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.

Growing pygmy sundews from gemmae

Last year I got some pygmy sundew gemmae.  Gemmae is sort of like a cutting that the plants made themselves.  I find it fascinating that a flowering plant can make gemmae like this.

I got a mix of two species, they look very different so I could tell them apart pretty easily as soon as they grew large enough.  

Gemmae tend to grow much like seed, but a lot faster.  Unlike seed grown plants, all gemmae are genetically identical to the parent plant.  

In a few months the gemmae went from tiny green dots to mature, flowering pygmy sundews.

Drosera pulchella

Sadly when the gemmae were available I did not have any spare pots, and had issues buying peat moss.  I grew them in plastic cups with holes punched in the base, and the peat moss had been sitting out in the open for some time.  For this reason there was a lot of moss and things growing around my pygmy sundews.

Drosera pulchella and Drosera pygmaea

Pygmy sundews

These flowers should produce very tiny seed.  Seed grown plants should have a little genetic diversity.  D pulchella and D pygmaea do not hybridise, so I can grow them next to each other and not worry about hybrid seed.  

Some species of pygmy sundews can hybridise, and several of the hybrids are sterile.  Gemmae are always exact replicas of the parent.  Which means that hybrids or even sterile hybrids can be easily propagated using gemmae.

Pygmy sundews produce from 1 to several hundred gemmae per plant.  This means in the wild they can colonise areas of soil quite effectively.  It also means that in cultivation it does not take too long to be able to grow a nice pot filled with these tiny carnivorous plants.

The weather is turning, so I hope some of my plants produce some gemmae.  If they do I should be able to grow a few more of them and hopefully will be able to have a few extras to trade at some stage.  If I ever do have extra of these they will be listed through my for sale page.

Vft Schuppensteil - Upright Red Traps

I got some unnamed Venus flytraps a year or two ago.  These were cheap as it was a mix of varieties and the names had been lost.  There was a lot of genetic diversity among them.  Most of them I sold to make a little pocket money to spend on more plants.

One of them impressed me, so I kept it and called it 'upright red traps'.  This plant grew tall upright leaves over summer, and the trap interior got very red in strong light.  Over winter they die back to almost nothing.  This isn't a bad thing in itself. 

I took some cuttings, and divided the mature plant, and was pretty happy with this plant.  

More mature plants started to develop leaf scaling and I think it may be Schuppensteil, but I am not certain.  Below are some photos of the scaling that started to develop on plants that were coming out of dormancy.  They got a lot more red inside the traps as the season progressed.

Much like the descriptions I have read of Schuppensteil, the scaling on the petioles is a trait that is acquired with maturity and only in summer; younger plants and plants early in the grow season will often not express this until later.  That sounds a lot like what my plants did.

The scaling got a lot more prominent than can be seen in these photos, but I don't have any pictures of that because the plants were damaged in a storm and reverted to smooth petioles for the rest of the season.  

The traps on this variety got rather large and the trap interiors becomes very dark red in strong sunlight.  The traps were certainly nowhere near as large as 'Big Vigorous' or 'DCXL', but they were still impressive.

Upright Red Traps is a vigorous grower for me.  It produces tall growth and intense red colour inside the traps.  It seems to grow pretty easily from leaf pullings and flower stalk cuttings.  

Over winter, while dormant, the thing basically disappears.  That is nothing to be afraid of, it just means that if there is hail or something the plant will not sustain any damage.  

For me they seem to produce a few natural divisions per year, which means I can increase their numbers with no real extra effort on my behalf. 

As I am not certain of the variety I will continue to call these 'Upright Red Traps'.  I will sell/swap some in the warmer months along with other carnivorous plants and perennial vegetables I have for sale.  If you are interested they will be listed on my for sale page. 

Drosera capensis Hercules

I was given a small plant of Drosera capensis 'Hercules' by an extremely generous person.  As far as I know there are very few of these in Australia.

At first this plant grew well for me, then it died back somewhat.  It grew larger, then died back again.  It kept doing this and each time it died back to a larger plant and grew larger than the previous time.  

Drosera capensis 'Hercules' foreground, 'typical' and 'alba' in background

Drosera capensis Hercules

I originally had it growing in a pot with Drosera capensis 'True Giant'.  The capensis true giant is an interesting clone, but that is a story for another time.  I should have had them both in their own pots from the start, but I had issues buying peat moss.

