FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi all,

I came across your forum while looking for info on VFT for a school fundraiser. My daughter's school is putting on the production of Little Shop of Horrors and, well as a landscape designer, I can't let plants go out without a good chance of survival. So here I am!

I'm looking at the possibility of potting these guys in old coffee cups w/ saucers to fit the vibe of the play.

I know they require more depth than width for growth, so my goal is to look for taller cups... but would smaller/baby plants fair well in these until they grow bigger to be transplanted? (edited to add: assuming I can figure how to drill a hole... most likely looking at melamine type cups)

thanks in advance for help & suggestions!

Venus Flytraps can grow in a wide variety of sizes and shapes of pots, but there are a few considerations.

The pots ought to be drained (as you are planning to do) so that soluble material can't build up in the soil and cause harm to the plant.

Small pots are very likely to overheat badly when the Venus Flytrap is placed in the direct sunlight it loves, possibly to the point of baking the roots and encouraging rapid and destructive fungal growth. Small containers can be compensated for if they are insulated in some way. I grow several Venus Flytraps in the insulated plastic mugs commonly available at convenience stores in the U.S. You can even get them custom imprinted (with your school name and theater production, for example), from such places as inkhead.com

Other ways of insulating fairly small pots are to use cups made of styrofoam (typical cold/hot cheap white picnic beverage cups), or by double-potting, placing one container inside another with the space between filled with some insulating material.

Good luck and best wishes with the production!

Thank you, Steve for the tips and link to Inkhead... a great option!

Hi, I've started to get serious about growing plants a long time ago and so far I've been soaking them in something small until they grow and then putting them in something bigger, I don't think it would be a problem for the plant to grow in something small until it alone is small.

His daughter has prolly graduated from high school by now lol