i think ud be better off getting a fully grown plant.
it takes about 3 years for a VFT to reach maturity and i doubt your son has that kinda patience ;)

Yea get a fully grown plant, And if you do wait till next year their growing periods almost over and are about to go into dormancy for the winter

They like pure water
not tap water it kills

Lots of sun

Tray watter them, they like the soil moist, water table can change from time to time though!

Sphagnum peat moss/sand mix for the soil. Make sure its pure sphanum peat moss soil... not some brand that has fertalizers in it!!! That kills them

Dont poke the traps, they only close 6-7 times... and can catch prey about 2 or 3 times till a leaf dies and grows a new one.

Thats a quik over veiw of VFT's
Ask ne more questions we will be sure to tell you,

A nice all year growing alternative and easy and looks as good is a Tropical Pitcher plant and a Sundew.

REmber Any queastions can be awnserd!!

Oh yea i have mine growing outside they are easly caple of growing out side all year round depends on where you live.

Cheers!

You can find venus' flytraps on-line, websites such as ' www.flytraps.com ' or 'www.cobraplant.com ' or ebay.com, even Lowes or Home Depot carry these Insectivorous plants(and other species occasionally). If you are willing to purchase a venus' flytrap for your son, you don't have to worry about its dormancy Period this winter, you can keep on growing until other year's fall. If you buy a plant from on-line, they pretty much send it dormant, but you can keep on growing it under lights. and water it with the tray method every 2 days.

vft seeds can be fun and intriguing to watch germinate but it takes time & patience. IF you are still thinking of getting seeds, you can follow these steps to make them germinate in 3-4 weeks:

1)Fill your desired container(3" inch pots work quite well for 15 - 20 seeds) Fill it with a mixture of 50% peatmoss + 50% Perlite. Make sure that the media is already moist before filling your container.(you can find these two medias in home depot or lowers, but get schwultz peatmoss or lambert)

2)place the seeds on the media(don't Burry the seeds, just lay them on top of the media). gently tamp them down.

3)spray the seeds with clean ,sodium free, purified water.

4)Use the watering tray method after spraying the seeds with the water.

5)You can grow your seeds in a sunny windowsill that gives around 3-4 hours of strong light. If a sunny windowsill is not available, you can grow your seeds under artificial flourecent lighting for 16 hours per day.

6)Keep temperatures around 70 Degrees, with high humidity.

### After 3-4 weeks, you should see little plantets growing out from the seeds, if not, don't give up, it takes several weeks for all the seeds to germinate individually.

This is how venus' flytrap seedlings appear after a month and half. I've been growing these small plants in a sunny window sill that gives 3-4 hours of strong light. Venus' flytrap seedings usually take 3-4 years to reach maturity.
{{gwi:546058}}

Wow thanx so much for the pic Xymox, those look stunning.
I have a Big Mouth leaf cutting thats about 3-4 months old now and the thing is growing like mad!!!
The little traps are about 5mm long and bright red.
I cant help but feed them ants which by the look of things they are really liking from the rate of which new leaves are been pushed out.

Cheers

Sheldon

That's good to read Sheldon, wish i would see more pics of your plants, i bet they do nicely all of the time. I've also been growing about 3 small cuttings from one of my mature vft bigmouths. I doubt they will need this winter's dormancy. they have been growing since september, they thrive quickly, i grow these in my room's sunny window sill along with my vft seedlings and cephalotus, these vft bigmouth cuttings are currently growing in a small 2" inch pot; they will be repotted in a larger pot next growing season. here is how the vft bigmouth cuttings currently appear to be...
{{gwi:562258}}

Well what the heck, I got some time so lemme grant you that wish, besides its long overdew :)
Here is my baby Big Mouth, this lill sucker is only about 3-4 months old and is growing like mad, he sucks down ants quite well too:
{{gwi:563333}}Here are my lill Drosera Aliciae (love these guys, they doing so well now!!), ordered the last 5 from cooks and got 9 in total with the plantlets from the roots:
{{gwi:563334}}Next here is my New Drosera Spatulata, I got this from Cobraplant, what a stunning plant yet again from them, full of flowerstalks too!!:
{{gwi:563335}}Ok, now for my old Nep Ventricosa, the hail storm victim that was left with no pitchers and 1 1/2 leaves, I gave this one to my wife, she liked the smaller one (which is nice n pink/red):
{{gwi:545121}}
Next, here are all the new Neps from Cooks:
Nep Sanguinea:
{{gwi:563336}}Nep Ventrata, small plant at about 2" across:
{{gwi:563337}}Heres the new Red Ventricosa (not red now, needs light) but what a great deal for $5.00:
{{gwi:563338}}{{gwi:545122}}Heres my Nep Judith Finn which has just opened a new pitcher a week back which is growing quite large for the Neps Ive had thus far:
{{gwi:563339}}{{gwi:563340}}Well thats about it from me, my VFT's are recovering well in the sun on a windowsill and pushing out new leaves, I think it will take time for them to get back to where they were.

