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Hey folks. I'm very new around here. This is my first attempt at CP. I've made the classic hobbyist mistake that I've scolded so many fellow reefers for doing, which is buying livestock before you research. Luckily I didn't mess up too bad

I recently picked up a S. Purpurea, and a VFT from the local big box store. I've got them each in plastic pots, with a mixture of silica sand and LFS. I have each pot on the front porch where they receive about 4-5 hours of direct sun per day. Being that they came from cubes of death and were indoors I didn't want to give them much more than that, despite my understanding they can ultimately take more. I won't post pictures because they're not pic worthy yet. I keep the trays the pots sit in full with RODI water which I top off every morning when I wake up.

I've been researching and debating on what direction to go with this. My biggest problem is my location. I'm right smack dab on the border of most maps zone8/zone9. We will call it zone 9, here in college station texas. Summers are regularly 90-100 degrees with moderate humidity. These conditions typically last from mid July to some time in late September to early October where it will start dropping to the high 80s low 90s. We may get a handful of light freezes in the winter and it typically bottoms out in the 30s for only a couple months around jan/feb.

Why that info? I'm really wanting to do an outdoor container bog garden. A terrarium would be nice, but I want to try outdoors if possible. Nowhere in the home I could fit a terrarium. Maybe in the garage I could sneak a 40b onto my work bench, but I would prefer to harvest sunlight rather than do another glass box build (already have 2 aquariums).

Can anyone recommend any good starter, but beautiful and hearty species that can tolerate these temperatures and seasons outdoors? It seems like I'm looking into mostly Sarrs with these limitations but really seeking some specific species advice on what I can try and expect success with if I provide adequate substrate and water. I'd love a nice display bog with a mixture of pitchers, sundews, fly traps, ect. Any ideas or links yall can point me to would be awesome. At some point googling just isn't turning up the results I'm looking for. Thanks!


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Basically any Sarracenia (save the most northern purps) will tolerate those conditions, along with most any temperate Drosera or warm temperate Pinguicula, and terrestrial temperate bladderworts. If you're willing to make a small pond you could try the temperate aquatics too.
 
Populations of Sarracenia alata grow naturally in your state, if that helps any. That plant should have no issues with your conditions. But like said, almost all Sarracenia should grow well for you.
 
I appreciate the recommendation. After watching several YouTube videos of some outdoor bogs in large containers, that's the direction I want to go. I just want to find a nice enough container...not a bright blue or green kiddie pool, or ugly bright blue sterilite storage container.


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You should be able to grow flytraps just fine too. Zones 8-9 are a good sweet spot for temperate plants so you should be able to grow just about all of them outdoors year-round. If you do grow flytraps, protect the pots from freezing in the winter because they really don't tolerate it well.
 
I build and maintain ponds for a living, and a bog garden is basically just a pond filled with planting media instead of water. My wife just showed me pics of a pond constructed by burying a large tractor tire halfway, lining it with plastic and stacking rocks around the outside perimeter to hide the tire. Cinder blocks would work, as would landscape timbers, and timbers wouldn't need any fancying up afterwards to look nice.
 
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