I had it growing inside my house next to some typical and alba capensis, so figured the position was not too bad.  It turns out that my capensis Hercules did not like this position, its leaves got stretched out and is started to lose colour.  I don't think it had enough sunlight there.

Capensis Hercules Petioles are about 4mm to 5mm wide

I moved it outside, where it grew a little but was really not happy.  I moved it back inside again and expected a better result.  I tried a few different positions and eventually moved it to my greenhouse, and put it in its own pot, where it has really started to grow.  

I am not sure if it is the location, or having its own pot, or the incredible number of insects it catches, but it is now growing well.  To be honest, I can't imagine having a greenhouse without a few carnivorous plants to control the insects.

Drosera capensis 'Hercules' catching a lot of insects

This year my Hercules sent up a flower scape.  It grew many, many flowers and the scape grew incredibly long.  

The flowers on capensis Hercules are absolutely huge, far larger than any capensis flower I have seen.  

The seeds have just started to ripen.  I plan to plant a few and see what the seedlings are like.

Drosera capensis Hercules flower

This plant was originally registered as an interspecific hybrid between Drosera capensis 'alba' and Drosera aliciae.   The current belief is that this is a wide leaf variant of Drosera capensis.  

From what I have been told, capensis Hercules grows reasonably true from seed, which indicates that it may be pure capensis rather than a hybrid.  My first seedlings are still tiny, so it is too early for me to know how true to type they will grow for me.

The leaves on capensis Hercules are rather wide.  Which is similar to, but distinct from other wide forms of capensis.  The leaves grow reasonably long.  

The leaves and flowers have the same colouration as typical capensis.  The young leaves seem a little hairy before they have unfurled.

Capensis Hercules is a really nice looking plant.  Strangely enough I don't have any nice photos of my capensis Hercules plant.  The leaves never look picturesque and dewy because each leaf catches so many tiny insects.  This is a good thing, it means my plant is well fed and (more importantly) it means that there are far fewer tiny insects flying around in my greenhouse.

Drosera capensis Hercules on left, capensis True Giant on the right

The capensis Hercules flowers are truly massive.  They are the same colour as typical capensis flowers.  The scape grew very long, and had a lot of flowers.  Much like typical capensis, the first flowers to open drop seed while the last flowers are still buds.

From what I have seen they set seed and appear to be highly self fertile.  Again this tends to indicate that they may not be an interspecific hybrid.

capensis Hercules flowers are HUGE

Young plants of capensis Hercules and True Giant 

The capensis Hercules plant I am growing was taken as a cutting from a clone, meaning it is the true Hercules.  Seed grown plants may be slightly different and should never be labelled as Hercules.

I sell some carnivorous plants through my for sale page.  If I sell or trade any seed grown plants I will make sure that they are labelled Hercules x self or something to indicate that they are not the true Hercules clone.  If I ever trade the true Hercules clones I will also make sure to label this to distinguish between them and its seedlings.

Venus Flytrap - DCXL

Late last year I bought a DCXL Venus Flytrap.  I have not been growing it for very long, and my plant has not yet demonstrated its true potential, but already it is one of my favourite Venus flytraps. 

DCXL has upright summer growth, and is meant to die down to have low growth over winter.  The traps are rather large, even on my young plant, and it puts out a lot of traps.  The traps don't have a huge amount of colour, but they make up for it with their large size.  So far mine is upright but has not grown overly tall, but I can see its potential for growing very tall once established.

My plant arrived in the mail rather small, and has exploded in growth, faster than any venus flytrap I have seen.  It is pretty impressive how quickly it grew from a tiny thing into a large impressive plant.

Venus Flytrap DCXL big and beefy

My plant attempted to flower not too long after I got it.  I cut off the stalk as I wanted my plant to focus on getting strong and healthy rather than flowering and producing seed.  I planted the stalk, and it has produced a few baby DCXL plants from that cut off flower stalk.  

My DCXL plant also appears to be dividing.  So far there are two large divisions in that pot and maybe the start of a third smaller one.  I will be interested to see how many divisions it will produce between now and winter as I hope to grow a few more of these in my collection. 

Venus Fly trap DCXL

I am not great at describing these plants, so have cut and paste some descriptions that I found which were written by people far more knowledgeable than I am.

