First of all, it's hard to grow sarracenia from seed (5 years to maturity). First of all, if you live in zone 8 or 9, definately grow your plants outside, it'll make them healthier and prevent fungal infections. A good place to learn form is here http://www.cobraplant.com/, their e-book is great. Theres a care sheet for a purple pitcher here http://www.cobraplant.com/sarracenia-purpurea.html

Welcome to the club Leggomyeggo,

Sorry, I don't have any Sarracenia seeds.

Keep working on your Sarracenia purpurea. Use fungicide like Neem oil or sulfur based brands and avoid soap based products. Adapt the plants to open pots in full sun if you have not already. Fungus typically attacks plants grown inside in terrariums and low light levels. Dionaea muscipula(Venus Flytraps) and Sarracenias can adapt to low humidity if it is done slowly over two weeks by opening humidity domes a little (like a fraction of an inch) every three days and leaving it open. Once the cover or dome is open several inches, it will no longer hold humidity and the plant can live open pot. Adapt them to full sun by placing them in morning sun windows while they are adapting to low humidity, then in all day sun windows for a week, then outside in full sun on a patio. Expect leaf burn at first, but the plants will grow stronger leaves and resist fungus more easily... not to mention fungus hates light and low humidity. Avoid hard water, try to water with distilled, reverse osmosis, or rain water only. Avoid fertilizers in the soil and their is no need to fertilize the leaves with foliar feeds. Use sphagnum peat moss in large bales and silica sand or perlite in 50/50 mix to pot them, repot every year in early spring and use larger pots as needed.

I will give you a couple of good nurseries, it is up to you to decide which one to use. Mainly, avoid the ones that try to sell expensive under powered lights and terrarium kits, carnivorous plants do not need all those bells and whistles to grow well.

Cobraplant.com and californiacarnivores.com both look like good places to me. Cobraplant.com is where I buy from and the plants always arrive in great shape in very short time, sometimes with extra plants or seeds as gifts. I hear good things about californiacarnivores.com too and their site looks promising. Go with whichever has what you are looking for at the price you want it for and the quality you need.

So long as the Sarracenia has some white, healthy rhizome left it might pull through... they are often tougher than given credit for. Just take care of the fungus and the plant will take care of the rest.

Hey leggomyeggo,
Good luck with your CP's. I have found over the few years that if I see molds growing on the potting medium they will often go away if I top water the plants using a spray bottle or just flood it every time till it goes away and water it that way occasionally.

I have ordered many plants off many different online nurseries and most have been good. What I have noticed is that the longer they say to allow for shipping, the worse the plant will be in shock when it arrives, so look for short shipping times or ask if you can pay more for an 'overnight.' Or, at least, that is how my experience has been.

Since this post relates to sarracenia purpurea, I thought I might ask a question as well. I went to a local nursery to buy a sundew for fruitflies, and they gave me a present... a (seemingly) dead sarracenia purpurea. I thanked them (out of courtesy) brought it home and have been trying to bring it back to life. I don't think it has gone dorment as it was in a greenhouse and had many hours of light. When I got it, there were a few small forming pitchers, but mostly dead, which have not done well. Any tips on bringing it back?

Are you growing them inside or outside?

Both need to be outside and both require dormancy.

Antechron, just trim alot of the dead leaves off, give it full sun and mineral free water, and wait until next year when the growth spuths hit

Antechron:

Is the nursery a generic one or a carnivorous plant specific one? The reason I ask is that if they have limited info on carnivorous plants they might have fertilized them and used incorrect soil mixes on them, which would cause root damage and eventual leaf death and overall plant death in a few weeks to months. If you suspect such, repot it in an unfertilized proper mix. (You might ask the nursery how they care for their carnivorous plants till the time customers acquire them as I have seen and heard some preposterous things, like fertilized Sarracenias in dry soil, no tray, in darkened shelves indoors)

Ha! Thanks Mutant Hybrid, it is a generic nursury. I will ask them about their care. As far as I could see, their care methods extended to... sticking them in the very back and letting them dry out till dead, then giving them away... I repotted it when I got home, now I think mold is growing on the roots. Ugg. It really does make me unhappy when I see Nurseries killing their plants, especially carniverous ones. They also gave me 2 sundews that are coming back beautifully. Should I spray the roots with fungucide? or do they sound dead?

Just use the time tested sphagnum peat moss and perlite or silica sand for potting... never using the brands that come in small bags, but using only large 2 foot bales of dried moss that say something like Canadian premium sphagnum peat on the plastic wrap.

You can spray the roots with any of the aforementioned types of fungicide, neem oil and sulfur based both work, avoid soap based products of any kind (says something like fatty acids and potassium salts on the label... that is basically fertilizer again). Just spray the roots well once and pot them and see what happens. If you see any thick white roots, not tiny, white fungus mycellia, growing out of the rhizome or any white, creamy, firm sections of rhizome it might survive. If it is soft and mushy, or completely dried out and all brown or all black, even on the inside (scrape a bit of brown off the side of the root and look to see coloration) it is likely dead.