Hi Guys,
I currently grow both forms of truncata. The lowland it only recently purchased (4 months ago??). At any rate, they're not really fast or slow. I think the lowland form grows a bit faster, but it's a slightly larger plant, too....so that could be why.
the one thing I've noticed about truncs is that while leaves may come out in 6 weeks, it can take that long again for the pitchers to inflate....For some reason they just take a long time to open.
I agree with Steve about having a loose soil mix, too. The truncata I killed several years ago was doing very well until the soil compacted. Live & learn!
Edit:
Almost forgot!
EG, your experience with the trunc not growing for a whole year is not really that surprising - I've had neps of all kinds go into prolonged periods of no growth after some sort of shock - frost bite, getting badly dropped, scale infection, whatever.