Venus Flytrap variety comparisons

Venus flytrap is a single species (Dionaea muscipula) that can not hybridise with anything else other than venus flytraps.  All of the venus flytraps we grow are pure Dionaea muscipula.  That being said, there are numerous venus flytrap cultivars.   

Most (if not all) venus flytrap varieties will not grow true to type even if self pollinated.  Every seed you grow will end up as a unique plant.

Some Venus flytrap varieties have upright growth over summer, some have low growth all the time, some are completely green, others are red, others have coral coloured traps, some are tiny plants, others grow impressively large, some have weird traps, some divide like mad, etc.  This diversity has come about mostly by conventional breeding and a few have arisen from mishaps in tissue culture.  

There are no blue venus flytraps, and there are no black venus flytraps.  

Growing venus flytraps from seed is not for beginners, you are far better off getting a mature plant rather than growing out a seed for 4 or so years.

I grow a few varieties of venus flytraps.  I have written a few blog posts on individual varieties:

Venus Flytrap 'Low Giant'

Venus Flytrap 'Wally'

Venus Flytrap 'Big Vigorous'

 Venus Flytrap 'DXCL'

Venus Flytrap 'Schuppensteil'

While describing a variety is good, I thought it would also be useful to do a side by side comparison of different varieties.  This is only in my garden in my conditions, and may be different if you did these comparisons in different climates.  While some Venus Fly Trap varieties may thrive in my climate, they may struggle elsewhere.

I have used 'Wally' Venus Flytrap as the standard to compare everything against.  Wally is such a great clone and I have good numbers of them so they made an obvious choice for me to use as the standard to compare everything against. 

Wally vs Low Giant Venus Flytraps 

Wally Venus Flytrap and Low Giant Venus Flytrap are both low growing clones that tend to clump.  Both are hardy, simple to grow, and not too finicky about growing conditions.

These two were both similar sized divisions taken from large healthy plants.  They were potted in the same media, on the same day, in the same size/type of pot, and grown in the same tray of water side by side.

Wally on the left has clumped and produced  more divisions than Low Giant on the right.  The traps of Wally are larger, it has produced far more leaves, and the plant has more colour overall.  The colour of Wally vft tends to be red/purple and starts in the trap interior but can be over the entire plant.  

Low Giant has produced smaller traps, fewer traps, has less colour overall, is a noticeably less vigorous plant, and is more of a red colour in the trap interior.  

Venus Flytrap comparison: Wally VFT on left vs Low Giant VFT on right

Wally vs Big Vigorous Venus Flytraps

Wally Venus Flytrap is a low growing clumper, Big Vigorous Venus Flytrap has upright summer growth and tends to divide less frequently.

These two plants were both similar sized divisions (both larger than the ones above) taken from mature and healthy plants.  They were potted in the same media, on the same day, in the same size/type of pot, and grown in the same tray of water side by side.

Wally has low summer growth with large traps that are significantly smaller than the traps of Big Vigorous.  The trap colour of Wally is much redder.  Wally has divided into many new plants meaning that there are plenty of open traps in the clump.

Big Vigorous Venus Flytrap has very tall upright growth with very large traps.  The trap colour of Big Vigorous is more of a coral colour.  Big Vigorous has only divided into a few plants but still has a decent number of open traps making it an impressive looking plant.

Venus Flytrap comparison: Wally VFT on left,  Big Vigorous VFT on right

Venus Flytrap comparison: Wally VFT on left,  Big Vigorous VFT on right

'Wally' Venus Flytrap

'Big Vigorous' Venus Flytrap

Wally vs Upright Red Traps (possibly schuppenstiel) Venus Flytraps

I got some unnamed venus flytraps, one of them impressed me and I kept it and because I can't be certain of the variety I call it 'upright red traps'.  Mature plants develop leaf scaling during summer and I think it may be Schuppensteil, but I am not certain.  Wally is a low growing clumper, while Upright Red Traps has upright summer growth.

The plants below were similar sized division, planted in the same size/type of pot of the same media on the same day.  They were grown side by side in the same tray of water.  I only planted one division of Wally on the left, and multiple divisions of Upright Red Traps on the right.

Wally had more colour, both in the traps as well as on the leaf petioles.  Wally produced more leaves and more traps on the plant.  You can't see in this photo but Wally also produced a few smaller divisions.

Upright red traps produced taller upright growth over summer, and basically disappears over winter.  The traps get very red in the interiors and green everywhere else.  The scaling on the petioles only shows up in larger plants over summer so is not seen on any of these smaller plants.  You can't see in this photo but none of these plants produced any divisions.

Wally vs DCXL Venus flytraps

Wally is a low growing clumping venus flytrap with large colourful traps.  DCXL venus flytrap has tall upright growth, very large traps, and makes an imposing looking plant.

