plus" tubes since they have a strong light output.  As long as the tubes are 40 watt they should be fine.  Avoid specialty plant tubes since they are very expensive, and often not as bright.

Good Growing!

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