Just received a flowering VFT in the mail.

[camaleona]

Last Friday I received a Dionaea "red dragon" from California Carnivores. I was rather dismayed to find that my new plant was about to flower; I've read in several places that this weakens the plant, and I was concerned that the stress of cross-country shipping plus the flowering might be too much for it. When the flytrap arrived, it had five traps, three of which were already brown at the edges. Now, three days later, those three traps are nearly dead; the remaining two (both of which had bugs in them when the plant arrived) still look fine, and one new trap appears to be emerging.

My questions for you:
1. Should I cut the flower stalk? It is about 5-6 inches high, and according to the ICPS's Dionaea FAQ, the damage is already done by this time.
2. Is there anything else you would recommend I do to keep this plant alive?

For context:
I'm a novice to CPs, having just started last summer with a Sarracenia "Dana's Delight," a S. alata, a S. purpurea, and a struggling nepenthes rescued from a pet shop. All are on my west windowsill, a large window that receives 4-5 hours of direct sunlight a day. I supplement this light with two 100-watt CFLs, situated about 14 inches above the pots, 14 hours a day. The room they are in is not air-conditioned; the temperature is about 70-75F, and the humidity is 50-60%. All are growing marvelously except the nepenthes, which hasn't produced any new traps this year (to my credit, it was in bad shape when I bought it, and the pet store employees say every other plant from that shipment died months ago) and the S. alata, which appears to have thrips (to be treated this week) but is still growing. The S. "Dana's Delight" looks best of all, with several beautiful purple-red traps and more on the way. When the flytrap arrived, I added a third 100-watt CFL, this one situated about 6 inches from the pot.

[ICPS-bob]

That the flower stalk is still intact and not broken is evidence that the packing and shipping was done well and the plant was not damaged. I would not worry about the flowering. Cut it if you like. If you want o see the flower or desire to pollinate the flowers to get seed, then leave it.

It sounds like the plant is healthy. Put in in a partly shaded area for a week or so until the plant adjusts to the new conditions, then slowly introduce it to more direct sunlight on your west windowsill. VFTs are rather hardy and you should have no problems growing them.

[Hikenyura]

I when i grow my Vft's i let them flower. As long as you give then alot of sun it should be fine. Listen to Bob and accumilate it to more direct sunlight.

[camaleona]

Fast forward to fall. Before I moved my plants to a drafty attic window for dormancy, I took a couple of photos.



The "red dragon" from this post is visible in the background to the right; as is fairly obvious even in this crappy photo, it is still fairly straggly and no longer red, but still putting out little traps. Presumably my sunny windowsill, supplemented by 3 CFLs, is still not bright enough for this plant. Hopefully it will do better next year when I put it outside where it should have gone in the first place, along with the S. "Dana's Delight" (behind the S. purpurea), which is getting too big for the windowsill. (at the rear left, you see the pitiful remains of a small Nepenthes, a pet-store rescue that I tried unsuccessfully to save.)

On the bright side (ha ha), everything else did okay, including two Dionaeas (yes, I mean VFTs) that were half dead when I bought them at half price from Lowe's (one of them is visible at bottom right in the photo above) and are looking much healthier now with lots of new growth. The S. purpurea ssp venosa at the foreground was an order from California Carnivores in late spring; it has at least doubled in size and was still putting out new pitchers when I took it to the attic.

[taz6122]

Do you know what the Nepenthes is? You may be giving it too much light! My rafflesiana is growing like wildfire under 2 13w CFLs or 40w replacement bulbs.

My 'red dragon' also looked as bad . I don't know how it will fair when spring arrives.

Your S. purpurea is doing very well as are the other VFTs and 'Dana's Delight' .

[mmlr38]

My 'Red Dragon' Dionaea's look pretty bad right now too. Perhaps this is just the way they look during dormancy? All of my other plants look pretty good considering they're well on their way into dormancy, but the 'Akai Ryu' plants look horrible.

[camaleona]

Glad to know I'm not alone on the red dragons. What I keep hearing is that they really need full sun, so I'll put it outside next spring if it makes it through the winter. All my other plants looked so beautiful that it made me sad to put them away for dormancy.

It's possible that I was giving too much light to the Nepenthes, but I tried a few different conditions over the course of a year or so, and it still slowly faded away. It was already in bad shape when I bought it, and the people from the pet store I bought it from said every single CP from that shipment died months before mine did. Late this summer I discovered that a local greenhouse carries beautiful Nepenthes and knows how to take care of them, so I may try one next spring. The two VFTs I bought from that particular greenhouse are just gorgeous--they are barely visible in the photo above, behind that fat S. purpurea.

[mmlr38]

I grew my Red Dragons out in the full sun all year and they still look pretty scraggly.