VFT's etc. in Cold Weather
MALOUF@ESTD.NRL.NAVY.MIL
Tue, 5 Oct 1993 11:13:24 -0400 (EDT)
Mr. Baumgartner,
What kind of pitcher plants do you have? If they're
Nepenthes then they should NEVER be exposed to frost in my
experience (limited). If they're Sarraceniae, then they'll
survive frosts but not prolonged hard freezes (as might be
expected, say, in Buffalo, NY). I've found the same to be
true for VFTs.
I live in a suburb of Washington, DC where we've
occasionally had fairly hard freezes for two weeks at a time.
Mostly, though, our winters are mushy/muddy. I'm getting
ready to set my VFTs, pots and all, into the ground outside
and cover them with mulch for insulation. Around there that
should be enough to winter them. Such treatment would also
suffice for Sarraceniae around here. (ooops, in the second
to last sentence that should read "around here that...", I
can't back up to correct it).
If you live in a place where the ground gets rock-hard
frozen during the winter, then maybe you'll need a lot of mulch
to insulate your plants. If they're in pots (and not planted
in the ground "permanently") then you can bring them into
a place in your house where it gets cold, like an unheated
garage, and let them winter there.
Hopefully, someone else in this group with more
experience will chime in. Good luck.
Perry Malouf