Hello Cmm889,

Good going with your plants.

I have never heard of a Drosera alata... the Latin term alate (winged) is usually reserved for plants that produce winglike extensions, like Nepenthes alata and Sarracenia alata. Can you describe that sundew?

Sundews tend to grow fast, however; will grow faster from root cuttings, leaf cuttings, and plant division. The Drosera spatulata in particular will generate root runs a short distance from the adult plant and eventually create a dome like clump. You can easily (as long as you are patient and careful with the roots) divide that clump into a dozen or two plants that will all produce their own clumps eventually. They are very resilient and will survive such division quite well. You just have to unpot them, clean the roots off, and start pulling and prying at the clump with your fingers until you find natural division points that will begin to tease apart more easily as you go.

Drosera capensis does not produce plantlets from root runs from my experience, however, is a weed that will produce thousands of seeds that will grow into adults in a year or two. In six months you can have adult plants by making root cuttings or leaf cuttings. When you repot the adult plants just clip off extra long root masses and repot those under a fraction of an inch of moss/perlite and keep them watered. In a month they will sprout new plantlets that will grow quickly into adults in less than half a year.

Presently I have just done the root cutting thing with my cape sundew and divided my spoon leaf sundews a while ago. Now I have almost two dozen seperate D. spatulatas and almost the same number of new D. capensis plantlets growing in.

Venus Flytraps will grow to adulthood in 2-3 years from seeds. You can wait to divide the adult plants after a couple of years of undisturbed growth or you can take leaf pullings and try to get those to sprout. You will only want to divide the adults' rhizomes once every couple of years to give them time to reestablish themselves.

One thing, growing them from seed is not necessarily difficult, but can be rewarding if you are patient. They might be tiny at first, but if you set up a good environment for them you will have the benefit of watching them grow and you will feel a sense of accomplishment as you see them growing larger.

I am not sure how you would propagate a Drosera alata as I have never seen one. If you have a Sarracenia alata it will produce plantlets around its parent rhizome that you can divide every few years like Venus Flytraps. They require cross-pollination if you want seeds and seedlings will take up to 3-5 years to grow to adulthood and require stratification before sowing.

If you have a Nepenthes alata, you can take vine cuttings when you prune the plant as it will grow several feet in length. Root the cuttings like you would an ivy in an opaque vase of distilled water, just wait longer for roots to grow in... You can also plant the cuttings in moist Nepenthes mix after notching the planting end and applying rooting hormone to increase the strike potential for roots. It will take a month or two for roots to grow and the cuttings to become established plants on their own.

your right the name drosera alata was a mistake, upon your questioning I researched again and found that I just had gotten the name from a bad source... its definetly a drosera petiolaris (woolly sundew) but to be brutally honest I'm not too excited with it and the one I have is enough and I dont feel the need to have more...

the root cuttings you described for your spats sounds crazy I've never heard of that before I guess its time for more research... so you just cut the longer roots? and plant those roots and they will resprout with a new plant? thats awesome! thank you much! any other types of drosera you find particularly exciting? I'm always looking for new plants!
p.s. where do you get yours from? locally? or online I'm looking for a good source online thats not too incredibly expensive...
thanks for the help!

Does it look like any of these?

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Petiolaris Complex plants require more light and heat than most carnivorous plants and those who specialize in them tend to have them in a separate fishtank, with a heater, and string artificial lighting.

Unless you have a specific plant in mind, one that is somewhat uncommon, your fellow hobbyists are an excellent and inexpensive source for many cp's. I would say that once I tapped out Lowes (and the like), 95% of what I have has come from the generous folks of the discussion forums.

Cmm889,

The D. capensis is good for taking root cuttings and the D. spatulatas are great for just dividing like your Venus Flytraps.

I get my plants from Sarracenia Northwest online and have no complaints about them, however; I hear good things about California Carnivores as well and trading is always an option too. I might start trading sometime next year if possible.

My sundew collection... with some Sarracenia seedlings in the left bottom corner for flavor.

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These two pots of Drosera spatulatas were all in one large clump a couple months ago.

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Now the individual plants are producing new clumps already as can be seen with the tiny sprouts under this adult.

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This is a Drosera graminifolia from Brazil.

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It seems to enjoy mosquitos.

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These are a forest of Drosera adelae from Australia, red from high intensity florescent light. normally they grow greener, wider leaves with red tentacles in slightly less light.

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There are well over two dozen Drosera capensis growing from the root cuttings now.

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Some of the sprouts are already almost an inch across only a couple weeks after sprouting.

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Drosera capensis will grow enormous roots for its size, so you can clip off several without harming the main plant... just leave the thickest roots and clip the long trailing roots. Sometimes the adult plant will grow a clump of interwoven roots in the bottom of the pot, so you can clip those off in a mass and use them for sprouting new plants too like I did. The same goes for Drosera adelae though the adult plants clone themsleves like D. spatulatas with sprouts growing in a forest around the adult... I started with one a year ago and now have dozens.