Question
I have been interested about these plants for a long time, and have been
doing a lot of research on them. I was wondering what would you recomend
for me to buy in order to have my own little indoor cage. My favorate plants
are the Fly traps; Akia and Ryu. I am also fond of the purple pitchers. I dont
have a lot of money to spend but i am willing to save
PS. i am sorry for the email address it is an old gaming one

Answer
Hello Josh,

Most of the indoor plants would be tropical species like Drosera capensis, Drosera spatulata, Drosera binata, Nepenthes ventrata, ventricosa, sanguinea, alata, and such. North American plants like Flytraps and Sarracenias, like the Purple Pitcher Plants in particular are the hardest to grow indoors. They need full sun to thrive. Indoors they often weaken and die from too little light.

If you simply have to grow these North american plants inside I would suggest growing them as open pot plants in a good south facing window and with 16 hours of florescent shop lights of the 40 watt cool white or true daylight varieties over them as a light supplement in the growing season. You will have to provide winter dormancy for North American plants as well, which is why beginners should not try to grow them indoors. Without a proper dormancy those plants will weaken and die within a year.

I would suggest the tropical plants at first, like species from Africa, East Asia, and Australia. Their are also some good tropical species from South America. The tropical plants are great house plants and can be easily grown open pot in an east to south window or under 6000 to 12000 lumens of florescent lights 4-8 inches over their leaves. the worst way to try to grow carnivorous plants is in a terrarium or under a dome as they really do not require high humidity so much as they need high light levels, acid soil, and clean, mineral free water.

Christopher