Flytrapstore.com description:

This is it! THE LARGEST TRAPS WE'VE EVER SEEN! Out of the thousands of flytraps we have growing here at FlytrapStore, DC XL grows the largest traps of any flytrap we've ever grown. The first traps in spring are usually the largest and can approach 2 inches in size on a fully grown DC XL flytrap. In addition to being ginormous for a Venus flytrap, DC XL is also an extraordinarily hardy grower, more than any other type we know of. DC XL is a handsome hardy monster flytrap, and we learn to love it more and more as we watch it grow over the seasons.

DC XL produces the largest traps we've ever seen! A giant monster of a plant. Grow one and judge for yourself! The "XL," in case it wasn't obvious, stands for X-tra Large. 

The challenger to B52 for the "world's largest traps" title. The "DC" in DC XL is for David Conner, the original source for the single plant of DC XL we obtained and subsequently grew and propagated in tissue culture in the FlytrapStore Lab. David Conner is also the original tissue-culture source of the famous B52 Venus Flytrap.

I also could paraphrase the history of the DCXL VFT, but thought I could just cut and paste directly from the source.  Flytrapcare.com gave a bit of a description of its history:

A few years ago before I knew Matt and was raising and selling Venus Flytraps as the Flytrap Ranch, I bought quite a few young B52 Venus Flytraps from David Conner. He was the original tissue-culture propagator of that great clone, and I'm still grateful to him just from a personal perspective for helping to generate enough for B52 to become widely distributed and cultivated, now in many countries, not just its home country of the United States.

When I received one of my orders from David, he included several gift plants, single young plants of specific Venus Flytrap clones he was thinking of tissue culturing. One of them was "All Red" (which Matt is propagating and we are growing for sale, a magnificent deep red clone whose name we added the prefix "DC" to in order to identify its source), another was "Giant Red," which turned out to be disappointing after growing it for several seasons, and another was the XL (which we've added the "DC" to to indicate the source).

The XL (now DC XL) grew very vigorously that first year and divided into several plants. I was impressed with its growth. The second growing season, it produced the sturdiest wide leaves, with the largest midrib (the vein that runs the length of the leaf), most vigorous growth after dormancy and the largest traps I had ever seen on a plant that was still immature. Matt used a flowerstalk of DC XL (right, Matt?) to get the plant into viable (noncontaminated) sterile culture and has been propagating it since. 

Venus Flytrap DCXL - a large robust carnivorous plant

I myself don't currently have any carnivorous plants in tissue culture.  I grow all my named venus flytrap plants from divisions, leaf pullings, or flower stalk cuttings.  This means increasing numbers can be slow, but I am growing them as a hobby so I don't need to produce thousands of them.

I can't help but notice the price of these has gone up since I bought my plant, the average price in Australia being $50 plus postage for one small juvenile plant!  In my opinion that is far too much for a flytrap.  I hope to divide my DCXL vft and have a few plants to grow for myself, but I may be able to produce a few extras on top of that.  

When I have any extras I might list them on my for sale page but the price won't be as high.  I have a few other named varieties of venus flytrap and other carnivorous plants for sale, or I would be willing to consider a trade for other interesting plants.  

Venus flytrap leaf pulling

Venus Flytraps are reportedly very simple to propagate using leaf pullings.  A leaf pulling is similar to a cutting, but a small part of the rhizome must be attached to the leaf in order for it to be successful.  

I gently pull a leaf downwards which removes part of the white rhizome, and I plant it in sphagnum peat moss mixed with sand.   I treat this leaf pulling the same as an adult plant and often just plant it in the same pot as the plant that I took the cutting from.  

Once the plantlets have grown I divide them into their own pot.  I don’t use rooting hormones or grow lights or heat mats or anything special.

VFT leaf pulling sprouting many baby plants, each bump makes one new plant

 

I find leaf pullings to be a bit hit and miss, incorrect temperature or sunlight seem to be the difference between 100% success and complete failure.  I also find that some cultivars grow well from leaf pulling while I have difficulty getting others to take from a leaf pulling no matter what I do.  Genetics has a part to play here.

Whenever I repot or divide my plants I sometimes take a leaf pulling and sometimes I will pull off a damaged leaf and try to use that.  For me, the leaf pullings that are successful usually provide me with one new plant. Sometimes I get two or three new plants from one leaf pulling.  I normally get a few plants from each flower stalk cutting.  

This past spring I divided some of my plants and took a few leaf pullings.  I was planning on selling the plants, and because I didn't have many spare pots I left the leaf pullings in the pots with them until the divided plants were large enough for sale.  The day before the plant sale I removed any surviving leaf pullings to put in another pot and was surprised at what I saw.

