Question
I understand S.purpurea and the like are designed to catch raiwater, is this the same for S.flava? Because I have a S.flava red variety and it has a tendency to catch rainwater and flood, it doesn't lose it's prey but the weight tends to make the elaves all floppy even after I tip the water out. How am I supposed to go about this?
just an extra... We've been in drought and I've been watering my CPs with tap water by flushing through but they drain very slowly, this should be fine still? The rain has come and it's autumn now.

Answer
Hi Danny,

No.  Sarracenia flava and other trumpet pitchers with lids have the lid to keep excess rain out.  During heavy rain they will sometimes fill, but the plants tend to take the water out in time.  It's also common for S. flava pitchers to get floppy in the late season since you should be approaching Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.  You can easily just stake them up to keep them more upright.

Whether or not your tap water is harmful depends on how hard that tap water is.  Usually if the hardness or total dissolved solids are 50 ppm (mg/l) or less the water is fine.  If the TDS is higher Sarracenia will tolerate it for awhile, but will start having problems with time.  If your rain has returned, it will wash out the excess minerals.  

I faced the same situation for many years here in Oregon in the U.S. since we have a maritime climate.  We tend to be dry all summer, then in September or October the rains return, and it rains for 8 months.  I would water with well water that was fairly hard, and I would see many pitchers brown prematurely.  The situation would reverse when the rains returned.  Now we have a high-output R.O. system.

Good Growing!

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