How to Grow a Venus Fly Trap

A Venus Fly Trap is a diminutive rosette plant with a reputation based greatly on a little movie-turned-Broadway musical-turned Hollywood musical called Little Shop of Horrors. While Audrey II was an ungentle giant, a real Venus Fly Trap is typically no bigger than eight inches around. The trap part of the Venus Fly Trap is the actual leaft and it lures unfortunate victims to their untimely demise by the use of secreted nectar. The way the Venus Fly Trap works as a trap is by using infinitesimal hairs that act as a kind of trigger; if an insect touches those hairs, they will soon be taking a leaf nap. Although the Venus Fly Trap can appear to be opening in slow motion, once the hair trigger is pulled, you probably won't be able to see the trap close with the naked eye; it can close on a victim in under a second. Once the trap is closed, it's time for the Venus Fly Trap's digestive juices to kick into overdrive. Not that the overdrive of digestive secretions means that the Trap will be chowing down any time soon; it can take as long as a week for even a tiny housefly to get fully digested.

Venus Fly Traps typically can be located in clammy areas found around bogs. Each spring witnesses the magical arrival of the return of the Venus Fly Trap. Your city probably has it own version of Venus Fly Trap Days to celebrate this truly stunning display as the plants unravel their small leaves. By April or May, right around the time that the excitement of the Venus Fly Trap Parade is dying down, the plant flowers. Then it's time for the humidity of summer when one can whip out a straw, plunge it into the wet, heavy atmosphere and literally gain liquid sustenance from the air. And what is the Venus Fly Trap doing? Producing ever larger leaves that should stay that way throughout the season, waiting until Old Man Winter's upstart nephew Middle-Aged Autumn arrives and causes their size to decrease. By the time youngsters are planning for the arrival of Santa Claus, the Venus Fly Trap is as dormant as a volcano.

Should you decide to take it upon yourself to grow a less homicidal version of the plant made famous in the various incarnations of Little Shop of Horrors, remember that the best possible habitat for growing one is a simple plastic pot. You won't need one bigger that four inches if you want to grow then individually; an eight inch pot can house around seven or eight comfortably. Get yourself some sphagnum moss first off. Now I know with a name like sphagnum moss your first thought it going to be something along the lines of, "Ooh, that sounds like some good eats." But resist the temptation to eat it and instead use it to cover the holes along the bottom of the pot. Pour in some soil; ideally, the soil should be roughly half sphagnum peat moss and half sand. Take your nifty little Venus Fly Trap pot and place it carefully into a large saucer. The saucer is there primarily because it is a lot easier to water the Fly Trap by pouring water into the saucer rather than trying to water the plant from above. If at all possible, keep about an inch of water in the saucer until it has almost evaporated completely. When the level gets that low, treat the saucer like it's a brand new supply of instant water....and just add water. As far as the water you should use for keeping your little Audrey II sated, the sad truth is that most water that comes from your tap is too overburdened with nasty little minerals and elements to keep your Venus Fly Trap alive for long. Distilled water is good; rainwater is even better.

Next find yourself a relatively sunny place where you can allow your Venus Fly Trap to flourish. Try to find a place around your house where the Venus Fly Trap can receive at least five hours of direct sunlight each day. Should you be planning to use a terrarium, still keep them in their pots. This makes it easier to remove them during the winter months when they are dormant. Invest in some fluorescent lights and place them about eight inches over the plan for a 12 hour period. Since your Venus Fly Trap will not survive inside the terrarium all year if you live in a warm area, you'll have to remove it during the winter dormancy. If you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse, growing a Venus Fly Trap couldn't be easier. As long as you live in an area where the winter evenings cool down at least into the forties you can keep your Fly Trap in the greenhouse except during the dormant season.

Venus Fly Traps are not long term plants. By their third year, you will notice a significant decline in the quality if you don't transplant them to new soil. The best time to transplant a Venus Fly Trap is when the dormant season comes to a close, usually anywhere from February to April.