Question
Hey Guys!! Thanks, I am almost in a panic!! I just got my first carnivorous pitcher plant a miranda. I ordered the book " A Savage Garden" and they sent me the wrong book.o,k, my pitchers are drying up and dying. I read one web site said put water in them and then another said no. help!! Also I have real good well water can I water with that? I love my one plant and want to try for more. thank you in advance  Perri Landry

Answer
Hi Perri,

The miranda hybrid is a very easy plant to grow and adapts well to many homes.  It has very beautiful large pitchers with reddish-brown splotches.  It's been recently been mass produced by a nursery in Florida and will most likely be as common as the ventrata hybrid.

What you've experienced with your plant is very normal and many times unavoidable.  Pitchers will sometimes dry up if the plant experiences a sudden change in environment.  (If you've ever purchased a ficus tree from a nursery and brought it home, you'll know what I mean.)  The pitchers also last for only about 2-3 months, so if they were close to the end of their cycle, then the change in environment would hasten the process.  As long as the leaves are firm and healthy, your plant is healthy.  

As for putting water in the pitchers, there is no advantage in doing so.  Some growers put water in there whenever they acquire a new Nepenthes, but adding water will not salvage a pitcher if the home environment is significantly different (both in lighting and humdity) than the nursery.  The plant does not absorb water through the pitchers.  The pitcher is designed to secrete and hold its own fluids.  The plant produces this fluid in response to sunlight.  So if you want more fluids in the pitchers, you will need to make sure your plant is getting lots of light.

This particular hybrid can easily acclimate to nearly full sun conditions, depending on where you live.  My father had a miranda hybrid in Hawaii.  He grew the plant in practically full sun, and the plant produced gorgeous pitchers that measured 15 inches!

(Though it doesn't harm the plant to add water to the pitchers, the main disadvantage is that it masks the symptoms associated with low light.  If your light levels are too low and you continuously add water to the pitchers to a newly acquired plant, you will never know if you are providing adequate lighting or not.  Use the plants own natural secretions to determine if you are providing enough light.)

For now, make sure your plant is in a very sunny location of your home, such as a south or west window.  If pitchers are already drying up, there's nothing you can do to salvage them.  Just cut off the damaged pitchers near the tip of each leaf.  Each leaf produces only one pitcher, so you'll need to wait until the plant produces new leaves.  When it does so, each pitcher will then be perfectly acclimated to your home.

As for water, test your water first.  If it is less than 100 parts per million (ppm) in dissolved solutes, you can safely use it with your Nepenthes.  Ideally it should be less than 50 ppm, but Nepenthes can tolerate slightly harder water; however, with harder water, you will need to change the soil annually to remove mineral deposits.  You can find test kits for water hardness at pet stores that sells aquarium supplies.

For more information about growing Nepenthes, read our care sheets online:
http://www.cobraplant.com/caresheets

Good growing!
Jacob Farin