Each VFT plant grows from a bulblike stem below ground. This bulb may divide into several connected rosettes (or ''crowns"). Usually the youngest crowns will have smaller leaves than the older ones. Each crown will send up its own flower stalk when it's mature. It's a good bet that your double-stalked plant is actually one genetically identical plant sending up two stalks. This can exhaust your plant, so I would remove at least one flower stalk. Many growers would suggest removing both. I recommend, if you plan to keep your stalks, to ensure that you are providing both bright/full light and ample feeding. Usually the VFTs that flower to death were in suboptimal growing conditions (IMO). I lost two VFTs last year right as they were making seeds just because I neglected feeding. I get almost 16 hours of unobstructed sun in the summer, but I never fertilized or fed bugs to the traps at all. The traps just kept getting smaller and smaller until the plants died--the seeds had only ripened halfway, too.Ok, I definitely can't top the funky behavior in the picture above, but I do have another question about flowering. Each VFT only puts out a single flower stalk, correct? Last year I bought a couple VFT's, and this year, it looks like one of the plants is sending up a double flower stalk. Since I am fairly new at this, I am assuming that there are actually 2 plants in this pot right next to each other, and each is sending up its own flower? I have examined the traps & might be able to convince myself that there are 2 different sizes, but I wondered if anyone had seen this and could tell me different.
And yes, I have read all the info about possible death to the plant by letting it flower, but I have a number of other VFT plants & I figure, what the heck, let's live dangerously ... the worst that could happen? It would give me an excuse to buy a couple more plants ;-)
Test to see if the trap is functional
Yup!