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Does anyone have an indoor carnivorous plant garden?

Sorry this is gonna be a long post as it’s another passion of mine lol

I’ve got a collection of large carnivorous plants (cp’s), but I keep mine in a unheated greenhouse as most of them need a winter dormancy period.

If you want to enjoy them on your windowsill in doors, they will need as much sun as you can give them so south facing is best. The most important thing to remember is they will need a soil specifically for carnivourous plants as normal garden soil or shop bought generic compost is too rich in nutrients which they won’t like. I use a mix of pure peat, perlite and live spaghnum moss, in various mixtures depending what I’m potting as pure peat is getting hard to source and not very environmentally friendly I’ve had a lot of success growing them in 100% live spaghnum moss or the sphagnum mixed with some perlite. Watering wise, you have to use either rain water or RO water with as close to zero tds as possible. The high nutrients/tds in most tap water will eventually kill them. CP’s evolved to catch their own food as their natural environment is lacking nutrients.

If you buy tropical varieties they can stay indoors year round, but the majority need a winter rest so you will need to pop them outside for dormancy.

I’ve tried keeping some of mine in a terrarium type setup but found they needed a lot of air flow and did suffer and rot, I’ve also have tried keeping a few different species on south facing windows and heat can be a issue particularly with varieties that come from high ranges where it’s incredibly sunny but cool like the Sun Pitcher Plants - Heliamphora … that was a expensive mistake! Sarracenia, Venus Flytraps and some of Sundews might be better suited. There are also some beautiful Pingularia species and Utriculari the former being very easy to grow in glass containers where you get to see the interesting roots which they use for trapping their food.

Heres a few photos of mine.
 

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Robbie X said:
Hi all.
My new house has a South facing living room window.
Im toying with the idea of creating a carnivorous plant garden on the windowsill.
I think a really, really shallow glass tank might make a good base for the water and soil etc.
Has anyone ever given this a try?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Hey, I've got cephalotus, pings and various nepenthes on my south facing bedroom window. All doing well, so it's worth trying. I got mine from Hampshire carnivorous plants.

I just use small saucers for each, and I elevate the nepenthes so they don't have soaked feet.
PXL_20210721_205754595.jpg
PXL_20210811_144628263.jpg
PXL_20210811_144637188.jpg
PXL_20210811_144616606.jpg
 
I'm keeping a few in terrarium setups, but not an entire carnivore garden, tho it is on my wishlist. But as said above you would need to source the ones that do not require winter dormancy. These do exist but are not always readily available and more or less relatively expensive. In my quest, I already lost over 100 quits on failed carnivorous experiments dying on me. It's not really a low budget side of the hobby.

Bottom line, all carnivorous sp. that originate from the Northern hemisphere are the ones you regularly find in shops are the ones that can go into dormancy. If they do they can not be kept to warm. All tho they could be fooled if enough artificial light is provided during the winter period. If this isn't an option you would need to source the tropical ones. But still even tho they don't go into dormancy they still are rather light-dependent to thrive. This could be a challenge with natural light only. It might survive the winter but will not look at its best during this period. Success is not garanteed they can be pretty picky and die on you...

Your choices in tropical varieties you will have are mainly
Drosera sp.
Utricularia sp.
Pinguicula sp.
Heliamphora sp.
Cepalothus sp.
Nepenthes sp. (All tho rather big plants, can be sourced small but eventually will outgrow small setups.)

Some sites to keep track of to source them in Europe are

www.wistuba.com

wistuba.com

www.wistuba.com www.wistuba.com
The last one used to have a huge invitro collection on eBay. But his shop seems to be empty lately. I have no idea why.

weirdplantsshop on eBay

Follow weirdplantsshop on eBay. Buying, Selling, Collecting on eBay has never been more exciting!
www.ebay.com
 
There's this

Carnivorous Plants

Hi has anyone got experience or tips for the above, I want to try a Venus fly trap, could it be kept emersed in a soap dish thing
www.ukaps.org

And this
www.ukaps.org

Carnivorous plants

Thought I'd share a pic or two of my Drosera or Sundew. @Iain Sutherland kindly gave me a few plants that have since grown and started to flower.
www.ukaps.org
 
Greengeek said:
Sorry this is gonna be a long post as it’s another passion of mine lol

I’ve got a collection of large carnivorous plants (cp’s), but I keep mine in a unheated greenhouse as most of them need a winter dormancy period.

