Do you use the refrigerator method? I have an unheated south facing porch in the place that I currently live that works out nicely for wintering Venus Fly Traps. I put them in there in the late fall when temperatures start getting down to freezing at night (usually mid to late October). They stay there all winter with temperatures between 35 and 65 degrees F. They start coming out of dormancy around mid-February when the days start lengthening. Works out great!

Hi Matt, nice site you've got here by the way.

I ordered some vft through mail order in early winter and as it was winter here in Aus the plants arrived dormant, so i potted them up and then placed them in the fridge-it's nearly time for them to wake up again and so i will be interested to see how they go.

If they survive this will have been my first successful dormancy lol i personally have found dormancy to be one of the more difficult factors to compensate for when caring for this plant lol as i live in a climate that is too warm for the plants to theoretically go dormant naturally and is the reason why i've failed in the past...thats why your site is so helpful! nice to read about vft and dormancy from someone who lives in a similar warm climate like me where it's too warm to sustain vft dormancy! It's really refreshing after hearing innacurate dormancy info from people who live in climates where it gets too cold for them to understand whats it's like in other places around the world lol

I think next year i'll place the plants in a shady area in the last couple of months of autumn and reduce their waterings so hopefully the decreased photoperiod and lower moisture content of their media will cause them to enter dormancy as your page points out a really important point when it comes to vft and dormancy and that is daylength is a more dominant force at causing a plant to become dormant than temperature.

Anyway after the two months and hopefully if my plants are showing the classic dormancy sighns i will place them in the fridge over the winter(in sealed plastic bags of course to stop desertification of their media by the fridges low humidity environment) and hope for the best.

Please note everyone that vft must be dormant before going into the fridge as putting them in the fridge just sustains there dormancy which otherwise wouldn't be possible in my warm climate as they would just experiance a very light dormancy with no slow in growth and thus rest period which they need cold temps to experiance. Never place a vft straight in the fridge as putting them in the fridge does not cause or create them to become dormant but simply maintains there dormancy in conditions where this would otherwise not be possible.

Sorry to rant on but this information is so important for new growers, especially novice's like me lol

So anyway Matt do you find your plants exhibit the sighns for dormancy in your hot desert climate just fine without subjecting them to drawn out teachniques like placing the plants in the fridge everynight for a month lol that was classic, someone suggested i do that lol and i wrote it on my vft caresheet i posted on a few cp forums and later realised after reading a Singapore growers experiance that vft go dormant by shorter photoperiod(thanks to your site) and temp isn't a driving factor at all. That was a real eye opener for me and so next year hopefully my plants will aswell-and i can sustain there dormant state by placing them in the fridge.

That page from Singapore which might be of interest to a warm climate grower like you-enjoy!

http://www.greenculturesg.com/forum/ind ... topic=5047

Hope this info helps warm climate growers with dormancy!

Macca wrote:Hi Matt, nice site you've got here by the way.

Thanks Macca! I sure hope that it takes off as a community. That would really make me happy. There are a few people who post actively in the forum, but it's not quite as large as some of the other CP forums yet. I'd also like to see people start using the Blogging feature. That would be neat.

Macca wrote:So anyway Matt do you find your plants exhibit the sighns for dormancy in your hot desert climate just fine without subjecting them to drawn out teachniques like placing the plants in the fridge everynight for a month

I actually live in Zone 5, so although the summer time is somewhat desert like, the winter is quite cold and snowy with extended freezes, so I can't leave my VFTs outside. I can however leave them on an unheated south-facing porch that is usually between 40 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit where they get quite a bit of sun, but of course due to the shortened days, remain dormant until the days start lengthening in February.

Thanks for chiming in with your experiences with dormancy!

Oh so your desert climate is deceptive, unlike Australias hot deserts yours experiances snow in winter, guess it's the high altitude.....

I'm over cps for the moment anyway too much bother i find, see you around sometime.

Macca wrote:I'm over cps for the moment anyway too much bother i find, see you around sometime.

No way! I don't think I'll ever consider them too much trouble. I think that they are so magnificent and actually quite easy to grow.

Actually you are so right.....I just got disheartened because the cultivar I chose to re-start my interest in these plants isn't to my liking....Venus Flytraps are amazing, it's just important to choose the right cultivar!

It's true that some cultivars are quite slow growing and not very robust (like 'Wacky Traps'), but there are many that are very robust, hardy, and easy to propagate. Perhaps you should stick to those.

i leave mine outside. it's not really that cold. probably around 10 degrees celcius.

Yep, you're lucky lily to live somewhere that you can leave your plant outside all year.

extra extra natural Matt! in dormantcy, do the leaves close before the turn black?