The below comparison isn't great, but it is the best I can do this year.  I got DCXL as a small plant and over the growing season it has not yet reached its potential in terms of upright growth.  It is growing in a different sized pot and in different media than Wally vft.  They were growing in the same tray of water next to one another, other than that pretty much everything was different.  This is the best comparison I can do of these two varieties this year, next year I should have some smaller divisions (grown from a flower stem cutting) to grow in the same way to provide a better comparison.  The differences between the tiny flower stalk plants of these varieties is pretty incredible.

Wally has divided a lot, stayed low to the ground, and has lots of colour in the traps.  DCXL has very large traps, has divided a little, put on a little upright growth (but nowhere near its potential), and has less colour in its large traps.  I expect DCXL to be a lot taller next summer and produce even larger traps.  DCXL is a big, beefy, impressive looking plant.

DCXL Venus Flytrap 

Venus Flytrap DCXL - a large robust carnivorous plant

Wally Venus Flytrap

Wally Venus Flytrap

I have also written a few other blog posts on Venus Flytraps and how I grow them.  If they are useful, links to these are as follows:

• VFT growth rate over a year
  
  
• VFT Winter Dormancy
  
  
• VFT - how I grow them 
  
  
• VFT Seedlings

Venus flytraps handle being posted bare rooted really well.  I sell extra plants over the warmer months, some named varieties as well as unnamed typical plants.  I am more than happy to consider a trade rather than selling if you have another variety or another carnivorous plant that I am after.  

If you are interested they are listed on my for sale page along with other carnivorous plants I have for sale.  

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. 

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. 

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.

Venus Flytrap - Wally

A year or two ago I was sent two lovely "Wally" Venus flytraps from a very generous friend as a surprise.  I had no idea that this was being sent until I opened the package!  All the pictures below are of my Wally Venus Flytrap plants.

I grow a few different flytraps, some are named varieties, others are seed grown, some have upright growth, some always stay close to the ground, some produce clumps, some are colourful, and others are very green.  Plants grown side by side often look and perform differently as they have different genetics.

I'm not sure how many different venus flytrap clones are in Australia, out of all of the ones I have grown so far my favourite clone, and the easiest venus fly trap to grow, is this Wally Venus flytrap.  

Wally Venus Flytrap

Wally VFT

I made a blog post with pictures of the growth rate of Wally VFT over a year.  This is the most vigorous flytrap I have ever grown.

Wally has large traps, stays low to the ground, has great colour, is very vigorous, it either grows impressively large or clumps like crazy (I don't know how it decides which to do), and it survives some really harsh conditions that would kill many other varieties.  Wally is my fastest growing Venus flytrap, and it produces far more natural divisions each year than any of the other varieties that I grow.  

Being so hardy, and so impressive looking with incredible colour and very large traps, I think Wally would be a great Venus flytrap for beginners.

I wish I understood what makes it clump and what makes it grow into a large plant.  The two larger plants above produced the two clumps lower down in this page.

To give you a better understanding of Wally Venus Flytraps I figured I would cut and paste some descriptions from the breeder and a few other places.

Wally Venus Flytrap

Descriptions 

1) Description from Sam1greentmb (the breeder of this variety who has also developed more VFT cultivars than I have ever seen):

This is an incredibly beautiful cultivar which I grew some time ago. It came from the seeds of a "Big Mouth" Venus flytrap. The plant sometimes clusters into many plants, or it grows as a single plant and turns gigantic in size!

What does Wally have that many other Venus flytraps do not?
It always has red purple traps throughout the seasons, not just during cool weather. Wally also can give out the most amazing dark red purple traps when grown under artificial lighting. This colour is the most darkest red, intense red purple colour of any venus flytrap cultivar that I know!

Wally Venus Flytrap - my baby plant is growing well

2) Description from FlytrapStore:

If you like Big Mouth and Low Giant, you'll love Wally! Wally is very similar in neat growth habit, with its year-round ground-hugging big traps, but can impressively develop even more exceptional and eye-catching bright red coloration on its trap interiors. It reproduces more than most other Venus flytraps, producing baby Wally flytraps so you can have more Wallys! Not to mention, it's one of the hardiest Venus Flytraps we know of. Everything to like about this one - it has become one of our favorites since being able to acquire it.

Wally originates from Venus flytrap grower and breeder, Sam1greentmb. In his description, Wally distinguishes itself from other flytraps by its ability to get very large or clump a lot and because it has red-purple traps throughout all seasons (provided it gets good sunlight), not just in cool weather. And it gets the deepest purpled-colored traps Sam has ever seen.  'Purple Ambush' is the most colorful Venus flytrap we've ever seen.

Wally vft clumping - divided into 2 very large plants and 12 smaller plants

Another Wally VFT clumping over winter

 3) Description of Wally VFT from https://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/wally-has-arrived-t16844-15.html 

Some of the features Wally has that I think are catching are its low to the ground growth and it seems to hold its coloration even in the hot hot parts of the summer while most of the rest of my VFTs lose lots of their color and it tends to be a clumper.

