FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So I have had my first Regia for maybe 6 days and it is growing way faster than any of my other drosera. I haven't measured but appears to have grown about an inch in length in this time period. So either my conditions are perfect or (and probably more likely.lol) after they catch prey they grow to allow for more prey to catch because the other night it caught 4small gnats towards the top and now there is a bunch more Dewey green at the top

Today


2 days ago


6 days ago

It looks like it hasn't actually been growing all that much, but rather unfurling a new leaf that was curled up when you got it. The curled-up tip in the earlier picture looks like it has a good inch or so of length in it. Still a good sign, though.

Fishkeeper wrote:It looks like it hasn't actually been growing all that much, but rather unfurling a new leaf that was curled up when you got it. The curled-up tip in the earlier picture looks like it has a good inch or so of length in it. Still a good sign, though.

I was gunna say same thing.

Just like roses, if you cut the when they start to bloom.
There's enough energy for it to completely open.

I believe D. regia actually grows pretty quickly once it's >1 inch tall (especially if it gets lots of food!) My little seedling certainly has taken a long time getting to that point but it seems to be speeding up now.

It was just weird. It seemed to uncurl very quickly after having a nice meal so I was just wondering if that is a trait specific to Regia. My other drosera don't seem to do that nearly as quickly. So I was a bit amazed!

Lifespan of a single regia leaf is not too long, and die off regularly. However, theyre always putting up new growth. With every new leaf, they'll gradually grow longer and longer. There should always be signs of new growth from the crown if it is happy. Some of mine have 3 to 4 coming out at the same time. Some also tend to unfurl a bit faster than other leaves after digesting.

It also looks like you have 2 plants in there (unless im not looking at the pic correctly).

No u r correct. The smaller one hasn't really don't much in the past week but we shall see

Mine has 8 inch leaves now, and it's towing out 3 at a time, well.....2. But the third is trying 4 get out too. It's a beast, I literally o pull off gnats from it to manually feed my other plants. The dam gnats are like the size of the dew drops themselves. Poor things....N O T

I got a big Ez Variety last month, it's doing ok, I just hate th3 medium it's in, pet and perlite, moves away top part and it makes it hard to top water.

Also got my 3 regia seedlings still kicking from germinated sept. 7th. Still maybe 1/8 inch tall haha, slow and steady wins the race! They are big Ez too because the biggest of the 3 is curling woohoo! Hahaha

Bhart90 wrote:Also got my 3 regia seedlings still kicking from germinated sept. 7th. Still maybe 1/8 inch tall haha, slow and steady wins the race! They are big Ez too because the biggest of the 3 is curling woohoo! Hahaha

Wow that is slow. I had a seed germinate at the same time and it's close to an inch tall right now.

nimbulan wrote:

Bhart90 wrote:Also got my 3 regia seedlings still kicking from germinated sept. 7th. Still maybe 1/8 inch tall haha, slow and steady wins the race! They are big Ez too because the biggest of the 3 is curling woohoo! Hahaha

Wow that is slow. I had a seed germinate at the same time and it's close to an inch tall right now.

Haha o lord I know! But considering I got my adults still, I'm OK with them taking their sweet asz time. I would be proud though to be one the people that successfully grew from seed
Not gunna lie Nim, my pride got to me, here I just started this hobby over a year and a half, and I went from drosera capensis from seed to, regia hahaha, definitely jumped the gun.

Well don't let people scare you - I think the difficulty of D. regia is exaggerated. It's just that there's a lot of conflicting information about how to care for them out there which often ends up with new growers doing the wrong thing. Cephalotus are like that too. Good luck to all of you!

And then........this. I see my capes do this sometimes after a larger meal. Does this look normal? Just starting my second week with this guy so I have questions. Lol

Sundews curl around larger prey to digest it. Looks like yours is trying to curl around both of those larger bugs at once. It might get a bit tangled, but it'll uncurl just fine, and that's normal.

Yeah the leaves curl to allow more digestive glands to come in contact with the food so the plant can digest it faster. Generally the larger the meal, the more the leaf will move and D. regia is known to wrap around large insects multiple times.