I grow mine in a East window, in the open air, in a typical peat-sand mix.
They don't exactly have a dormant period. During cold weather they will
produce mainly the flat non-carnivorous leaves. During warm weather they
produce trap leaves. In East light, the pitchers get some red coloring.
In brighter light they would be much darker, but they don't grow deformed
pitchers in lower light as Saccacenias would.
One of the most interesting features of Cephalotus for me is its
transition from juvenile to adult growth. The juvenile pitchers are about
1 cm long or less, and instead of having the thickly-ribbed peristome of
the mature pitchers, they have only a few small spines. These are
produced until the plant is big enough, then, with no transition form
whatsoever, the plant suddenly grows an adult pitcher which may be an inch
or so long. As the plant ages it will produce larger pitchers, and then
start producing other plants around it, eventually forming a clump.
On Mon, 21 Jun 1993, Earl Nishiguchi wrote:
> Is Cephalotus hard to grow? Do they need dormancy? I am interested in
> raising Cephalotus but not sure how well they will do here in Hawaii..
> Earl