Wally won't get deep purple traps without strong light but does get deep red traps without strong light. In that way it colors up very easily. Even my Wallys from Matt, have a lot of color on them for plants not too long out of TC and not in one of my sunnier spots in my yard either.

Wally gets about as big as a Big Mouth, which was its parent plant. But it has even shorter leaves than Big Mouth does and can get even more purplish in its traps than Big Mouth too. I've seen my Wallys red all over with purple traps before. It almost can be called a red clone. 

It also tends to multiply like crazy. One large plant can make 15 or more natural divisions a year easily. Keep in mind this is strictly from natural division, unaffected by TC at all. Who knows what the TCed ones will do. Wally also is a pretty fast grower and I have found can grow at a good pace in cooler temperatures as well just like B52 can, unlike all other clones that I know. For example, Wally can put on decent growth even in the high 60s (16-21C) and overcast.

IMO, there's not much point in buying a Big Mouth if you can get a Wally instead. Wally has more pronounced features of all the features that Big Mouth has that has made it popular. It's like a super Big Mouth.

Wally has darker color, not just that it tans darker and easier as well but the green non-tanned color is a darker hue of green as well. Wally grows faster than Big Mouth too. The deep purple tan it gets in its traps is darker than the purple tan that Big Mouth gets. When I saw my Wallys tan really dark the whole plant was red. There may have been some dark green in a few tiny spots not well exposed to the sun but the plant was basically 95% red or purple. I've never seen my Big Mouths do that though I have seen them mostly red and purple all over before too.

There is not much more I can add to these descriptions, these people have grown far more venus flytrap varieties than I have even seen, so they really know their stuff.

I plan to divide more of my Wally venus flytraps in spring.  If you are a carnivorous plant collector and would like to swap some plants please let me know as I have divided my plants and should have a few extra plants late spring/early summer.  My contact details can be found on my for sale page where I sell other carnivorous plants and perennial vegetables and things. 

Wally Venus Flytrap colouring up nicely

Venus Flytrap - Low Giant

Last year I got a 'Low Giant' Venus flytrap.  This is a registered cultivar that was developed in Australia.

Low Giant seems like a good name for this venus fly trap.  It grew reasonably large traps, and the leaves stayed low to the ground.  The inside of the traps turned deep red which I quite like.

My plant attempted to flower in its first spring, but I cut off the flower stalk so it had more energy to put into growing leaves and getting strong.  I planted the flower stalk to use as a cutting, and it has produced some baby plants.  Not all of my VFT varieties are happy to grow from flower stalk cuttings for some reason, but this one threw several baby plants from that one cutting.  The original plant also divided.  

Over winter my Low Giant vft has died back a lot and looks terrible, which is actually a good sign of a healthy vft in my climate.  I often find the ones that die back in the frosts tend to come back strong in spring, while the ones that grow through winter tend to struggle or even rot when the weather warms.

Low Giant Venus Flytrap - note flower stalk cutting on the left

I was a little disappointed when Low Giant arrived as it was very small and I paid a lot for it, but it grew into a very colourful plant.  

Low Giant arrived bare rooted through the post, and like most Venus flytraps it coped really well being posted like this.  It arrived late winter, and had not experienced frosts before it arrived here, so it took a while to settle before it started to grow.

Below are some photos of its growth over the first two months:

Low Giant VFT the day it arrived

Low Giant after one week

Low Giant VFT - one month getting colour but not growing much

Low Giant vft ~ 2 months and still pretty small

The following is a description from the Flytrap Store:

The Low Giant Venus Flytrap clone is a spectacular plant that produces very large traps (rivaling even the B52) with broad leaves that grow prostrate (near the ground) year round in dense rosettes. It often develops a very deep red color in the traps.

 Predatory Plants has the following description:

Venus flytrap 'Low Giant' is an extremely vigorous clone with large traps. As this Venus fly catcher's name suggests, 'Low Giant' tends to grow close to the ground in a tight rosette.

While it took a while to do much after being posted and then hit with frosts, towards the end of spring/beginning of summer my Low Giant started to grow well.  From there it went from strength to strength and seemed pretty vigorous in my climate.

I grow a few different varieties of venus fly traps, some named and others from seed.  I don't have unlimited space, or unlimited water, so I can't grow anything that does not perform well for me.  So far Low Giant is performing well, is pretty vigorous, it has large traps, has nice colour, it divides, and it hasn't needed too much care from me.  While I think Low Giant is a good clone, at this stage 'Wally' is still my favourite venus flytrap. 

I plan to sell a few Low Giant venus flytraps, if you are interested keep an eye on my for sale page in late spring.  While I prefer pick up these things cope well being posted bare rooted pretty easily.  If you grow carnivorous plants and would like to swap, please let me know as there are a few carnivorous plants that I am trying to get.