Most of the venus fly trap leaf pullings had either died off or produced a single plant, some had two new plants.  These new plants mostly arose from the rhizome or very low on the leaf near the rhizome. 

Leaf pulling was growing in this pot with a larger plant

One Venus Flytrap variety produced numerous new plants, they were produced most of the way along the stem of the leaf and not just from the rhizome.  One leaf started to produce well over a dozen new plants.  These are the first leaf pullings I have successfully taken from this variety, so I am not sure if this excessive production of plants per leaf pulling is common in this variety or if I just got lucky.  This is a particularly vigorous clone, so it may be possible that they commonly throw this many plants per leaf pulling.

I have never seen so many new plants arise from one venus flytrap leaf pulling.  These were the first two leaf pullings I have taken from this variety, so perhaps it is common to this clone.  I guess next Spring when I take more leaf pullings I will find out.

As I dug up these leaf pullings and moved them before they were established I half expected to either die or for only a few of the plantlets to continue developing.   Often cuttings and the like do not take kindly to being disturbed until they are more established.  So far this does not seem to be the case, and both of these successful leaf pullings appear to have survived and the plantlets are continuing to develop.

The other leaf pulling came from this pot

Two leaf pullings replanted in this pot

I sometimes get a pot of tiny plants that I can care for while they are growing larger.  Keeping tiny plants in one pot makes it simple to care for them.  I put the successful leaf pullings in one of these pots.  You can see in the picture above that it already had some tiny plants as well as a flower stalk cutting.

The picture below shows that both of those leaf pullings survived and are producing many new baby venus fly trap plants.  You can also see the flower stalk cutting (bottom right) successfully made new plants.

This pot has tiny plants growing out from various cuttings and things

From here I will leave them to grow over the warmer months.  I will probably let them go dormant over winter, and I will try to divide anything that is relatively large in spring.  Even though my venus flytraps are growing in very low nutrient media, I find that dividing them seems to help them grow faster.  

I regularly have venus flytraps for sale and other carnivorous plants for sale, if you are interested I list them here.

Venus Flytrap - Big Vigorous

Last year I bought a "Big Vigorous" Venus flytrap.

The few pictures I had seen on the internet made this look like a great plant, from its name I assumed it would grow large, and I hoped it would be vigorous and divide a lot for me.  I had high hopes for this carnivorous plant. 

'Big Vigorous' Venus Flytrap

I paid more for this plant than I should have, and it arrived in the post bare rooted and tiny.  Venus flytraps tend to cope really well with postage, and it was winter at that time, so I had no doubt it would grow well for me.

The Big Vigorous Venus flytrap did grow well for me.  Over winter it had a rosette of low leaves and small traps, which is healthy for flytraps.  Once the weather warmed the traps did get large, and it had tall upright growth.  I think that it was an impressive looking plant.

'Big Vigorous' winter leaves

Early in spring it attempted to flower, I cut off the flower stalk and tried to use it as a cutting to get more plants.  Unfortunately the flower stalk cutting did not work that time.  

Cutting off the flower stalk can allow the plant to put more energy into leaf growth, and that is what I wanted from this plant.

'Big vigorous' vft emerging from dormancy and sending up flower stalk

Big Vigorous venus fly trap sure lived up to the 'Big' part of its name.  It grew rather large traps on tall upright leaves.  Every part of this plant was large.

The 'vigorous' part I am not so sure about.  It grew fast, it has a lot of leaves, and nothing seemed to bother it, but it hasn't divided a whole lot for me.  That may just be because it was very small when I got it, or it may not divide a lot, but it is too early to say.

I found a few descriptions on the internet:

Description from Flytrapstore.com:

Big Vigorous is a great Venus Flytrap for a beginner or for an experienced grower's collection. It grows quickly into a robust plant that produces long leaves, a large rosette and big traps as well as plenty of baby Big Vigorous Venus Flytraps by vegetative division.

 

Description from Carnivorous Plant Resource:

Dionaea Big Vigorous is a clumpy Venus flytrap with deep red, almost purple traps. One might even call it a purple pest eater. It grows easily outdoors in temperate climates, or in greenhouses. 

After reading those descriptions I am not sure if the 'Big Vigorous' flytrap we have is the same as the 'Big Vigorous' flytraps overseas.  Mine did not have deep red/purple traps, and did not divide very much.  All that aside, it was a robust plant, it did have tall growth and very large traps, and it was very hardy, so I am happy with it.

