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How long have you
- Thread starter Kirkscoastalcarnivores
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Trapper7
Loves VFT's!
this is my 11th year!
Early spring, 1994.
I had just moved to Rochester, im 25, I move into a 3-bedroom apartment with 2 roomates.
I still dont remember how we got on the topic, but my new roomate Rob and I somehow got talking about Venus fly traps.
we both said "I had a few as a kid, but they always died".
the seed was re-planted with that conversation.
I hadnt had a VFT since was probably 10 years old and utterly clueless..
so the next day I go downtown to the big Rochester city library (no internet yet) to look for books about carnivorous plants...amazingly, they had one!
it was the "Peter Paul" book..so I check out the book, immediately found out about, and joined, the ICPS, and the rest is history..
11 years later here I am..
the only thing that has kept the size of my collection in check is that I *still* live in an apartment..finite space for plants.
but by this time next year I will probably have a house and a YARD!!! so watch out!
an in-ground CP bog 11-years in the planning will be constructed!
Scot
Early spring, 1994.
I had just moved to Rochester, im 25, I move into a 3-bedroom apartment with 2 roomates.
I still dont remember how we got on the topic, but my new roomate Rob and I somehow got talking about Venus fly traps.
we both said "I had a few as a kid, but they always died".
the seed was re-planted with that conversation.
I hadnt had a VFT since was probably 10 years old and utterly clueless..
so the next day I go downtown to the big Rochester city library (no internet yet) to look for books about carnivorous plants...amazingly, they had one!
it was the "Peter Paul" book..so I check out the book, immediately found out about, and joined, the ICPS, and the rest is history..
11 years later here I am..
the only thing that has kept the size of my collection in check is that I *still* live in an apartment..finite space for plants.
but by this time next year I will probably have a house and a YARD!!! so watch out!
an in-ground CP bog 11-years in the planning will be constructed!
Scot
Clint
Stay chooned in for more!
jimscott
Tropical Fish Enthusiast
Hey Kirk, I did this as an essay for ya, way back when!
I got my first VFT as a pre-teen and promptly killed it. The summer before freshman year in college I got another. My buddy accidently knocked it to the floor and it was toast. Years later, while working at a tropical fish wholesaler, I got another and put it in a plant tank, growing it terrarium style. It seemed to be doing well - until it flowered. It immediately died. Years later, I bought another, along with a "Purple Pitcher Plant" & "Tropical Pitcher Plant". It took me 3 months to kill them - first the VFT, of course!
I swore off CP's as being too difficult for me, until 2 summers ago, when I saw an array of VFT's at Home Depot. I made an impulse purchase and a vow to do whatever it took to keep it alive for more than 3 months - which I did. This time my well-documented stream experiment killed it and others.
I unwittingly violated every rule about CP cultivation possible - water, air circulation, dormancy....
Anyways, 2 years.
I got my first VFT as a pre-teen and promptly killed it. The summer before freshman year in college I got another. My buddy accidently knocked it to the floor and it was toast. Years later, while working at a tropical fish wholesaler, I got another and put it in a plant tank, growing it terrarium style. It seemed to be doing well - until it flowered. It immediately died. Years later, I bought another, along with a "Purple Pitcher Plant" & "Tropical Pitcher Plant". It took me 3 months to kill them - first the VFT, of course!
I swore off CP's as being too difficult for me, until 2 summers ago, when I saw an array of VFT's at Home Depot. I made an impulse purchase and a vow to do whatever it took to keep it alive for more than 3 months - which I did. This time my well-documented stream experiment killed it and others.
I unwittingly violated every rule about CP cultivation possible - water, air circulation, dormancy....
Anyways, 2 years.
