If you have not heard the song Venus Fly Trap (Kito Remix) [ feat. Tove Lo] you should. It is pretty catchy...and in this post relevant?
I have been expanding my collection of plants and the Venus Flytrap ((Dionaea muscipula) has been the most fun. Ok, I may have killed my first one by spraying it profusely with my homemade rosemary, eucalyptus, and lemon essential oil fly repellant which is a very ironic death for a fly trap to have. Mistakes were made. The bottles are now clearly labeled and kept in different spots.
I learned that I did not provide enough light for my 1st one and I used sand and peat moss which made it look really sad until I finished it off with the spray of death.
My second Venus Flytrap is much happier:
Peat moss ( with no added fertilizers) alone works just fine and keeping it super moist with a ton of light (full sun) makes a huge difference. I have mine under a grow light for 10 hours I might dial it back in the winter, will see when we get there.
I have read all over the place that distilled water is best since it avoids adding minerals to its soil. I have not done this. I did with my first one. I have not seen a difference. Our tap water is pretty good/soft so I am not concerned. If you notice problems with your flytrap and can't pin it down it could be the water you are using might be part of the problem.
It gave me 3 flowers. One after the other. I did not cut the first one as I was curious. Curious but worried because I read that it would put a lot of stress on the plant and drain it. Another source told me to expect it to die back but it would come back eventually and recover on its own naturally. It shot up one day and hit the grow light so got a little burnt. Whoops.
I watched the flower stalk grow and blossom into a very pretty bunch of delicate white flowers. I "self-pollinated" it with a small brush. Me and my Venus Flytrap have a wonderful relationship. XD
After a week or so the flower faded and gave way to seeds. Very very tiny black shiny seeds that I will never find because unknown to me any movement would knock them free. Sigh.
I cut the flower stalk pretty low. Within a few days, another one popped up. I did the same thing including losing the seeds again. RAWR!
No signs of the plant slowing down as it sent out another flower stalk. This time I cut it to give it a break. I noticed it seemed to be getting a bit crowded in its pot and dried out way quicker than I used to it doing. I thought I was going to lose it, after all we had been through, it looked shriveled up.
I bought a bigger pot and put it in peat moss then soaked it for a bit. Afterward, I poured out excess water. The next day most of it turned black ( the parts that were shriveled). *panic on the inside* I removed all the backend parts with scissors and hoped for the best. It has been a while and it is going strong sending out new traps as if nothing happened and even caught a fly on its own again.
Note: I feed my Venus Flytrap caterpillars from my garden ( The circle of life little guys) and if I am able to catch the occasional fly. Or my husband Nath beans one with a nerf gun #fpsskills, but usually, our dog Dash going in and out throughout the day allows at least a fly to get in the house and by morning it has been trapped.
Here is some short footage of us feeding it:
-DashinMoments