Wally on left, Big Vigorous VFT on right

Wally vft on left, Big Vigorous vft on right

I sell a few carnivorous plants including a couple of named varieties of venus flytrap through my for sale page and often have some Venus Flytraps for sale.  I am not expecting any Big Vigorous Venus Flytraps for sale this year but may have some next spring.  I can post these bare rooted and they tend to cope really well with postage, if you live close enough to pick up that may also be an option. 

Pygmy Drosera gemmae sprouting

Years ago I grew pymgy sundews, I really liked them.  I had a lot of species back then.  Strangely enough, even though they come from Australia very few people sell pygmy drosera here.  It appears that most of the species I grew are no longer offered for sale anywhere.  Maybe they are no longer in cultivation?  Who knows.

I had been looking for pygmy sundews for sale, but I am not willing to pay the prices that people sell them for (postage usually puts them well out of my price range).  Then I found someone who had pygmy sundew gemmae for sale.  He had a few different species and graciously agreed to give me a mix of two species for one price instead of making me pay for two lots.  These species look different from one another from an early age so I was happy to get a mix of gemmae.

Gemmae are like tiny cuttings that the plant made of itself.  They aren't much to look at, but gemmae tend to grow a lot faster than seed, and are exact genetic replicas of the parent plant.  Very few people sell pygmy drosera gemmae, which I find odd as pygmy sundew plants dislike being transplanted and the gemmae are so simple to grow and simple to post. 

This photo shows a mix of Drosera pulchella and Drosera pygmaea the day they arrived in the post.  There were a lot of black gemmae, but there were also a lot of healthy green gemmae.  Can you tell which gemmae are which species?  I can't tell these gemmae apart, so will have to wait until they grow to know which is which. 

Pygmy Drosera Gemmae

After they arrived I planted half of the gemmae in a pot that I kept inside on the kitchen windowsill, the other half in a pot that was kept outside with more sunlight.  I don't plant them, I scatter them on top of damp sphagnum peatmoss mixed with sand.  If you bury the gemmae they tend not to do very well.  It has been a little cold, so they took a little while to sprout.  At this stage I am not sure if only the green ones sprouted or if the black ones were also viable.  I will find out once they grow a little more and I can count them.

The ones inside my house had less sunlight, but more stable temperatures.  The ones outside had much more sunlight, warmer day time temperatures, and cooler night time temperatures.  I grew both in pots sitting in a tray of water, the water level is very high for now to maintain high humidity.  I will lower the water level once they grow a little bit.

The gemmae in the house sprouted first while the ones outside sprouted slightly later.  I am not sure if both species are sprouting or if one has sprouted first, but it doesn't matter.  

The ones in the house are noticeably larger than the ones outside.  I'm not sure if the house are healthy or if they stretching because they are lacking sunlight.  The ones outside are less advanced, but appear healthy.  Time will tell which is the best method of growing them.  

On second thoughts, I may move them all into my greenhouse and hope for the best.

Gemmae arrived 17/08/2021
Gemmae sprouting indoors 02/09/2021 
Gemmae sprouting outdoors 04/09/2021 
D pygmaea sending up flower stalks 19/11/2021 - two and a half months after gemmae sprouting

I should take a photo of the pygmy drosera when they are a little larger as they are super cutie carnivorous plants.  For now the sprouting gemmae are too tiny for me to photograph. 

Pygmy drosera gemmae sprouting outside

Pygmy Drosera gemmae sprouting in the house

 

I think that pygmy sundews are great, when actively growing they are like miniature glistening jewels.  Being so small they won't impress your non-carnivorous plant growing friends, and growing a pot full certainly won't rid your yard of flies and wasps, but I think they are very beautiful. 

Pygmy sundress flowering

Being tiny means you can easily grow pygmy sundews on a window sill where they may catch tiny gnats or small ants and the occasional pantry moth, and they quite happily live in small pots.  They tend to have surprisingly long roots, and dislike being transplanted, so it is best to use deeper pots.  A lot of them can fit in one pot, and each plant tends to grow a lot of gemmae so they can quickly cover an area.  Some species of pygmy sundews are very simple to grow, and are great for kids and beginners.

