Hi all, my experiences with Drosera binata have been different to this.
First of all it is naturally widespread along the south east coast of
Australia (as far north as Cairns which is tropical) and occurs in New
Zealand too. I have seen it in the wild in South Australia, Victoria and
New South Wales. It occurs in a wide variety of habitats and many of these
receive quite heavy frosts. I grow mine outside in Melbourne and Canberra
and they have survived many frosts, particularly in Canberra...coldest this
year was a minimum of -7 Celsius (19 F). They are adapted to survive this
cold period by having a dormancy period, like many other cp. As the weather
cools down they produce "resting buds" rather than leaves and when Spring
arrives they burst forth with a fresh crop of new leaves. It is
interesting that the different forms of D. binata seem to have different
lengths of dormancy, i.e. "dichotoma" and "extrema" (forms with leaves
divided many times rather than just once) form resting buds early and have a
long dormancy, while the "normal" variety has a much shorter dormancy, and
during one mild winter in Melbourne produced a few leaves during the winter,
whilst the other two forms still had a definite dormancy. So in summary, D.
binata will grow well outside where you can grow VFT and Sarras, but like
those plants, it will have a dormancy period.
Good luck and Merry Christmas,
Frank Udovicic (Canberra, Australia)