If you want to enjoy them on your windowsill in doors, they will need as much sun as you can give them so south facing is best. The most important thing to remember is they will need a soil specifically for carnivourous plants as normal garden soil or shop bought generic compost is too rich in nutrients which they won’t like. I use a mix of pure peat, perlite and live spaghnum moss, in various mixtures depending what I’m potting as pure peat is getting hard to source and not very environmentally friendly I’ve had a lot of success growing them in 100% live spaghnum moss or the sphagnum mixed with some perlite. Watering wise, you have to use either rain water or RO water with as close to zero tds as possible. The high nutrients/tds in most tap water will eventually kill them. CP’s evolved to catch their own food as their natural environment is lacking nutrients.

If you buy tropical varieties they can stay indoors year round, but the majority need a winter rest so you will need to pop them outside for dormancy.

I’ve tried keeping some of mine in a terrarium type setup but found they needed a lot of air flow and did suffer and rot, I’ve also have tried keeping a few different species on south facing windows and heat can be a issue particularly with varieties that come from high ranges where it’s incredibly sunny but cool like the Sun Pitcher Plants - Heliamphora … that was a expensive mistake! Sarracenia, Venus Flytraps and some of Sundews might be better suited. There are also some beautiful Pingularia species and Utriculari the former being very easy to grow in glass containers where you get to see the interesting roots which they use for trapping their food.

Heres a few photos of mine.
Click to expand...
Wow, I love your triffid house! As soon as I had seen the photos I went out the garden and decided I “need” one on this spot lol.
Im now trying to decide what greenhouse would suit me best lol.
The spot is around 400x270cm. The rear and one end will be against a fence but I think it will be ok.
Suggestions anyone?
Also, thank you for such a detailed reply. There seem to be a lot more species available than I realised.
I just had a little rummage in my storage room, its still full of unpacked and now unnecessary clutter but I did retrieve this antique terrarium I picked up a few years ago and never got round to using. It will make a lovely triffid home. It does need some silicone sealant inside the base to make it totally watertight but that will only take a few minutes to fix. It also means I can start buying the soil and plants this eve! Happy days 😀
There is a wet woodland and marsh to the rear of my house so plenty of sphagnum moss for projects.
Cheers
 

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Aqua360 said:
Hey, I've got cephalotus, pings and various nepenthes on my south facing bedroom window. All doing well, so it's worth trying. I got mine from Hampshire carnivorous plants.

I just use small saucers for each, and I elevate the nepenthes so they don't have soaked feet. View attachment 173715View attachment 173716View attachment 173717View attachment 173718
Click to expand...
Many thanks, love your plants, especially the first image. Is it a mixture of species in one pot?
Ill take a look at Hampshire carnivorous plants website :)
 
zozo said:
I'm keeping a few in terrarium setups, but not an entire carnivore garden, tho it is on my wishlist. But as said above you would need to source the ones that do not require winter dormancy. These do exist but are not always readily available and more or less relatively expensive. In my quest, I already lost over 100 quits on failed carnivorous experiments dying on me. It's not really a low budget side of the hobby.

Bottom line, all carnivorous sp. that originate from the Northern hemisphere are the ones you regularly find in shops are the ones that can go into dormancy. If they do they can not be kept to warm. All tho they could be fooled if enough artificial light is provided during the winter period. If this isn't an option you would need to source the tropical ones. But still even tho they don't go into dormancy they still are rather light-dependent to thrive. This could be a challenge with natural light only. It might survive the winter but will not look at its best during this period. Success is not garanteed they can be pretty picky and die on you...

Your choices in tropical varieties you will have are mainly
Drosera sp.
Utricularia sp.
Pinguicula sp.
Heliamphora sp.
Cepalothus sp.
Nepenthes sp. (All tho rather big plants, can be sourced small but eventually will outgrow small setups.)

Some sites to keep track of to source them in Europe are

www.wistuba.com

wistuba.com

www.wistuba.com www.wistuba.com
The last one used to have a huge invitro collection on eBay. But his shop seems to be empty lately. I have no idea why.

weirdplantsshop on eBay

Follow weirdplantsshop on eBay. Buying, Selling, Collecting on eBay has never been more exciting!
www.ebay.com
Click to expand...
Awesome, cheers for the info zozo :)
 
Hi all,
Robbie X said:
I really like these
Click to expand...
They are easy to grow for a CP. They don't need acid growing conditions and they are much more forgiving of <"less than perfect growing conditions">. I started with one leaf (they will grow from a leaf cutting) and have quite a few now. One is just beginning to flower now.
Robbie X said:
The flowers remind me of orchids
Click to expand...
Some of the <"epiphytic Utricularia spp. are really orchid like">, unfortunately they are difficult to grow. I think Marcel (@zozo ) has his eye on <"U. alpina"> which maybe more amenable to careful cultivation.

This one is the gorgeous U. campbelliana

U_campelliana.jpg


cheers Darrel
 
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