FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Just a curiosity. Where did your hobby/addiction/obsession originate? Evolution thereof?

I suppose I'll kick off the thread. My addiction came from an impulse buy at Lowe's. My girlfriend always wanted a vft, so I purchased a death cube special for $5. I became determined to keep it alive (I murdered one as a child), so I started doing my homework. When I started reading about sundew care, I remembered seeing one in an elementary school text book out of the 60s when I was in fifth grade. I remember thinking how impossible it was that a plant existed that both lured and killed insects for nutrition. To me, it was the perfect predator. The allure of something an insect would see as both sustenance and shelter would instantly spiral out of control, and they would fall victim to the ambush; the insects act of seeking prey became a predation event. I had always kept tarantulas since early childhood, and loved to watch my little monsters stalk and kill insects and mice with a degree of patience and precision that I wished I possessed when I hunted game animals and coyotes. But carnivorous plants evolved a degree of predatory advantage so refined as to be invisible nearly any prey. So, I ordered a Marston dragon from cpn, and it spiraled out of control from there.

My true addiction now are nepenthes. After seeing that there were plants capable of taking down (granted, rarely) mammals, and COMPLETELY reversing the typical animals-prey-on-plants theme in nature, I had to have one. My miranda arrived a few weeks after my first sundew, and is still my favorite plant (though my two N x Suki and my bicalcarata marudi are a very close second).

I have always grew plants here and there. I have always like the vft. I never done research about them because I thought they were some plant that was really far off in some jungle. never thought I could own one. One day just because I was curious I looked to see how much a vft was and I came across the fly trap store and saw that I could actually buy one. so the next day I had to have one right there and then, I didn't want to wait for shipping ( Impulse ), so I called every nursery in town and then found out that lowes had them. so I bought 2 vft right off the bat not knowing how to grow them at all. But I did well after research and them I bought my first sundew after finding out about them, then it was game over, now I am hooked.

Long story short, I was sitting in biology class last year and the professor started talking about plants with modified trichomes that secrete mucus to trap prey.

Me: Huh, lets see if I can grow one *google searches*
Or two
Or ten
Or all of them

Edit: Then I found FTC forums....

I found a pic of a nep in a magazine then I searched it and found a local nursery with neps. And then I searched "carnivorous plants" and then I said, "hey that's amazing maybe I could grow them"

I love these sorts of topics, it's amazing seeing how people started and where they are now! I hope you're prepared for a novel.

For me, I received my first Venus fly trap when I was 16 as an unusual gift from my father because he felt I coped really well with a spell in hospital for kidney stones. For a standard 16 year old girl, it wouldn't have been too much of a fuss, just a bit frustrating, but for me, well, I have severe M.E. and at that time was almost completely housebound by chronic fatigue and pain, as well as various mental health issues that living with long-term illness can bring.

The plant was one of the first things I realised I was physically capable of taking care of, and I obsessed over it like a first time, overprotective mother! It came at a time when I was too poorly to even take care of myself, so this was a real boon for me and really helped to build my confidence. I immediately went online and read everything I could, and that's when I came across this website.

I very quickly bought my second Venus fly trap (which was amazing because it got me out of the house for a while as I went somewhere to buy it!), and then learned that there were other genera of carnivorous plants, too... and that's when I discovered Pinguicula. I bought my first (a simple but bombproof Pinguicula 'Weser') from Little Shop of Horrors (yes, that's a genuine UK carnivorous plant store!) and named it "Beatrice". I remember dividing the thing... the cracking and creaking noises were horrific back then!!
I tried other carnivorous plants: Sarracenia, Nepenthes, Drosera, Utricularia, Cephalotus -- I even had a Heliamphora at one point -- but nothing charmed or thrived for me like my gorgeous Mexican Pinguicula, so I ended up buying even more... and more... and more. At my peak, I had over 60 plants across more than a dozen species/hybrids, all absolutely CRAMMED on my windowsill. The thing is, they flourished there, and displayed some lovely colours!

And then we had an unusual heat wave at the start of spring one year, and browning heart disease decimated 95% of my collection. I was absolutely devastated and didn't buy any new plants for over a year -- but my original plant survived!! I still have offspring from it, 7 years later, although it has never flowered for me, not once, even when every other plant was going nuts. Bizarre!

Eventually I regained my confidence and bought the occasional plant, all the while experimenting with different soil mixes and planting containers and in November 2016 bought a bundle of Mexican Pinguicula from a lovely grower in Wales. Now, though, I'm facing the actual and real end of this season of my life, all 7 years of it, because I'm going to be getting married in April and when I move to our new home after the wedding, there won't be any windowsills for the plants, and we won't be able to afford artificial lighting.

My Mexican Pinguicula have become a real part of my identity and purpose, and anyone who knows me (online or in the real world) will know of my love for weird and wonderful creations. I'm a Christian and firmly believe that God created a world of wonder and awesomeness, as well as weirdness, and I've found my plants to be such a great encouragement and blessing when my health has been crap and I've not known how to function. They redirect me back to the one who adores me, no matter what my health is doing.

I am making positive progress, though, and I have also seen this in my Mexican Pinguicula. They're almost like a visible sign of how my health is doing because they're the first things to be forgotten when I'm really sick, so when they're looking good, I'm usually feeling not too rubbishy (although they do also thrive on neglect so... you know!!). I'm absolutely gutted that I'm having to rehome them, but there is scope in the future for me to dig back into the hobby and I'll still be around on the forums anyway to gaze and wonder at other peoples' plants. Maybe, one day, I can start my own business selling Pings... or I can finally create that hybrid that I've been wanting to do for years!!

I was like what, 5? I got a venus flytrap from Whole Foods, and killed it in two weeks. Same happened for the next year. And the next. Then, I stumbled across this place, and that's where it really took off. I can blame you guys for starting an obsession

For me it started when I was eight, when I watched BBC earth's documentary about carnivorous plants and when I bought my first nepenthes I killed it then years later I tried again , and finally succeeded also when I was eight I looked at pictures of nepenthes and saw a villosa, hamata, raja, and other species, I was like whoa I want that even though at the time it was way out of my league.

Salute flytraps234 wrote:For me it started when I was eight, when I watched BBC earth's documentary about carnivorous plants and when I bought my first nepenthes I killed it then years later I tried again , and finally succeeded also when I was eight I looked at pictures of nepenthes and saw a villosa, hamata, raja, and other species, I was like whoa I want that even though at the time it was way out of my league.

Damn kids with your music and your internets...

But seriously, if I would have had them there internets as a kid, I have a feeling this would have started a whole lot sooner haha.

Yeah when I was a kid I did not have a computer so I dad borrow my parents, if that ventracosa was still alive it would be big.


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