Venus Fly Trap (Dionaea muscipula)

Venus fly traps are temperate plants from North America. During the Summer they require bright direct sunlight and will benefit from being outside or on a South-facing window sill. It is essential to give venus fly traps a cold winter at which point they will enter dormancy. Move to an unheated greenhouse or cold frame once the frosts start. The plant will die back until it re-emerges in the Spring.

Carnivorous plants must be watered with either rainwater or R.O water (unless you are lucky enough to have tapwater with minerals below 50ppm). Venus fly traps are naturally from boggy environments so must be kept wet by standing in a tray of water. During the winter dormancy, they should be kept damp rather than wet.

Venus fly traps need nutrient poor soil. An equal mix of peat moss and perlite is good for many carnivorous plants.

Although it's tempting to feed carnivorous plants, they are very capable of capturing their own food and will cnsume a surprising amount of flying insects.