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Naturalizing and propagating VFTs on private acreage in FL- pointers pls

Hello all,

I am considering attempting to naturalize a population of VFTs in my front yard here in the swamp in NE Florida. I already have pings and sundews growing in that part of the yard and I have several sarrs growing elsewhere as well. There are also bladderworts in the swamp at the back of my acreage. All of the currently present plants are natives.

I feel with my prime habitat, I won't be hurting anything by introducing the VFTs as the land can more than support it.

What I would like pointers on is the following; what cultivar would:

• Be vigorous
• Be hardy
• Stay low growing (to survive the regular mowing like the pings and sundews do)
• Preferably be red in order to be easy to find
• Breed and spread on it's own; I do NOT want sterile cultivars

Thanks for the heads up! VFTs would really round out the carnivorous species here IMO. I'd like to make this happen next spring. :D
 
Low Giant might work. Mine was very red when I got it, but did lose some of that. But the nice thing is the traps lay flat all year, unlike my typicals which tend to put the traps straight up in the summer. Can't vouch as to whether it's sterile or not though.
 
Interesting, I didn't know there were sterile VFT cultivars. I'll have to google this and find out more. Thanks for the heads up.
 
This sounds like an amazing project! Its like a terrarium in your own backyard!

Please keep us updated! :love:
 
Interesting, I didn't know there were sterile VFT cultivars. I'll have to google this and find out more. Thanks for the heads up.

There may not be. This is the type of information that I was hoping to glean lol. If they will all flower, pollinate and produce viable seeds then I suppose my search will become quite a bit easier lol

This sounds like an amazing project! Its like a terrarium in your own backyard!

Please keep us updated! :love:

I will! Someone had previously asked me for pics of the Yard o' Pings; I've yet to deliver. I've been in the busy season at work so the internet and my own projects have taken a back seat. As work slows down and the temperatures cool, hopefully my own endeavors will have more time!
 
Why ruin a natural bog with a non-indigenous species?
 
Why ruin a natural bog with a non-indigenous species?

Its not the wild areas in which I'm planning to do this- its my front yard. From the point of view of preserving the natural state, I'm sure the now-natualized and no longer managed 20 year established St. Augustine has done infinitely more damage than some VFTs would.

I've got 10.5 acres; I don't feel guilty about using a small chunk of the front one acre yard for a project like this.
 
FWIW there is a naturalized population of Dionaea muscipula in the Hosford Bog, Liberty County, Florida (Panhandle-Gulf). These were probably introduced during the 1970's. Given the right conditions and left undisturbed Venus Flytraps will do very well but perhaps not on an "invasive" level. For one thing these plants have high recognition value and often get removed legally or otherwise for whatever reasons.

You can read about the Hosford Bog and other CP locations in this blog:
http://floraofohio.blogspot.com/2014/07/botanizing-florida-panhandle-venus-fly.html
 
Oh wow, I had no idea you had that much land to work with! That sounds fine if you contain them to that one spot, which they'll probably do by themselves. Very heavy seeds for their size.
 
  • #10
I say spread em far and wide! Does anybody really expect them to not go extinct if we were to let them fend for themselves in their tiny locale of north carolina? as far as venus flytraps are concerned, I think naturalizing them in many different places is a good way to go
 
  • #11
That is not a responsible method, spreading nonnative species in vast places ruins the natural flora and fauna and opens the possibility of Dionaea ending up in a place where they could be invasive (not likely, but possible). Proper management of where they are native is possible, and just because you naturalize a species somewhere does not mean it belongs there or will survive long term.
Personal property in a small location is understandable, it's not unlike having a bog garden, but letting a species spread in a large location would be highly irresponsible.
 
  • #12
I agree with hcarlton
 
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  • #13
Also Dionaea will definitely not go extinct ex-situ – tissue culture and the CP hobby will ensure that. There's no need to change the character of other bogs by introducing a non-native.
 
  • #14
I think of it in a more long term sort of way. when you consider the scope of all that humanity has already done, it seems a little "late" to be worrying about where venus flytraps grow.. I like to think of earth a sort of long running biological experiment. It has had extinction events before but in those most things just died. Humans are changing the climate and spreading species thousands of miles beyond what they would ever be capable of doing on their own. we are even creating new biomes (cities and such) Nothing like it has ever happened before. when you think about it that way it's pretty incredible.

I still care about stuff, don't get me wrong. I just don't see a lot of things as such a big deal as a lot of people make them out to be

Just imagine the earth as an exotic, old rotten fruit floating through space that never disintegrates until the sun goes dormant
 
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