how to raise public awareness?

[carnivorous23]

I've been reading the thread on a national Sarracenia collection, and I feel this may warrant another thread.

It seems like the general public knows very little about Sarracenia pitcher plants. Perhaps some methods for raising awareness could be used. It certainly would help to have a few more people concerned about them dissapearing.

Most smaller botanical gardens do not have collections of carnivorous plants. The one in Buffalo, New York, which I visited had a collection consisting of 1 Nepenthes alata. Perhaps, some kind of information could be drawn up, and smaller botanical gardens, zoological gardens, or other public places can be given information on how to grow these plants, and perhaps a few extra plants by local growers, in exchange for posting information about the plants so that the public sees them and learns a little about them. I would assume that perhaps some of the commercial growers such as PFT might be willing to donate excess plants, also, since raising public awareness may get new customers for the commercial growers as well.

Anyone else have any ideas on how to raise public awareness? Do people consider this something to be concerned about?

 

[herenorthere]

It would be difficult for a botanical garden in Buffalo to create a Sarracenia exhibit without a significant investment of money, space, and time.  Yes, some would easily fit into a display of southern Coastal Plain wetlands, but how likely is it for a northen garden to have such a thing.  I'm excluding S. purpurea from this, by the way. A single Sarracenia leucophylla will hold someone's attention for a few seconds, but a hundred of them make for a dramatic scene.

The place to create Sarracenia displays is in the southern Coastal Plain.  Atlanta Botanical Garden is featured prominently in The Savage Garden and it should be fairly easy to create similar, if lesser displays at other parks, gardens, and zoos.  And those are the places where visitors are most likely to encounter Sarracenias in the wild and vote for state and local politicians whose decisions about land use, land acquisition, etc. will affect Sarracenias.