Sarracenia Care Sheet

General
Drosera (sundews) are herbaceous perennial plants which means they are long lived, lack woody parts, and require a dormancy period in the winter. Sundews are carnivorous bog plants, native to almost every continent on earth. These plants lure prey in with nectar, produce adhesive on their leaves to catch the prey, then digest it using strong enzymes.

In their native habitat, these plants grow in wet highly-acidic soils in very sunny locations such as bogs, fens, and swamps. They grow in nutrient poor locations where there tends to be little light competition from other plants. Sundews will perform best if grown outdoors during the growing season.

Sunlight
Sundews are sun lovers, in the growing season provide them with 4+ hours of direct sun, and more is better (with 6+ being ideal). Below 4 hours of direct sunlight and bright shade the rest of the day during the growing season, your plant will start to suffer with leggy weak growth, lack of dew production, and the plant will slowly die. During the winter time, the plant is dormant and will be OK with 3 hours or direct sunlight until the growing season begins. Outdoors will best provide these light requirements with proper winter protection such as a greenhouse.

Temperature
Cold-hardy sundews (temperate Drosera)can withstand warm climates with high temperatures over 100 F in the growing season, but they can also do well in cooler climates in the summer. During the winter, temperate Drosera can withstand temperatures in the 20s for short periods and usually do not require much protecting in USDA zones 7-9. If you live in a colder climate (zone 5 or lower), you can overwinter your plant in a cold garage or shed until the growing season begins. They will form a hibernacula (tight winter roots).

Humidity
Despite being native to a very humid climate, sundews are quite adaptable to lower humidity. The only issue you will encounter is if you allow the plant to develop its leaves in a very humid environment and then move them to dry environment, this should be avoided. We grow our sundews outside in the growing season in the relatively dry Front Range of the Rockies and they grow quite well.

Water
Watering your plant is simple, but different than other plants. Sundews require very pure water with less than 50 ppm (parts per million) of dissolved solids in their water. Certain municipal water sources, such as where our nursery is in Colorado Springs, have tap water which meets these requirements. If you live in a location that has harder water, you will need to water with distilled or reverse osmosis purified water. The other different watering practice for pitcher plants is they do best bottom watered on the tray method. Sit your plant in a saucer of standing water that goes as high as 2 - 3” from the soil top. The water level can be lower, but should not be too close to where the plant emerges from the soil. Never allow your soil to dry, or it will quickly die. 

Soil/Pots
Require nutrient poor soil- never use potting soil. The classic mixes that pitcher plants perform well in are 50/50 peatmoss-perlite, or 50/50 peatmoss-silica sand. At Hardy Bonsai, we are actively working to reduce our peatmoss usage due to the damage that peat harvesting causes on the environments of the plants that we enjoy so much. We have been experimenting with washed/buffered coco coir (coco peat), using the coco peat in 50/50 mixes with either perlite or silica sand. So far, our experiments are going well, so this is a good alternative. At our nursery, we repot our Drosera as necessary when they begin to overly crowd the pot or are suffering from moss take overs. Almost any drained pot that is tall enough to properly employ the tray watering method is sufficient. Unglazed terracotta pots will dry out your plant’s water tray much more quickly.

Fertilizer

Never fertilize directly in the plants soil, this will kill your plant. If your sundew is grown outside during the growing season, it will catch all the fertilizer it needs in the form of insects. The only artificial fertilizing method you should use on your plant is spraying the foliage with a 25% strength urea-free fertilizer. In most cases, this is not necessary.

Dormancy

To survive long term, your sundew plant needs a dormancy period in the winter lasting 3 to 5 months. During this time, your plant should be exposed to reduced temperatures and reduced photoperiods. While dormant, the plant will stop growth and hold only a few, or no traps. Depending on your climate, dormancy can be achieved in different ways. If you live in zones 7 – 9, you can leave your plants outside sitting in water with minimal protection only on the coldest days. If you leave in zone 6, you can leave your plant outside, but mulch around the pot and put your sundew somewhere protected from winds (remember to never let it dry out). If you live in zones 5 or colder, you can bring your sundew indoors and place it in a sunny windowsill once temperatures start to drop to freezing. In these colder climates, the cool sunny windowsill will be enough of a temperature drop for a light dormancy. A sunny garage window can also be ideal for this method. A grower can combine different methods at different times as needed. When temperatures are no longer below freezing at night, you can take your sundew outside in the sunniest location of your property. Lastly, if you live in a tropical climate, but still wish to grow sundews, some growers have had success bare rooting their plants, spraying with a fungicide, and placing them in the refrigerator for several months. This acts as an artificial dormancy. Our customers give us mixed feedback on this method.

Previous