Pitcher Plants

I don't know much about water plants, so I'm a newbie. I originally posted in the Perennials forum so I'm just going to copy and past what I posted there. They suggested that I might get more help from this forum.

I just picked up 2 small "Pitcher" plants from Lowes. The ones they have in the small plastic terrariums.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2706/index.html

and

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/103123/index.html
or
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/108653/index.html
Not sure which of those last 2 yet it is.

Any how, I don't have a bog... or any other pond or such. I wanted to know if you guys think these little things can 1) Live outside of their current home (terrarium). 2) I can keep them in a greenhouse if necessary 3) If there would be any way I could incorporate these tiny plants in with the rest of my garden of mostly lilies and such. I'd like to see them get big and thrive.

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Well, here's what I did already... I researched them and found that they normall are grown in bogs. Ok... I have no bog. I looked at what it was planted in already... spag moss. I have that. So what I did was take one of my containers that is about 2 1/2 to 3" deep. No drainage. I packed it with spag moss and saturated it with water. So there is an amount of standing water in the container (tell me if I should poke drainage holes in the container). I took it out to one of my shadey gardens dug up a spot so that the container sits below the soil... the edge of the container is at soil level... I covered the edges of the container with my mulch... so you can't see the container.

I just did this today. I can redo it if you can think of something I should have done different. I intend to keep it wet.

My only concerns are... 1) There's no soil... just spag moss 2) There's a lot of water in there.

But from what I could make of what I read... that's the way it should be.

Any suggestions?

I just really liked the little guys!

Thanks,
Donna

Donna,

I have some of my bog plant in containers right now with potting soil and they are doing wonderful growing and making babies.

Beck

Beck,

Do you keep them saturated with water?

Also, I have read that they like slightly acid medium and with like no nutrients.

Donna

This message was edited Aug 26, 2006 12:51 PM

Check out the carnivorous plant forum for lots of detailed information about these. You can kill them with too many nutrients or with water that has too many minerals in it.

Pixydish,

Yeah, I read that they don't like nutrient rich medium... so I did my best to avoid that. The water... really has no nutrients in it.

Thanks though!!

Donna

My mother in law just added two of them to the pond I installed for her.

The came with floating baskets. Looks okay, really. She bought them up by Portland and brought them to the Jacksonville, Oregon area.

I have mine in a small hanging basket with potting soil. I fill the pitchers about a third of the way with water and just spray the pot once a day. It is in the shade on my back patio and it's nearly 2 ft tall and a ft. wide.

I intend to bring it in for the winter.

Jeri