Growing Sarracenia from seed

Growing Sarracenia pitcher plants from seed is a little more difficult than growing something like a tomato from seed.  Sarracenia seeds need to be cold wet stratified prior to germination.  It also takes time to get a good looking plant. 

Below are some examples of Sarracenia that I have grown from seed.  They don't have perfect conditions, and could almost certainly grow faster than this, but it is how they grow for me in my yard so may give people an idea of what to expect if they try to grow pitcher plants from seed. 

Sarracenia rosea

Sarracenia rosea are truly an amazing pitcher plant.  Fat pitchers, curly lids, burgundy coloration, faint veining, and is low growing.  Flowers are pink in color, look like an upside down umbrella, and bloom in late spring.  A real show stopper.  It takes about three or four years to get a flowering plant from seed.

The first year seedlings are down below, they are tiny.  If I grow them cramped together like this or if I divide them into individual pots they always seem to stay this size in their first year.  While they are clearly pitcher plants, they look little like their adult form.

The plants directly below are in their second year.  They will likely be large enough to flower in their third of fourth year.  They have genetic diversity, some produce fat pitchers, while others produce skinny pitchers.  

Sarracenia rosea second year plants

Unfortunately a caterpillar got in and ate the plant with the fat pitchers, but the plant will survive this and grow larger.

The colours of the pitchers are lovely.  They range from light pink in low light, to dark red in higher light.  

These are very cold hardy so have no issues with the winters here.

First year the seedlings look like pitcher plants, but don't look like rosea.  To be honest, I don't know if I could tell them apart from seedlings of any of the taller sarracenia species.

Believe it or not, these are first year plants of Sarracenia rosea

Sarracenia flava

Sarracenia flava, also known as the 'yellow pitcher plant' produce lovely tall pitchers.  Most of the seeds were lost in a storm last year.  This year I have plenty of first year seedlings.

You can see the plant below is dark part way up the pitchers, this is from all the tiny insects it is trapping.  These are insect killing machines!  

This is a second year plant, It grew larger over summer than it is in this photo and will likely be large enough to flower in its third or fourth year.

Sarracenia flava second year plant

The first year plants are below.  These look a little more like the parent plant.  It's difficult to tell the difference between species at this size so I make sure they are labelled.

Once again I don't find that keeping them crowded in their first year stunts their growth.  The plant above was in its own pot in its first year and looked much the same as the plants below.

Sarracenia flava first year plants in the foreground

If you plan to grow Sarracenia from seed, keep in mind that it does take some time before you get a decent sized plant.  This is largely why they are often more expensive than sundews which can grow from a seed to flowering size within a year.

I sell some different types of carnivorous plants though my for sale page.  I don't currently sell pitcher plant seeds, but may do so in the future.  I do sell sundew seeds of some of the easier to grow species.  If you are interested they are listed on my for sale page.