Cheers

Sheldon

Very nice looking plants Sheldon!

When did you get all those new Neps from Cook's?

The J Finn and Sanuinea I got rougly 2 weeks back, the J Finn is getting a really neat dark red colour within the pichers now (tons or red spots), the new Ventricosa and Ventrata I got yesterday, so they just need to settle in and get some good light.
The Ventricosa is already starting to show a faint amount of pink, am shocked that the original Ventricosa cost me $15.00 excluding shipping and had 5 leaves with pichers, this one was $5.00 and is freakin massive in comparisin.
I must have counted atleast 30 pitchers on it today when removing all the dried black leaves in the middle.

Cheers

Sheldon

Love the pictures!! they look GREAT! Im debating weather or not i should purchase a more mature nep, the nep i have now looks great but i would like to see a full grown one to, So if any thing i probably would get an Alta or something...
Thanks for the pics!
Cheers!

Cool pics Sheldon, Cuttings seem so nice so far. I used have bunch of Drosera spatulata, but they died off after giving seed, i guess they're just annual plants. Now i got lots of small drosera plantets.. and HUNDREDs of drosera capensis seedlings that i've been growing from seed 4 weeks ago. Not sure what i am going to do with so many plants later on, i don't have any space at my place, i've been thinking of giving them away too to someone who would care for them.
Anyway, i really liked your Nepenthes Ventricosa, the pinkish pitchers are very convincing. Your nepethenes Sanguinea reminds me a lot of mine when i recieved it last December. Thank you for sharing your pics Sheldon, i liked them very.

Plesure

Ye that Ventricosa is my baby, it took a few months under 80watts of fluoresent lighting for it to get those bright pink pitchers, its growing quite fast at the moment and looks happy.
I give them all a weekly foliar feed with epiphytes delight as well.
I did not expect the J Finn to be of the size that it is, was kind of a suprise from Cook's.
For the price that you can get a small 3" leafspan you can get a 5 or 6+" leafspan from him at the same price or less at times.

Cheers

Sheldon

Beautiful pics Sheldon. I just love neps and I hope to get loads next Summer.

I only have the one but it's getting pretty big now as you can see. This is my pride and joy. I give it a pebble tray, frequent misting and a 20 watt CF lamp to grow under. :)

{{gwi:563341}}

Cheers

Kyle

Do you keep your neps in a terrarium or just on a window sill? I'm asking because I keep mine in a room without terrarium and it doesn't produce pitchers. I think lack of sufficient humidity in my room is the problem.

Hi loser

Well it depends on the Nep you have as well.
I grow the tolerant easy ones such as Ventricosa, Ventrata, Judith Finn and Sanguinea, they dont really care about lower humidity as long as you give them the big 3, water, light and good soil mix.
Let us know what Nep you have or if you dont know a picture could help, it could be that your plant is mabey not getting enough light as well?
Since light is needed for good photosynthesis which produces plant sugars which allows for growth, if your plant has not got enough intensive light then it cannot produce the needed sugars to produce the pitchers which would cost a large amount of energy to make.
Some people say if you foliar feed your plants they dont make pitchers, I have foliar fed all mine every week with Epiphytes Delight and guess what, they are making TONS of pitchers so I dont believe that one to be true.
What kind of lighting is your plant getting?, what water are you using and are you using a water tray or is your plant sitting away from the drainige.
next and last, what potting media is it growing in.

Sure we can figure something out for your Nep.

Cheers

Sheldon

Another thing is they do like misting, I have read that it does help promote growth on the leaf tips. (on many plants)

Kyle, I see that pic is labeled as a Ventrata, it looks BEUTIFUL!!!.
I just thought Id let you know, Im growing mine under 2 40 watt tubes (4' long) and I do note with the extra light intensity that the 80 watts pushes out does cause the pitchers of the Ventrata, Ventricosa, J Finn and Sanguinea to go red and pink rather rapidly.
My J Finn over the 2 weeks has beutiful red dots all inside that were barley pink when I got it, my new Ventricosa today is showing a nice pink hue to it and the Ventrata pitcher is starting the same at the top.

Im not saying that you dont have enough light for the plant as it looks very happy, but if you had more or you used the light with morning sun from a window (if possible) I think you may find that it gets that beutiful pink colour.

Cheers n thanx for the wonderful pic!!

Sheldon

I don't know the name of my nep, this is some hybrid.
This is how full grown pithers should look like:
http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/1996/nep31mn.jpg

Thanks for your kind comments Sheldon, as I say, this is my baby and it gets the best that I can give it.

At the moment I don't rekon I could get away with pumping up the wattage. My parents pay the electricity bills and are not too happy about the bulb I've got in now lol.

