Venus Flytrap!

Greetings, minions! I’ll be using this blog to put up my progress with my latest hobby, carnivorous plants!

As my only addition in this little hobby of mine is but a Venus Flytrap so far, I’ll go ahead and tell you how it’s grown over the last one and a half months!

It basically started out in a really small pot, with only a few traps and leafs. Bought a pot for it which seemed to fit perfectly, made it hard to meassure the water levels… but it seems that I got the hang of it nontheless. Since I don’t have a picture of when I first purchased it, I did find a very simular picture, which looked a little like this;

So tiny at first... well at least mine got moss aswell!

And after a months time or so, with constantly feeding it for fun to see it’s maws close, it grew quite considerably. My very first thought was “Oh shit, I’m gonna need a bigger pot! <insert sit-com laughing here>”, but then I found a video on how to separate the leafs and traps to replant them, which I’ll be doing later this weekend. Oh and if you’re interested in Venus Flytraps, I’ll post a small but easy tutorial down below!

Anyway, where was I… oh yeah, it had grown quite a bit (more than doubled in size and quantity!) which has left me thinking; “Am I really this AWESOME with these kind of plants?” and as it turns out, they’re really easy to care for. Which dropped my self-esteem along with any hopes to become the world’s most awesome dude every to have walked the earth. But enough doom and gloom, here’s my plant after a considerable growth!

The tall sprout that you see in this one is the blossom!

As the caption explains, the sprout is it’s blossom. The reason it’s so high is to ensure that flies and other bugs gets it’s pollen without becoming victim to the traps below, ze plant knows too much…

Going to be purchasing it’s cousin flytrap, ‘Akai Ryu‘ which is Japanese for ‘Red Dragon’ (Witness my intellect in awe!) which turns red when exposed to sunlight. Oh and here’s some tips on how you can easely care for the Venus Flytrap!

Tutorial Time!

People get easely scared off about caring for one of these, but it’s actually really easy. Just a few things that you have to consider;

• The plant is a Bog plant, and if you’re unfamiliar with the term; it basically means that it lives with a constant water supply. So always keep a 0,5 cm layer of water on the bottom of the plant which it will have access to.
• These plants are extremely sensitive to chemicals, so you should only use distilled water or rain water. If it is absolutely necessary to use tap water, allow it to set for 24-48 hours in an open container, to allow the chlorine and any other chemicals to dissipate.
• The potting mixture should consist of a mix of 70% peat or sphagnum moss and 30% perlite or coarse pumice.
• Venus Flytraps have an active growing and feeding season, from May through October. During this period the soil should be kept constantly damp. Temperatures should be kept between 21 and 35 degrees Celsius.
• During the winter, they require a dormant period of about three months. At this time, much (if not all), of the foliage will die back. The entire planter may be moved to an area where the temperature will remain at 7-10 degrees Celsius, or the bulb may be removed, sprayed with fungicide, wrapped in damp, live sphagnum moss, placed in a plastic bag, and moved to a cool area.

Feel like it’s too much? Don’t worry, it’s easier than it sounds and not really that much to worry about compared to some other plants. Oh and PS, never artificially close one of it’s traps.