Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Carnivorous complications...visible in the upper right corner, my butterwort is moldy! First, remove it so nobody else suffers...
....clear the bad foliage, and new growth is visible-cool!
But a week or so later, not so much. Rats! Another look at the others, and now one of the fly traps is suffering, too. I did have them in too little sunlight for awhile after I bought them, so the problem here is likely me.......this situation looks pretty bad.......but at least this one is making a comeback. The sundew looks decent, with only a little die-off...
...after a tidying they all go back to try and recover.
A few days later, a peek at the sick flytrap-no new growth yet (although the moss is greening up)...

....as for the sundew, he has a new roomate!
Look at this cute little mushroom! I'd say the humidity in here is adequate for sure...see the sticky droplets on the sundew's "hairs"? Awesome! And the green flytrap looks a lot happier! When they say that flytraps need full sun, they are not kidding!

Still no new growth on the butterwort (struggling in quarantine elsewhere) or the other flytrap, but 3 out of 5 ain't bad for a carnivorous beginner! (Heh...says me ;-)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Says me,too. Sometimes we have to sacrifice a few plants to the plant gods, when we're trying out a new genus.
You'll get the hang of it.
The mushroom is cute! I had one of those pop up in a pot one day and by the next day it was dried up.
Good luck with the newbies!

Zut Alors said...

that mushroom is SUPER cute! i've always been afraid of carnivorous plants. They're so delicate. love the pics, i want more!

Gardener of La Mancha said...

Sundews are tough. I've killed a couple. I've never tried butterworts, though I think they're very cool. Hang in there.

Gotta Garden said...

I'm trying a few of these, too! Thanks for your link up there. My butterwort is not looking so swell either. I got it because I thought the little purple flower was cute. Maybe it is just a hard one? My venus fly trap has sent up buds...can't wait to see what that will look like!

I got them to eat fungus gnats from my seedlings, but I am late late late on starting the seedlings, so the army is sitting in the kitchen window awaiting their mission...(let's hope they're still hanging on for when I need them!)

Good luck with them!

Rurality said...

We got a butterwort at the MG conference last weekend! The man told us that he only waters with rainwater. I'm hoping that creek water works just as well.

lisa said...

Vonne-Thanks! I just hate killing plants, but hopefully there won't be too many more! :)

Zut-Thanks! I hope to get a decent grasp on these, then expand my collection. There are so many cool carn's out there!

Gardener of LaMancha-Thanks for that, I feel better!


Gotta Garden-That link was something, eh? That dude has an enormous personal collection, and I found myself wanting to get a bunch more. :) I have some fungus gnats, too...must be hatching time or something. I'm WAY behind with seedlings, too...must be our lingering snowcover. I just don't feel like it's really spring yet.


Karen-I bet creekwater would be okay...they say just not city tap or well water due to mineral content. I used distilled water to be safe.

Anonymous said...

That butterwort looks a little damp. You probably do not want to keep it with the others in winter, when it likes to dry out a bit. See here.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, duh, I assumed it was a Mexican species. See here for yours. They say it is winter-dormant too, but probably less so than the Mexican spp.

lisa said...

Wow! Thank you for such an informative link! Luckily, I moved the butterwort to a colder, less humid or sunny location, and it's dried a bit several times from "lucky" neglect. Cool...it may actually come back!