Question
Hi, i just had a few questions about my sarracenia flowers.  Ok, i have three flowers, 2 which i believe are from 1 S. flava (typical form)  and 1 i dont know what s. it is from.  It is very dark red brown color.  I just wanted to know how long will flowers be able to pollinate themselves from the time they open?  One of the Flava flowers is slowly opening and the other is close but hasnt started to open.  I would like to pollinate those to flowers to get a pure typical form flava but i wasn't sure how long the flowers would be able to pollinate eachother.  And i was wondering if my vft's were to flower when do they flower?  Thanks for your help.

Answer
Hi Dustin,

The flowers are prime for pollination for about 5 days after they open up.  You can use the pollen from the same flower to pollinate itself, though the strike rate will be less than if you were to use two different flowers.  Sometimes flowers of the same plant will open up at different times, and this is an adaptation measure to ensure that its flowers are pollinated from different plants and not with itself.  

Flytraps will generally send up flower stalks from now through late June, depending on your region and age of your plants.  Folks in the southern states have already commented that their flytraps are flowering already.  I haven't yet heard from growers in northern states whether or not they flytraps are flowering yet.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin