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hi, just want to start off by saying that this site has been extremely useful for information regarding these plants.

ok, i was looking at the usa hardiness zone map for houston(where i live) and it says that i'm in zone 9(20-30F). I can say from experience that winter in houston is NEVER consistent, it can be warm all the way to Jan. then be cold for maybe a month then spring or it will fluctuate anywhere from 30-90F all winter and never freezing. So my question is, can the sarracenia be winterized outside or will it need to be "forced" so to speak?

thanks,
billy

ps. i realize that winter a long ways out but i just want to make sure.
 
Welcome to TF! They should be fine outside. Southeast is Southeast!
 
And the change in photoperiod should help to send them into dormancy as well.

Shawn
 
scott,

it was on your site originally that i found out about the hardiness zones(didnt even know such things existed). I was also extremely interested in your mini bog garden, i plan on looking around for shells that wont be too large to move by myself.

I am currently growing(which were all from lowes since it kills me to see them all dying):

Drosera Adelae - lots of them but i cant count them since it split a bunch. Do i need to cut the flowering stem?
Nepenthes Ventricosa - purchased yesturday!
Sarracenia(not sure what kind) - pictures will be put up shortly for help with id
2x Dionaea Muscipula

I will have to say that I am more interested in these sarracenias than anything else but i dont want to limit myself to one species of cp.

I probably started doing this a little less than a month ago, any quick do's/dont's that i should be aware of with any of these?

Thanks for all the replies!
~b
 
In that case, you're in luck! There are 9 species of Sarracenia if you're definitions of "species" are stringent, and 13 if they aren't!

DO give Sarracenia and Dionaea as much sun as you can. N. ventricosa can take full sun if adapted, too. D. adelae likes less light and is a good windowsill plant.

DO do as much research as you can, because that will answer a lot of questions you haven't even asked yet.

DO invest in an RO filter if you plan on making this a real hobby

DO buy The Savage Garden by Peter D'Amato and Growing Carnivorous Plants by Barry Rice. The latter is worth it for the pictures alone, but is also chock full of good information and advice!

DON'T believe the myths that fertilizer is bad (especially for Nepenthes). Fertilizer is like a drug. It can be used therapeutically, or you can use too much or in the wrong way and screw up, thus proliferating the myth that fertilizer is bad. I fertilize everything, except D. adelae.

DON'T stress over your plants in general, but these in particular. You have a good assortment of easy beginner plants.

DON'T worry over your temperate plants next winter. Take them out of the trays of water, and forget about them until spring. Any rain or snow you get will give them enough water. Of course if you live in some ungodly dry place, this doesn't apply to you, but you should still keep them barely wet to prevent fungus growth and root rot. I haven't watered my plants all winter, and just now have put them into tubs again.
 
Pill,

Thankfully I already own a 150gpd RO unit, but I have tested the clean water @~8PH and usually reading ~10ppm for total dissolved salts. Will the high PH interfere with the plants since Ive been reading it needs to be ~5.5? It was a new unit as of about a month ago and I just take it as being normal, opinions?
And I said, I just started recently but i find myself staying up later than i should to research and learn about these little plants as much as possible, often going to bed with some crazy elaborate idea for a backyard bog garden(which will happen shortly after my move in June to a house now that I know that the Sarr's can stay outside).

The only place other than Lowe's or HomeDepot that i know carry's cp is the Houston Herp Supply, they have a wide assortment of cp's and im sure they sell all the cp accessories. Its all the way across town(houstons pretty freakin huge) which is alot of traffic time(couple of hours during rush).

Once I get a camera or figure out how to get my crappy phone to xfer the images to my mac, I'll upload pics.
 
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