Question
Ok, I know this is probably the wrong time to be getting four venus flytraps in November. Well, I didnt get them, they were a gift from my grandma(my b-day). So, anyway I was wondering what I should do with the four. They are in four separate tube looking things with a lid that has holes. The flytraps look like they are growing still as if they werent thinking of going dormant yet. One of them has a redder inside then the rest of them which have a pinkish inside. They are all growing with short stems like the summer growth accept one which has taller leaves. I live in Orange County where the temperature is not freezing yet its cloudy and around the 63-77 degrees F. So any advice and help would be much appreciated so I know what should be done to the venus flytraps.

Answer
Hello Ryan,

Happy Birthday.

You are right in that this would be a bad time of year to obtain Venus Flytraps, particularly if they were sold at a general store. Venus Flytraps bought at those places typically have no idea what season it is since they have been kept in low light conditions to begin with, so all the changes when they are bought and placed in bright light, then photoperiod drops before winter, just stress them more and more.

In this case it is a toss-up as to whether you want to provide conditions for dormancy or not. The plants might not have enough energy to survive dormancy if they do go dormant, but might not survive for more than a year if they do not go dormant.

Best bet is to give them as much artificial light as you can and keep them inside over winter, then adapt them to full sun outside next spring so that they will go dormant naturally next winter. Give them about 12 hours of 12000 lumen florescent light, two double mount florescent shop light fixtures in the 40 watt tube variety would work well. Place the plants at least an inch or two from the light. Since they might be mixed up on seasons, they might try to flower soon after giving them more light, but that is typical. I have seen them in hardware stores trying to flower in the middle of winter, which typically results in a dead plant if they do not have enough light to power reproduction with.

If you choose to try to get them to go fully dormant, you will have to provide artificial light of about 12 hours as indicated before, but you will have to lower the photoperiod by one hour a week until the plants are at or less than 8 hours a day.. then place them outside. If the winter there is too mild, you might need to provide artificial frost by placing the plants in the refrigerator or an ice chest with bottles of ice water around them to bring them down to about 40 degrees. Once they feel the cold after their photoperiod shortening routine they typically go dormant. Keep them around 40-50 degrees and in short photoperiods until spring. If they survive until then they will start growing again with the warm weather and longer photoperiods.

You might want to check with the store they were bought at to find out what conditions the plants were kept in and if they were just stocked recently. If they have not been in the store for long, you might be in luck and might be better of trying to give them artificial dormancy cues. If they have been there for over a month or two, you might be better off to keep them out of dormancy till next spring.

You can adapt the plants to low humidity slowly by making three to six 1/4 to 1/2 inch holes in the tubes every three days until they do not hold humidity at all, then removing the tubes completely after about two weeks.

Good luck with those Venus Flytraps,

Christopher