Venus Flytrap Winter Dormancy

I have been growing carnivorous plants for more years that I care to admit.  I have grown a lot of different species over the years, some were simple while others had more complex needs.  As with most people, the Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) started it all for me.  

Venus Flytraps perform best with winter dormancy.  At first their dormancy was a scary mystery, now I understand dormancy a little better I know it is nothing to be worried about. 

Last year my son wanted a venus flytrap.  I gave him a small typical venus flytrap, and he looked after it really well.  The thing grew really large, got some great colouration, then when winter hit it went dormant and looked like it was dead.  All of this is fantastic and shows he was looking after his plant properly.

Contrary to what most people have been told, venus flytraps are not tropical plants.  They do well in areas that are frosty over winter.  I grow them outside, certainly never in a terrarium, and allow them to be hit with frosts and ice and hail and snow.  When days get short and cold my Venus flytraps experience partial or complete dormancy. 

My son's venus fly trap looks horrible over winter, and he worried that he had killed it.  I had to assure him that this was a great sign and that he was doing everything right.  We repotted the plant ready for spring, and I showed him the healthy fat white rhizome, and he felt a lot better about his plant.  I expect this to grow well and divide in spring.  It should make three or more plants for him.

Pictures of my son's dormant Venus flytrap are below.  Once repotted it still looked utterly dreadful, before being repotted it looked like the moss was going to over take it.  

To be clear, (apart from the moss) this is normal and healthy for a venus flytrap in my climate.

Dormant VFT repotted (ignore the tiny sundews) and ready for spring growth

The same vft before repotting - not much to look at

Different varieties of venus flytrap seem to cope with winter differently even if they are growing side by side.  This different in growth is due to their genetics.

The picture below shows how they some of my plants coped with dormancy this year.  Note that all have small traps and short leaves, just as they should over winter.  None of them are large magnificent plants over winter.  If they did look great over winter then something would be terribly wrong and they would likely rot and die in spring.

Various Venus Flytraps at the end of winter

Some of the venus flytraps pretty much disappeared, like Nanuq's plant, but the rhizome under ground is strong and healthy.  This is normal and healthy.

Others retained some above ground growth, but looked very shabby.  Leaves were shorter and sometimes the traps were weird and mis-shapen.  This is normal and healthy for these ones, and in spring I expect them to grow well.

These Venus Flytraps retained some growth over winter

Some of my larger, more upright venus flytraps go dormant in a different way.  Over summer they have large traps and upright growth.  Over winter they grow shorter leaves that stay close the the ground, and the traps produced over winter are much smaller.  

Again, this is normal and healthy.  That is how they do their dormancy.  If they kept growing large upright leaves over winter I would expect them to rot and die in spring.

Once the weather warms they will have upright growth and large traps again (and probably a flower stalk).  For now they are doing everything they should be doing.

'Big Vigorous' VFT has short leaves low to the ground over winter

 

Breaking dormancy, low winter leaves and tall summer leaves

Other vft varieties never have upright growth, 'Low Giant' is an example of this.  Over winter the rosette becomes more compact than normal as the petioles are shorter and the traps much smaller. 

This plant is also healthy and strong, exactly what I would expect to see over winter.  You may notice at the top of the picture some tiny plants, these came from a flower stalk cutting.

I need to repot and divide this plant soon.

Low Giant VFT over winter

Towards the end of winter/beginning of spring I usually try to repot my Venus Flytraps. 

Often they have divided a little and most have a large plant and one or two small offsets.  Some varieties are a bit more vigorous and will have up to half a dozen small divisions.  Others, such as Wally, can have a dozen or more divisions.  This has a lot to do with their genetics, and a bit to do with how well they were grown.

Sometimes when I am dividing plants that are emerging from dormancy I will also take a few leaf pullings.  I probably should wait until warmer weather for leaf pullings, but depending on the variety many will grow a baby plant or two even at this time of year.

Tiny VFT divisions - super cute but will grow fast

Vft divisions, and some leaf pullings

If you want to buy a venus flytrap it is sometimes difficult to find a good variety unless they are posted.  Luckily Venus flytraps do go extremely well through the post.  Apart from the ones I have grown from seed, I think all of my Venus flytraps were posted to me bare rooted.

I will have some 'typical' venus flytraps for sale and should have some named varieties for sale in late spring.  Many of my typical vfts are superior named varieties but I have lost their names, others are seed grown, and I think that all of them are pretty great.  Keep an eye on my for sale page in late spring/early summer if you are interested.