Overwintering Carnivorous Plants

From: Rick Hillier (rhillier@swconnection.com)
Date: Fri Sep 26 1997 - 05:29:16 PDT


Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 08:29:16 -0400
From: Rick Hillier <rhillier@swconnection.com>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg3717$foo@default>
Subject: Overwintering Carnivorous Plants

Greetings,

As this is my first post after lurking for a very long time, I guess
that I should introduce myself.

I am 36 years old and have been writing software professionally for
about 17 years. About 11 years ago, I released a shareware program
called Catdisk, the latest version of which is still rolling merrily
along. It now consumes much of my working time (even with two part-time
personnel onboard), although I still find time on occasion to take on a
new custom project for someone.

I've been a carnivorous plant nut since my childhood. My interest
jumped up a few notches when i went to University of Guelph, which had a
display of carnivorous plants in one of its many greenhouses. I now
have a moderate sized collection of CP's, which includes all basic
species of North American Sarracenia (except Oreophila, which I would
kill for), Drosera, Dionaea, and Nepenthes.

Although I have had many of these plants since the early eighties, this
is the first year that tried growing many of them (particularly the
Sarracenia, Drosera and Dionaea) outdoors. I had always thought that
the humidity in this area was insufficient to grow them in this manner.
It was a pleasant surprise to see them flourish.

Living in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (about 60 miles west
of Toronto) area, I am wondering which, if any, other than the native
CP's of this area would be able to survive a winter outdoors here. I
know that I can strike the Neps and non-hibernacula-forming sundews from
the list, but I've heard that some of the other Sarracenia, Dionaea and
Drosera could survive.

If it's not an option, I may move my whole indoor setup to my cottage
where I keep the winter temperature at a minimum of 45 degrees
fahrenheit. Actually, that will probably be a constant 45 degrees.
Will this be sufficient to not kill the plants that don't want to go
dormant, but induce dormancy in the others?

>>> Rick <<<



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