Let's see- in 5th grade (1998 I believe) I began researching CPs just for fun. I then spent many a month searching for a nursery that sold them. I started out with a venus flytrap and a Drosera (capensis) and a Sarracenia (uh, I dunno what it was.) Until some time in 2003 I only kind of grew them on and off, but since then I've been sloooowly getting more plants. Many of my years were spend doing research on how to grow them and lurking in this forum before finally making the plunge and buying a bunch of VFTs from our very own Pet Flytrap.
3 months here, with sarracenias. whoosh.
When I was a kid I had a VFT that I kept alive for 3 years..mom and I fed it hamburger, watered it with tap water...I'm not having so much luck now that I think I know the "proper" way to do things, vis a vis the VFT's, LOL!
That little flytrap, and the prairie remnant on my block are what planted the seed in my head.
When I was a kid I had a VFT that I kept alive for 3 years..mom and I fed it hamburger, watered it with tap water...I'm not having so much luck now that I think I know the "proper" way to do things, vis a vis the VFT's, LOL!
That little flytrap, and the prairie remnant on my block are what planted the seed in my head.
Way back in kindergarten, it was show and tell day. My friend Ian brought in a VFT, and I was amazed! I told my mom all about it and I got one as a gift for kindergarten graduation (
). I killed it good, and decided that it was too hard to keep alive.
When spring rolled around this year, I was browsing around on the internet, and for some reason I got obsessed with carnivorous plants again! I ordered the starter set off of PetFlytrap so I guess that makes it about... one month.
When spring rolled around this year, I was browsing around on the internet, and for some reason I got obsessed with carnivorous plants again! I ordered the starter set off of PetFlytrap so I guess that makes it about... one month.
I confess, like so many others, to killing a VFT or two as a child. Always had a love for them, but didn't get another until a few months ago. Saw them at Lowes picking up my husband from work. Thought "hmm, when he BBQs he always lets flies in the house..."
Bought an assortment, came home, and hit the internet.
Boy was I surprised! But yet undaunted. Dug around in the storage closet for my old fish supplies, set up a temperate tank to get them through shock and healthy (weaning some off to room humidity now) and to the store for distilled water and more lights... And here I am.
My husband is only slightly appalled ("Dear, why is there a fishtank taking up half the kitchen counter? How are the bugs supposed to reach the plants if they are in a terrarium?") at my new hobby.
I wish I had the internet when I was a kid... My grandma grew tropical plants in terraria, I might not have killed my childhood cps if I had only thought to research! All the tools were to hand, I just didn't know to use them.
Bought an assortment, came home, and hit the internet.
Boy was I surprised! But yet undaunted. Dug around in the storage closet for my old fish supplies, set up a temperate tank to get them through shock and healthy (weaning some off to room humidity now) and to the store for distilled water and more lights... And here I am.
My husband is only slightly appalled ("Dear, why is there a fishtank taking up half the kitchen counter? How are the bugs supposed to reach the plants if they are in a terrarium?") at my new hobby.
I wish I had the internet when I was a kid... My grandma grew tropical plants in terraria, I might not have killed my childhood cps if I had only thought to research! All the tools were to hand, I just didn't know to use them.
FlytrapGurl
apple rings.. what more can i say?
I've been growing them for about two years. I was looking for plants that would grow in my roof garden and stumbled across a CP website. I still remember the cautionary note (paraphrasing): "Don't start growing these plants - you will become obsessed."
Well, I didn't listen and now look what happened!
Well, I didn't listen and now look what happened!
My family has been purchasing and killing VFTs for many years now. We bought them, placed them in the middle of the kitchen table to get some light, watered them whenever we remembered, fed them the tiniest pieces of raw hamburger meat and dead flies, and watched one after the next die. It didn't help that the kids were poking pencils and tines of forks into the traps to repeatedly set them off either. In spring of 2003 I ordered our first Sarracenia and Drosera and plopped them in the ground. I have been adding ever since. I have a little inside joke with a friend (a fellow enabler) regarding this obsession in which he and I have determined that we don't have a problem because we can quit anytime we want. We can, honest!
