Venus Flytrap Care Sheet

General
Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) are herbaceous perennial plants which means they are long lived, lack woody parts, and require a dormancy period in the winter. Venus flytraps are the most iconic carnivorous plants in North America, native to just a 100 mile radius of coastal plains in southeastern North Carolina and extreme northeastern South Carolina. One of the very few plants in nature capable of rapid movement, they capture and digest insects to supplement their nutrient needs. In their native habitat, Venus flytraps grow in wet peaty-sandy soils in very sunny locations on swamp edges, savannas, and grasslands which are sparsely treed. Flytraps grow in nutrient poor locations where there tends to be little light competition from other plants. Venus flytraps were once abundant in their habitat, but are now threatened due to human activity. Flytraps will perform best if grown outdoors during the growing season, but windowsill growing can be done during winter in very cold climates.

Sunlight
Venus flytraps are sun lovers, in the growing season provide them with 4+ hours of direct sun, and more is better (with 6+ being ideal). Below 4 hours of direct sunlight and bright shade the rest of the day during the growing season, your flytrap will start to suffer with leggy weak growth, traps not capable of capturing prey, and the plant will slowly die. During the winter time, the plant is dormant and will be OK with 3 hours or direct sunlight until the growing season begins. Outdoors will best provide these light requirements, but sunny windowsills can work in cold climates for winter dormancy.

Temperature
Flytraps can withstand warm climates with high temperatures over 100 F in the growing season, but they can also do well in cooler climates in the summer. During the winter, flytraps can withstand temperatures in the 20s for short periods and usually do not require much protecting in USDA zones 7-9. If you live in a colder climate (zone 5 or lower), you can bring your plant inside and place it on a sunny windowsill until the growing season begins. Alternatively, you can mulch around the pot and place the plant on the ground in a protected location during winter, but you will still need to bring them inside on extremely cold days. This is discussed further in the dormancy period.

Humidity
Despite being native to a very humid climate, flytraps are quite adaptable to lower humidity. The only issue you will encounter is if you allow the plant to develop its leaves in a very humid environment and then move them to dry environment, this should be avoided. We grow our flytraps outside in the growing season in the relatively dry Front Range of the Rockies and they grow quite well.

Water
Watering your flytrap is simple, but different than other plants. Flytraps require very pure water with less than 50 ppm (parts per million) of dissolved solids in their water. Certain municipal water sources, such as where our nursery is in Colorado Springs, have tap water which meets these requirements. If you live in a location that has harder water, you will need to water with distilled or reverse osmosis purified water. The other different watering practice for flytraps is they do best bottom watered on the tray method. Sit your plant in a saucer of standing water that goes as high as 2 - 3” from the soil top. The water level can be lower, but should not be too close to where the flytrap emerges from the soil. Never allow your flytrap soil to dry, or it will quickly die. 

Soil/Pots
Flytraps require nutrient poor soil, never use potting soil. The classic mixes that flytraps perform well in are 50/50 peatmoss-perlite, or 50/50 peatmoss-silica sand. At Hardy Bonsai, we are actively working to reduce our peatmoss usage due to the damage that peat harvesting causes on the environments of the plants that we enjoy so much. We have been experimenting with washed/buffered coco coir (coco peat), using the coco peat in 50/50 mixes with either perlite or silica sand. So far, our experiments are going well, so this is a good alternative. At our nursery, we repot our flytraps as necessary when they begin to overly crowd the pot or are suffering from moss take overs. Note that flytraps have mostly black roots, this be alarming the first time you see them. Almost any drained pot that is tall enough to properly employ the tray watering method is sufficient. Unglazed terracotta pots will dry out your plant’s water tray much more quickly.

Fertilizer

Never fertilize your flytrap directly in its soil, this will kill your plant. If your flytrap is grown outside during the growing season, it will catch all the fertilizer it needs in the form of insects. The only artificial fertilizing method you should use on your flytrap is spraying the foliage with a 25% strength urea-free fertilizer. In most cases, this is not necessary.

Dormancy

To survive long term, your flytrap needs a dormancy period in the winter lasting 3 to 5 months. During this time, your flytrap should be exposed to reduced temperatures and reduced photoperiods. While dormant, the plant will stop growth and hold only a few, or no traps. Depending on your climate, dormancy can be achieved in different ways.

If you live in zones 7 – 9, you can leave your plants outside sitting in water with minimal protection only on the coldest days. If you leave in zone 6, you can leave your flytrap outside, but mulch around the pot and put your flytrap somewhere protected from winds (remember to never let it dry out). If you live in zones 5 or colder, you can bring your flytrap indoors and place it in a sunny windowsill once temperatures start to drop to freezing. In these colder climates, the cool sunny windowsill will be enough of a temperature drop for a light dormancy. A sunny garage window can also be ideal for this method. A grower can combine different methods at different times as needed. When temperatures are no longer below freezing at night, you can take your flytrap outside in the sunniest location of your property. 

Lastly, if you live in a tropical climate, but still wish to grow flytraps, some growers have had success bare rooting their plants, spraying with a fungicide, and placing them in the refrigerator for several months. This acts as an artificial dormancy. Our customers give us mixed feedback on this method.