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"little shop of horrors" cp suggestions needed

I am working with a science teacher at a school trying to create a carnivorous plant garden for kids.  We are going to call it "The Little Shop Of Horrors". We feel this is a project that the children will get excited about as well as one that can be passed on to the children entering Junior High next year.  The teacher as well as the janitor have volunteered to care for the CPs over the summer when school is closed.   I would like to know which species of CPs would be most hardy in SE Wisconsin.  I think in the best interests of the children, only species that can be overwintered outside with mulch would be best.  We have permission from the school to create a 200 gallon bog that will be 14" deep.  We will fill this with sand, sphagnum, white pine needles, and rain water and the site should get at least 8 hours of sun a day and quite possible as much as 10-12 hours based on the angle if inclination at that time of year.  Any suggestions to help the kids would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 
Hi Laura and welcome to the discusion forums. Question: When will this bog be ready for use? I DO know that people have been successful in the Northeast, overwintering some of their CP's by heavily mulching the plants. Having said that, the Venus Flytraps, some Sarracenias like S. purpurea, the non-dormancy type of D. intermedia, and D. rotundifolia have been overwintered. A fellow by the forum name of Wild Bill does this. I believe Tamlin Dawnstar, Tony Paroubec, and Nepenthes Gracilis would be very helpful.
 
You'd probably be able to only house the native north american CPs like VFT's Sarracenia, and some drosera. Maybe some temperate pings and definately some utrics. If you don't want to lose any plants over the winter, choose ones that live high up (like up here in new york) I know black rock forest is home to many sarracenia, pinguicula, utricula, and drosera, and its up in new york where it gets a little bit less than freezing
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You could find out the plants that reside there, and use those in your bog.
 
Hello jimscott, thje bog will be ready in spring. We tried to get it in earlier but the weather didn't cooperate. The weekends we had volunteers scheduled also happened to be the weekends when the heavens opened up and it poured non stop. It then poured again on our "rain date". Haven't had rain here for months but go ahead and just try to coordinate something for kids and you can almost count on uncooperative weather.

I am fortunate in that I found this forum. I should be able to gather enough information to be able to get my hands on appropriate plant material by the time we are up and running.

Hello Amateur_Expert, Perhaps it would be best for me to start a new thread and ask for people from Wisconsin to provide lists of their most successful CPs.

Thanks for your help!
 
Maybe, it might be best to wait for spring to begin planting, seeing how winter is fast approaching in the US.
 
So sorry I was unclear as to when we would be planting, we will be waiting until spring.  I am in the plant selection mode right now.  After I determine which species are most suitable, I will move into the plant order and purchase mode.  I will be requesting spring delivery.
 
To my knoeledge, these will take any level of freezing:

Sarracenia purpurea subsp. purpurea
Sarracenia oreophilla
Sarracenia rubra subsp. jonesii
Drosera rotundifolia
Drosera anglica
Pinguicula grandiflora
Pinguicula vulgaris


Thoise woudl be best.
I woudl not reccoment Utrics for outside, because they will be smothered by mosses and weeds.
There are toehr hardy plants, like Drosera linearis and Pinguicula alpina, but they are very hard to grow, even when outside.
 
One more thing: I would also consider some sort of fencing or something to protect against squirrels and especially birds. I myself was having an especially hard time with birds, as they seemed to like to try and get the insects trapped in the pitchers. Tore everything up! Your project sounds really cool by the way, I hope the children (of all ages
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) have fun!
 
Spring is a great time to have things going! You can have a full growing season and sufficient acclimation before dealing with the next dormancy period. Aside from what we have mentioned, a great book to peruse through and glean quick growing information is one called Savage Garden, by Peter D'Amato. Another great book is one by Don Schnell. I believe the title is: Carnivorous Plants of North America.
 
  • #10
LauraZ5, Ill come right to the point:

The Kids Love VFTs.

It's really as simple as that. Plant lots of flytraps and the kids will be spellbound.

Plant the other ones too, don't get me wrong. But if you want to get the kids attention, it's all venus flytraps.

Capslock
 
  • #11
Welcome to the forums Laura! I`d say Dino covered it well. But you could also get some hybrid sarrs with cold hardy parents like S.jonesii,S.purpurea ssp.purpurea,S.oreophilla. Also temperate forms of D.intermedia would do well.
S.oreophilla and S.jonesii are very hard to aquire (legally) as they must be given to you free of charge for them to be legal as they are on cites apendix#1. I do also agree with Caps. Plant flytraps! I`d recomend: "green dragon",'akai ryu',"blood red traps",'dentate traps','red pirahna',and of course the typical vfts Id use the typicals as fillers and the others as focal point type things.
 
  • #12
Try getting the book "Carnivorous Plants of the United States and Canada". It will give you a selection and discriptions of hardy carnivorous plants (also, it has great pictures). Zongyi
 
  • #13
Thanks all, I am most appreciative.

