I'm glad to finally have some working Internet access and to have discovered
the existance of this CP newsgroup.
Let's give some short news from Holland:
It's almost 20 years now that I saw a Venus Fly Trap somewhere. I went to
buy some for myself and I learned to keep them alive in all these years.
Once an expert (?) told me I was doing totally wrong, but I never met people
that could keep them alive too. It's a sort of stable situation: they
neither really grow nor perish real quick. Then lots of Sundews popped up some
ten years later. Must be the local (rare) variety. They are doing fine.
Years ago (must have been a good summer) the VFT's and Drosera's flowered
and I even succeeded in getting seeds from both of them. (once).
The drosera seeds were visible with the naked eye. I don't quite understand
how lots of them (say 15) could manage to pop up in a rather closed indoor
system. I use two aquaria as terraria and try to avoid too much direct
sunlight. I had some sarracenia's, but only a small one did survive.
Once I had a Nepenthes, but it couldn't stand a second winter. (I can't
provide the minimum winter temperature of 24'C). Utricularia perished also.
Don't think I'm an expert now :-)
Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Robert Allen) wrote:
flourescent lights (but the US plants suc as flytraps & sarracenia
must be allowed to go dormant in the winter, which is a bit of a
pain if you aren't growing outdoors).
This is new to me. Drosera's seeme to take care of themselves in the winter.
VFT's not? Should I provide more darkness or what do you mean?
I dislike central heating very much, so it can't be too hot for them.
(the contrary I'm afraid).
Wim.
PS: the header might still show an erroneous return path. My address is:
------ Internet: wim@djo.wtm.tudelft.nl ------
Fidonet: Wim Osterholt 2:512/56