how can I get flowers on my Utrics

Light, light, and lots of light. Utrics love light. At least that has been my observation. Not that I'm a utric expert. I'm admittedly a neophyte when it comes to utrics. I just my first utrics 2 months ago and they are already blooming. ;D

And I have read that when they reach the limits of their environment, that can also induce flowering.

Some suggestions I've read:
- allow plant to become potbound (as mentioned)
- provide natural food supply (or unnatural as Dave suggests)
- provide seasonal time changes (photoperiod)
- provide other seasonal changes that the plant may see in its natural environment:
... increase / decrease temperatures
... induce flooding or dry periods
- combine several of the above. Example: allow the plant to become potbound and provide a dry, cold 'winter' with reduced photoperiod.
Several people have had success blooming U. longifolia with windowsill growing (cooler temps, drier winter media, seasonal photoperiod)

Dear all,

To get some Utrics in flower for me is very simple. In my greenhouse which is kept frost-free (2 degrees C) I'm keeping U. sandersonii, bisquamata small flower, bisquamata Betties Bay, bisquamata white flower and U. livida.

During early spring I devided each pot of the above species. There were in 8 cm pots and the whole pot was fully grown.

I devided each pot in 4 or 5 seperate plants and put them in 8 cm pots each.

The result were amazing for me. Within one growing season the 8 cm pots were fully grown again and flowering from June til now.

So next spring I'll split them again, especially the bisquamata Betties Bay. I had 9 plants of these and all where flowering very good. These plants are not mine, but from carnivora, my CP-society.


Take care,

Wouter Noordeloos

Keeping any plant root bound is not healthy. The plant responds with reproduction because it is stressed and thinks death is near. I also think this is the case with decreasing the water table. Proper nutrition is more likely the key.

I grow all of my Utricularia, including U. reniformis (large leaf), U. longifolia, and U. nelumbifolia, in my unheated greenhouse. I think the key to flowering is short day length and cool winter temperatures (mine gets to near freezing). They flower every summer and stay in flower for months.

Interestingly, I have had my U. reniformis (small leaf -- 'Infant Terrible') for 5 years in various pots ranging from pure perlite, pure sand, peat and sand, all peat, live sphagnum -- in both well-drained and undrained flooded pots -- and it has never flowered.

I recently (as in, a few months ago max) upped the wattage in my terrarium, and then repotted my very pot-bound U. longifolia. It was in pure LFS (but was mostly "root" at the point of repotting), I took away more than half of it, keeping what seemed to be the "center" of the plant, and put it in the same sized pot (roughly five inches across) but in a more Nepenthes-like mix of peat, LFS, perlite, orchid bark, hort sand and some lava rock.

Point is, either the repotting or the increased wattage or both has induced a flower, a first for this plant in my experience.