Starman, I will use your list as my base and will probably add a few more. Saves me worrying about what is hardy and what isn't. I have no doubt you have forgotten more than I have ever known anyway.

I recently received Peter D'Amato's book as a gift. I called Borders and ordered "Carnivorous Plants of the United States and Canada" by Donald Schnell. They stated it would take 10-14 days to come in. I understand these two publications are about the best of the best for a CP neophyte.

Capslock & pond boy- Kids DO LOVE Venus Flytraps. Great suggestion. My kids loved their VF so much they fed it virtually anything and everything to include small "set aside" portions of their McDonalds hamburgers. It did not survive all the well intended attention. I was not aware a VF could survive being overwintered in this area outside. Am I mistaken? Is the list provided that of VFs that would be hardy here?

Squirrels are not so much of a problem these days. The endangered red squirrel was being out competed for resources by the gray squirrel and some restoration conservationists began culling the gray squirrels to better enable the red squirrel an opportunity to re-establish. I'm not saying I agree but I am also not saying I disagree. Deer are also being culled by the DNR in my area which is a welcome relief as they do have a tendency to browse now don't they. I have lost more plants to deer than I care to acknowledge and hopefully the CPs will not be yet another casualty of browse.

Around me, the biggest issue is the feral/stray cats. They dig up everything and I am constantly running into their fecal matter. Ugh. They have gotten into my little bog a few times and this displeases me to no end. I have been trying to use Deer Off and red cayenne pepper to deter them. Not much more I can do. The school has stray cats everywhere too so I had just planned on buying Deer Off and a bulk size container of either chili powder or red pepper for them too.

I never thought of birds being an issue. Thank you so much for mentioning it. We have hundreds and hundreds of English House Sparrows and they do rely upon insects to feed their nestlings. And those darn European Starlings that flock by the thousands around here. I forgot that more than half of the adult Starling's diet consists of insects and spiders. The parasitic nature of these two species of birds alone is going to be a major issue. I never anticipated this and therefore did not plan for same. We can't even seed our lawns around here without them appearing out of no where as if somebody rang a dinner bell. They descend and eat virtually every last seed. What do I do? My area is inundated with these horribly invasive exotic birds. What type of fencing do you all recommend? I am going to have to buy something to exclude the birds for both myself and for the school. There is no way any of these plants will make it given the sheer numbers of these species in this area. You have no idea how grateful I am that this issue was raised.
 
  • #14
There are many cold hardy utrics out there (some even make hibernaculas for winter), and if grown right, they can easily combat moss. They have no problem with sphagnum.
 
  • #15
Hello Spectabilis-
I found these listed as being present in several non disclosed natural communities somewhere in my actual county-
Utricularia cornuta                     HORNED BLADDERWORT
Utricularia gibba                        HUMPED BLADDERWORT
Utricularia intermedia                  FLAT-LEAVEDBLADDERWORT
Utricularia minor                        SMALL BLADDERWORT
Utricularia vulgaris                     COMMOM BLADDERWORT

Thank you for the suggestion.
 
  • #16
Sorry to dissapoint you Laura, but all of them are aquatics.
I do not knwo about U.cornuta, but I think I have seen that name in the aquatic Utric section in my CP book.
If you wish to grow these utrics, constructing a large pond woudl be nessecery for U.vulgairs, and a small pond woudl be nessecery for U.gibba and other small varieties.
 
  • #17
Just for the record, I was wrong about Mr. Schnell's book title. It wasn't North America. It was United States and Canada. Ooops! But it looks like you have it covered.
 
  • #18
Hi Starman, you are correct.  I assumed when they were recommended that they were either a maginal or a terrestrial.  They are all aquatics.  I didn't get far enough last night to check their cultural requirements. The list I found has terrestrials as well as aquatics and it did not differentiate between the two. Back to Butterworts for the school but good news is that I actually have a 1 acre pond here as well as a few others so maybe some day... I will try a few bladderworts for myself.  

What are people using for fencing around their CPs?  Chicken wire?  Netting?  Surely there is something more attractive?
 
  • #19
Hello spectabilis, I am on a different computer now and I can see your .gif of what I believe to be a Simpson cartoon character writing on a chalkboard.  I apologize if I offended you by asking a dumb question.  

Hello jimscott, If I may ask... I am just now seeing your image of your cat. Is there some sort of a CP hanging out of its mouth?
 
  • #20
I agree, spectabilis that was quite rude. I mentioned about the birds being a problem: right now I am using some cheap plastic netting, it was sold as a 14x14 foot and used especially for covering trees. I only have a small enclosure which I keep outside, I have it wrapped in this netting and it works great. Boston is full of these sparrows too!! Perhaps you could set up poles at the corners of the bog garden, and tie this netting over the top and strapped to the poles.
 
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