You unfortunetly cannot grow them in your soil, nor can you water them with normal tap water.
CP's have evolved to eat insects because of the low nutrients in their native soil.
If you put them in common potting or garden soil, the minerals will kill them, as will the hard minerals in water.
You need something like "Sphagnum Peat moss" to plant them in with a mix of something like "Perlite" for drainage.
Water wise they need pure water such as "distilled water", "reverse osmosis water" or "rain water".

You can look on www.cobraplant.com, they have zones sorted out with plants that match up to those zones, they are also really nice suppliers.

Cheers

Sheldon

Hi Annette -

I agree they wouldn't do well in your soil. If you are still interested in carnivorous plants you might be able to make a minibog or a carnivorous plant windowbox for an area in or near your garden.

I have made minibogs from those black tubs you canb get a Home Depot for mixing cement in. I also have a very large 'multiplanting' in a pot (12 inches across) that has 5 Venus Flytraps along the front rim, and a large Sarracenia leucophylla 'Titan' in the back. Tiny sundews are spread throughout. The bottom of the pot sits in a bowl of rainwater so the soil stays wet.

Also check out www.sarracenia.com and the book, The Savage Garden by Peter D'Amato.

Let us know what you decide to do.

Bill

Oh also

Dont forget that if you get snow and frosts in winter in your area, you will need to protect any tropical plants such as South African or Australian sundews because they will not tolerate long periods of the cold.
On the other hand, american plants such as flytraps and pitcher plants do normally go dorment at this time (winter) when the temp cools and the light gets less per day.

So for me been in utah, I have my south african sundews and my asian pitcher plant outdoors in 6" pots, they will be brought indoors when it starts getting cold, the american pitchers (S. Flava) will remain outdoors in its huge pot and I will mulsh it will to help protect the plant from heavy snow.

Hope that helps abit more

Sheldon

I live in MD also,and grow my cp outdoors. But like the guys said,you can't grow these plants in ground soil. These are bog plants,and should be grown in part peat moss/long fiber S. moss and sand/perlite. And use only rain,distilled,or dringking water filted by Reverse Oismoes(ro). Think I might of spelled that wrong?

My are in pots with water trays about close 2 inches deep filled with water. The get full sun,and get plenty of insects to eat.

I have a pitcher plant, got from walmart in july. It's hanging by my BR window and it gets part sun/part shade. It absolutely loves that spot! It has done nothing but flourish since I put it there. I just realized though, that I haven't been giving it the correct type of water. It gets rain water and I give it tap water - just enough to water through and fill up the saucer at the bottom. I live in Florida and just found out I may be moving back north to MD or NC and plan to bring this with me. Is this a good idea? For the winter months, I'm assuming it would need bright light? Any advice appreciated. Thank you

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:553847}}

Hello greenthumb21,

What you have there is a Nepenthes, probably ventricosa or the hybrid ventrata. I would go with ventrata as the pitchers look a bit more like the hybrids. This is a tropical pitcher plant that will require warm temperatures and good light all year round.

You are lucky that this particular plant can tolerate higher mineral levels in tap water than other carnivorous plants. That said, tolerating is not the same as liking. You would do better by watering it with cleaner water unless your tap water is already lower than 50 ppm of calcium, magnesium, and potassium. If your tap is close to or over 200 ppm do not water with it anymore as it can harm the plant in the long term.

One concern is the tray water method. Nepenthes can suffer root rot if left in standing water... the good thing is that the pot you have is large and that Nepenthes roots are short. Just be cautious about too much standing water under the pot and ensure that the soil never gets waterlogged or dry... just moist all the time.

Florida is a great place to raise Nepenthes, however; if you move, make sure to keep the plant indoors and supplement the window light with a compact florescent energy saver 100 watt equivalent bulb or a shop light of the 40 watt variety. Place that florescent light about 5-8 inches over the leaves and leave it for about 12 hours a day and you should be fine overwinter.

A kid gave me clippings from his piture plant. My family and I were in town and I didn't think to ask for the special dirt. I don't know what to do because I would like to plant it sometime soon. Any advice would help if you could please. I just want it to grow and live a happy life.

Fill a pot with a mix of 50% peat moss and 50% perlite. Keep moist, not soggy. Bright indirect Sunlight.