oh, carp! looks like teeny's trying to flower!

[bugfreak]

hey. i just wanted to share with you guys a pic of my flytrap that i feared was doomed or at least at a disadvantage. it is the one on the to in the pic. the other i accidentally got at Lowes when we went to get something else.

i should probably not let that teeny little plant use it's energy to flower, huh. where/how should i clip it?

 

[Not a Number]

Clip it as close to the base that you can get at without cutting any of the leaves - say .25 - .5 inch up from the medium. Use sharp scissors, razor blade, Xacto knife, or katana.

How do you accidentally get a VFT from Lowes? Did it just happen to fall into the shopping cart and got rung up and paid for without you noticing?

 

[abcat1993]

I think they sometimes come with other plants. Or maybe you buy one and get two like I did. I heard somewhere that you are supposed to wait until they are a few inches high before you cut them. Why? I cut mine when it was about an inch high. Is that bad?

 

[bugfreak]

well it already is a few inches high so i guess i better get to clippin.

how did i miss that? it's been raining lately and i guess i haven't been keeping that close an eye on my little plants.

 

[vraev]

lol! I cut my dentate flower stalk when it was like less than a inch. I actually didn't notice any growth spurt. However the plant has coloured up well compared to the winter.

 

[Not a Number]

Some people clip 'em as soon as it's long enough to do so safely. Some people let 'em grow a bit. When I said .25-.50 inch up from the medium, I meant the cut should be as close to the plant as is safe, not the length of the stalk (in answer to "where"). My bad.

Take a peek at this post about flower stalks and my 'Cupped Trap'.

 

[jimscott]

Is it an indoor outdoor plant?

 

[PlantAKiss]

I actually didn't notice any growth spurt.

Cutting a flower stalk doesn't give a VFT a growth spurt. For all plants, making flowers/seed expends "energy." That's why its recommended to deadhead flowers like petunias and impatiens so their growth can be put into making more flowers rather than seed. With a VFT, cutting the flower stalk just stops the seed process. It isn't going to make a lot of difference either way. If you like the flowers, let them grow. If not, cut the stalk.

It doesn't matter where you cut it. If you don't cut it, you will just get some nice white flowers. Its not really a big deal. Always refer back to nature. No one is out there cutting flower stalks off the wild ones and they stay perfectly healthy.

Personally I do cut the stalks...right down at the base. I cut any flower stalk on any plant that is not going to produce seed unless it makes pretty flowers.

 

[jimscott]

Next time cross it with a butterwort and call it Audrey....

 

[bugfreak]

Next time cross it with a butterwort and call it Audrey....

ha ha...

where the heck have you been, anyway?

okay... i think the plant is gonna do juust fine. it's not very pretty like the ones people post on the forums here, but at least it's not dying. any tips on how to get them into tip-top shape? keep in mind i live in texas and keep them outside. in the past, i've had some thrive well as long as i watered the ever living crap out of them. (summers are brutal and the water evaporates fast)

 

[jimscott]

I'm still here.... just using library computers. How's the baby?

 

[bugfreak]

baby is super! it's like a retarded midget thing or something. she's soooo cute! aleady 19 months old.

 

[jimscott]

Retarded midget? LOL! And they cry like every day, for the first 5 years of life. Scary, isn't it?!

 

[ChronoKiento]

*rolling on the floor*

Sorry I just can't get over that typo in the topic title. xD