Question
My venus flytrap sent up a flower stalk 2 months ago and I cut it off. Do I need to let it go through dormancy? I live in Central Alabama. One more question. My flytrap, drosera adelae, sarracenia purpurea, and rubra are growing in a mixture of 85% long fiber sphagnum moss and 15% vermiculite.
They get about 7 or 8 hours of direct sunlight. My drosera gets about 3 or 4 hours of direct sunlight. Are these the right requirements? Is it ok? If not than what are the requierments.

Thanks!

Answer
Hi Preston,

Based on your description, I'm going to assume that you're growing your flytrap and Sarracenia outdoors and your Drosera adelae indoors.  As long as your flytrap and Sarracenia are growing outdoors, they will naturally go dormant with the change in temperature and daylight hours.  It's also safe to allow your flytrap to go dormant provided that you've been growing it in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight) throughout the growing season.

To determine if your plants are receiving adequate sunlight, always base it on how your plants appear rather than on the actual hours of sunlight.  During the growing season, flytraps will have erect leaves and brightly colored traps.  Sarracenia purpurea will have short stout pitchers that are bright red.  Sarracenia rubra will have lots of erect pitchers with hints of yellow.  Visit our website and look at the photos of these plants.  If your plants look like our photographs, then you are providing adequate sunlight.

The same applies to your sundew.  It should be covered with dew when grown in adequate lighting.  You might even see hints of red.  If the leaves are completely green and dewless, then you'll need to increase the lighting.  Again, compare your plant to photos of Drosera adelae at our nursery.

On another note, you mentioned that you're using a soil mix of 85% long fiber sphagnum moss and 15% vermiculite.  I don't recommend this mix at all.  First off, vermiculite leaches minerals into the soil, so this is not an appropriate soil ingredient.  Second, long fiber sphagnum moss will retain water and provide sufficient soil acidity.  However, it tend to retain too much water, compacts over time and decrease soil aeration.  

An appropriate soil mix is 1 part sphagnum peat moss and 1 part perlite.  Sphagnum peat moss is acidic and retains water.  To improve soil aeration and drainage, perlite is added.  Perlite is inert, which means it doesn't leach minerals to the soil.  

If you wish to use long-fiber sphagnum moss, use 1 part moss and 1 part perlite (or pumice).  This would be appropriate for long-term use.  If your collection increases in size, you'll discover that sphagnum peat moss is much more economical than sphagnum moss.

For more information about lighting and soil, read our care sheets online:
http://www.cobraplant.com/caresheets

Good growing!
Jacob Farin