Question
I bought my sarracenia purpurea around the beginning of March.  I did research and I learned that it was supposed to come out of dormancy around the end of March.  I also learned that they will eat earwigs, so I have tried feeding it for the past few weeks in one week- week and a half intervals.  It appears that it has eaten nothing and a couple of its pitchers have died.  I keep it in a watering tray in a west window with a sun screen on it.  It has a "plastic cup" over it for the humidity with its care info on it.  I think I'm doing something wrong.  Help!

Answer
Hello Amber,

First off, throw the instructions away as you probably bought it at a general store or at a non-specialist nursery that does not know how to actually cultivate carnivorous plants, only how to kill them.

Sarracenia purpurea do need winter dormancy in cool, short day length conditions for 3-4 months in winter. They can survive temperatures below freezing in the wild, but should be kept just above 30-40 degrees in a pot as they are not well insulated in pots.

With spring, they should be placed in the brightest full sun conditions possible. That means outside in direct sun if possible since Sarracenia purpurea is one of the most sun intensive plants I know of. Inside in a window and with a sun screen the plant is starving to death and cannot get light, so it cannot come out of dormancy or grow. If outside growing is not possible, place the plant in a south facing window with no sun screen and add several florescent shop lights (the 4 foot 40 watt cool white tubes that are about 3000 lumens each), perhaps 12000 lumens worth, right over the plant, about 4-5 inches above its leaves. It still will not be as much light as this plant likes, but it will give it a fighting chance.

Humidity is another myth about carnivorous plants. Sarracenias never require high humidity, being able to adapt to almost any humidity so long as they have a large water tray under their pot with several inches of water up to half their pot in depth. You can slowly remove the dome by lifting ir and bracing it up a fraction of an inch every three days until the dome is raised over 2 inches and no longer holds in humidity. After two weeks, take the dome off completely and the plant should adapted to lower humidity and will not fall victim to mold and bacterial infections that domes and terrariums cause.

Carnivorous plants really do not need fertilizer, so never fertilize your plant as it could kill them if it gets in their soil and can burn their leaves if sprayed on them in too great a concentration. I hope you have not fertilized it.

Use only distilled, rain, or reverse osmosis water with no salt, minerals, or chemicals added to it. Carnivorous plants need fresh, pure water as minerals and chemicals can alter their soil and kill them like fertilizing them can.

Use only sphagnum peat moss or long fiber sphagnum as their main medium and perlite or silica sand as drainage in a 1/1 mix. Regular potting soil or any other type of medium will harm and kill your plant.

Carnivorous plants that do not get enough light will not be able to digest insects... so stop trying to feed the plant for now. Insects are like vitamin pills for carnivorous plants... without light as their main food source, they will die no matter how many insects you try to force feed them. Insects are fertilizer to them.. and they only need a tiny bit to keep going for a long time. for now concentrate on getting the plant growing again.

Sarracenia purpurea also use water in their leaves since they have no hoods to keep rain out. You will need to drip water into the pitchers to fill them about half way before the plant can digest insects as they use a tiny bit of digective fluid and a lot of bacterial action in the water to break down their prey.

I hope this information comes soon enough to you so you can save your plant and get it growing normally again.

Christopher