Question
QUESTION: This  past  2008 summer  developed slow and so did the plants.  Winter seemed to start late, and the plants  never died  down, just some of the stems and  some of the ends, but some green and some of teh reddish  ones  still exists, even after the amount of snow this past  3  weeks we had  before Christmas.  Since the stems are  still greenish, and some of the ends look dead,  should I just cut them off, bend them down so they will die  and then cut at the base?  The other issue I transplanted some as  they were getting crowded  rysomes.  One  pot  did not  come back, and I presume it might the following year, some others came up kinda scrawnie,  i.e. stems  did not  preduce  with vigor and stayed  small/short.  
My main questions deals with the stems  and if to cut or not.

ANSWER: Hi Harold,

Your plants look just like they should this time of year.  Not all of them die back completely.  Hybrids such as Judith Hindle often have leaves that persist during the winter.  Most S. purpurea varieties are partially evergreen.

Just cut off any unsightly foliage.  By the end of winter we cut off most Sarracenia leaves before spring.  The exceptions are S. purpurea and S. psittacina.  We also leave the phyllodia on S. oreophila and S. flava.

Your loss of vigor with your transplants may be because of the time of year you did it.  Rhizome division should only be done in the early spring, and never during active growth during the summer.  Also you have to use some judgment on how small you break the plants apart.  Lastly you have to be sure and cut off any flowers so they don't put too much energy into that when they are trying to recover.  Even though they didn't look too good last season, they will probably look much better next spring.  Our new video, "Grow Carnivorous Plants Volume #1" has a chapter on how to correctly divide Sarracenia.


Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thanks.  My concern  was cutting would  destroy the energy in the leaves  that return to the rhysome.  

I also forgot to mention, in the past  sometime the rh..  smelled so bad, that I took a mixture of cholox  and water dunked and then immed  rinsed.  

a couple years ago I tried to buy puralate  ?  and it was pulled offthe market as it  caused lung cancer.  I tried  vermiculite but I didn't think it  worked so well, in  fact  it seemed to get more compact.

I did  do the seperation  in early spring.  They did have a lot  of legs , so maybe  trimmming them once in a while will help them fill out.

I just left them to grow. I figured something is working as they were always  full of bugs.

Appreciate your time.

Sometimes I can not read  or understand what the letters are in the spam guard.

Also, sometimes  I give up in sending as the site will not recognize my email, even after about 3-4  retries hw

Answer
Hi Harold,

We've been trimming the plants for decades, and I can say they always look better when they are trimmed than not.  It has to do with sun being able to get to the rhizome.

The rhizomes shouldn't smell bad when transplanting.  It sounds like your soil is breaking down.  Be sure you're using low-mineral water such as distilled water or rainwater.  Also, keep the water no more than 1/4 of the way up the pots.  Keeping them excessively deep, especially during the heat of the summer will encourage decay.

You didn't mention where where you live.  Perlite is still very available in our area.  The health risk with perlite is a disease called  silicosis.  Long-term exposure to the dust could also increase lung cancer risk.  Perlite is made from silica and the dust will cause lung irritation.  A very simple way to eliminate this risk when using perlite is simply to wet it down before use.  This eliminates the dust.  If you can't find perlite use washed sand, pumice or small lava rock.  Avoid vermiculite since as you noticed, it is heavy, and it also makes the soil more alkaline.  It could also be a reason for the peat breaking down and some of the problems you were having.

I wish I could help you with the spam guard, but it's a necessary evil to prevent horrendous amounts of spam.


Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com