You can keep your Flytrap outside all year, but only if you protect it from the worst of the freezing with mulch and other protective layers. Maybe place it in a cold garage with a window or in a chilly window inside your house if possible. The main problem with plants in pots is that pots are not insulated like the ground would be in the plant's natural habitat. It is just a tiny block of soil that will freeze thoroughly in those temperatures and kill (freeze dry) the roots of the plant.

Now that you mention it, that does make sense. I guess it's down to the basement window for dormancy this year.

Thanks for replying :D.

I'd would NOT leave it outside where you are. You want a cool place of around 40 degrees F. during winters. I put mine in the fridge until Valentines day. Then I put them in a west and south window until it's safe to put them outside again.

And when I had an attic, my dormancy type plants went there, by a SW window. It was cold enough but not freezing. When the photoperiod increased, as did the temps, the plants began waking up, on their own.

That brings up an interesting question -- for those of us who do have VFTs in pots, and want to leave them outside rather than in the fridge, what winterizing options are there? I am in zone 6 as well, depending on who you ask (some say Zone 5), the lowest temperatures I noticed were low 20s, maybe mid 10s.

I was thinking maybe put the pot in a large rubbermaid "tray" and surround it with pine bark mulch, perhaps partially burying the plant to boot. Maybe putting a small heat pad under the plant, would that work?

It did NOT like being in the fridge all winter, but I realize now that the humidity in the fridge -- I put it in the crisper at the bottom -- was probably leading to non-pure water getting in the pot.

As you've surmised, you'll need to heavily mulch the plants. Burying them partially helps to insulate as well. The hobbyist called WildBill has an excellent pictoral illustration of how to do this. He lives in Connecticut, to give you an idea of his growing zone.

You mean this?
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/carnivor/msg0402173519453.html

* Posted by petiolaris (My Page) on
Thu, Apr 27, 06 at 20:19

Heya - Jim & everyone

It was me. I'm in Connecticut where we get lots of snow & freezing temps in the winter. Here's what I did last October & it worked very well - only lost 2 of 100 or so plants.

1. I built an 8 foot by 4 foot raised garden bed.
2. Started collecting lots of pine needles. A garbage bag or two full.
3. Then I filled the raised bed with FREE compost from our local recycling center.
3. A day or two before dormancy I sprayed down all the plants with a fungicide (powder you mix with water) using a 2 gallon pump style garden sprayer.
4. I scooped out little holes and placed all the plants (pots and all) in the raised bed, packing the soil around the pots. I tried to put the tenderest plants in the center.
5. Sprayed all plants with fungicide, again.
6. Strew pine needles over all the plants, about an inch thick layer.
7. Placed a large sheet of burlap (over the whole bed) on top of the pine needle layer.
8. Shoveled on a 1 foot deep layer of wood chips on top of the burlap the first week (again = FREE from our recycling center ).
9. The following week added another foot of wood chips.

When spring rolled around, I would remove a few inches of the wood chips as the weather warmed up. One suggestion John Phillip (NECPS Prez) suggested was to use pine boughs instead of wood chips because you just don't know what's in the stuff from your recycling center - stuff that could cause disease or otherwise damage your plants.

I hope this helps everone.

WildBill

Couldn't find the original post/website.

Yup, that be the dude!

Hm, I am guessing you use compost because it heats up as it decomposes?

I have 2 VFT that I got last fall. They were doing great until recently they just died down completely. I've been wondering could they have gone dormant, should I put them somewhere to rest? How long should keep them in dormancy and how would I care for them in dormancy? Sorry to ask so many questions, I was so thrilled that these 2 did so good, I ususally kll the vft very quickly,
Please let me know, I don't want to throw them away if they just need to rest. They are still in the packages that they come in - I was afraid to move them since they were doing so well.

What type of packaging?

It might be that they were tissue culture grown, which means they were being grown in a test tube before being put into the pot and shipped to you, if so once they ran out of their "cheater" nutrients they would come crashing down...

Where do you have them growing? Outside? In a windowsill? What type of water are you giving them? Did they go dormant at all this winter?

They are in the little pots with the cup like dome on them. They were plants from the grocery store, that they had discounted but still were very healthy plants (one was blooming - which I had never seen before). They have been under florecent lights, I had planned to move them into a more terrarium set-up, but like I said, I've never had them live more than a few weeks. They crashed in just a few days. They grew all winter, and I've been watering with regular tap water. I hadn't realized that flytraps go dormant till I read on here.
I'd love to have them come back, is ther anyway to tell if they are possibly still viable? Oh I've had them since Oct 07 and they crashed 2-3 weeks ago.
Thanks