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Growing and Caring for Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia)

Sarracenia – Pitcher Plants

Soil: Sarracenia do best in a mix if one part part peat to one part sand; or one part peat to one part perlite; or two parts peat, one part perlite, and one part sand. Long fibered sphagnum moss is also works great.

Containers: Best in plastic pots or glazed ceramics. They do well in mini-bogs and bog gardens.

Watering: Use the tray method. Keep the soil damp to wet!

Light: Full to mostly full sun is best.

Climate: Warm-temperate plants, Sarracenia need warm summers and chilly winters. Tolerant of light frost and brief freezes.

Pitcher plants lure, capture & digest insects. These plants vary on the way they attract their prey. The tubular type, purpurea venosa and purpurea purpurea, have hairs that face downward & produce a sweet nectar. The vertical types such as flava, rubra, alata, leucophylla, and oreophila have hairs on the underside of the lids which form. These also have hairs which produce a sweet nectar. Their are two oddballs the minor and psittacina neither one of these have hairs instead they produce nectar on the rim of the pitcher luring the insect in. Once the insect is inside the pitcher it is slowly digested into natural nutrients the plant needs and which the soil is lacking.
GROWING INSTRUCTIONS: Keep plant in a container of distilled or rain water. Make sure the soil is kept very wet during the growing season, from May through October. Pitcher plants like warm humid conditions with summer temps between 70-100 degrees. They prefer lots of light, preferably direct sunlight. During the winter months keep the soil just damp and put in a cool area such as a garage, you may want to spray the plant with a fungicide to prevent any winter time fungus growth. Winter temps should be between 35-45 degrees. Transplanting should be done in the spring before vigorous growth. Plant in a mix of peat moss and sand. The main pests for these plants are aphids and scale.

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