The sun doesn't hang around much at the moment as nights are getting shorter here in Britain but next summer I'll follow your advice and keep it on a windowsill where it can get a few hours of intense afternoon sun. That should colour the pitchers up nicely.

One day this is going to be a 6 foot vine climbing a moss-pole. :)

Cheers

Kyle

Hi

Well dont worry to much, the plant looks happy.
Dont use afternoon sun!!!, only morning if you can get it.
Afternoon sun is too intense in general for Neps.
I suppose later on you could replace the 20 watt CF bulb with a 30 watt.

Cheers

Sheldon

Hey loser

mmmm, not 100% sure on that pic.
Im wondering if it could be nepenthes rafflesiana
It looks like it but am not 100% sure.
What growing conditions does your plant have? (light, soil, water)

Cheers

Sheldon

This is some kind of hybrid but I don't remeber the name, maybe maxima x ???

I water it once a few days, it's not in a water tray.
The soil wasn't changed since I bought it, but I assume is alright.
I keep my nepenthes in shade, it doesn't get direct sun at all.
I don't mist it either. I've heard that it's better not to mist a nep when it's kept in low humidity, because it can be shocking to a plant.

BTW is my english alright?

Your english is perfect :)
Well I suppose the "shock story" also depends on how hardy the nep is, personally Ive never heard this and mist mine about once a day.
You say its in shade, do you use any form orf artificial lighting or does it get morning sun?
A fresh supply of potting mix may boost the plant but Neps dont really need soil mix changed like other Cp's every year.
Watering is also not a biggie as it only needs to stay moist and hates sitting in water.
Something you can try is to get your hands on some SuperThrive, make a mix of a drop per cup and then foliar feed this to the plant every 3 weeks.
I read up on this and gave it a try, what I have seen is a massive boost in pitcher size and production as well as leaf growth.
The first pitcher formed was without it, it was roughly 1 1/2" in length, the next one opened in 2-3 weeks and was 1/2"longer, another 2-3 weeks and there is one now that is another 1/2" longer getting ready to open.

I also use a weekly feeding of Epiphytes Delight on my Neps.
I think the story of foliar feeding=no pitchers is not at all true and is quite the opposite.

Cheers

Sheldon

Hi Sheldon

Maybe your right for hot places like america but I don't think british afternoon sun would harm a nep. I aint certain but I did grow mine with a little afternoon sun a month or two back and it seemed very happy without burns.

I'll have to experiment next year I guess.

And yes, I'm defo upgrading the bulb when the 20W runs out :).

Cheers

Kyle

Hi Kyle

Of course, sorry didnt take into consideration that you are in Britian, so ye you are most likely 100% correct with growing it in the sun.
Mabey you can try and get your hands on a bottle of SuperThrive and give it a go.
I have most certainly seen the difference it has caused with my Neps.

Cheers

Sheldon

After seeing Xymox's pic(AWESOME) of all the babies I really want to try from seed. Where do I get seed?

Xymox if you are looking for a good home for extra babies I am very interested.

hi JanieW, you can aquire VFT seeds on www.ebay.com. You can type "venus flytrap" and there should give you different options & seed amounts. you can ask sellers how much seeds they would offer for an amount of money. You should also ask them if the seeds are fresh and not older than a year. The fresher the VFt seeds are, the more odds of germination you will get.

Oh yeah, i got TONS of drosera Capensis Seedlings, a bunch of venush flytraps from seed and full growned, But the VFt seedlings are very tiny. The full growned plants are slowling their growth down due to the shorter photo periods and chilly temps. However, i could divide a couple of divisions for you. I think if you do give your son these type of plants, he will gradually become very patient in life. These plants take time for them to thrive and perk up in their new surroundings, it also takes a bit of time for them to grow larger and produce daughter plantets in their base growing point.

Yes JanieW, i am indeed looking for someone who would care for a couple of plants. I don't know anyone around my area who would care for them. They always go "I don't have time to care for them". I don't find anything complicated about using the tray method and watering them daily. that only takes around 3-4 mins or less if you only have a few plants.
My younger cousin also wants one, but i fear her little sister would harm the innocent plants, so i am waiting a few years more until they chill their Hyperness.

I wouldn't mind giving away a couple of plants to some one who would care for them.

Superthrive. I've heard a lot about how good this stuff is for neps but I've never found anywhere in Britain that I can get it.

If I ever come across any at a garden centre I'll be sure to buy it. At the moment my nep just makes do with occasional dead moths that I find and a fruit fly infestation in my room.

It seems happy enough, it just opened a new leaf today. I'm a little worried because it has a couple of sundews next to it (divisions of the flower show one I got) and they have got aphids.

I keep picking the little gits off but I will give the sundews a spraying with insecticide when they fully recover from their recent division.

Cheers

Kyle