FlyTrapCare Forums

Yeah, I am going to get some death cubes in the Spring and test my skills at replenishing VFTs.

Ok, don't get me wrong, I also love to see someone who has a sickly VFT bring them back from the brink, but surely the more we buy from mega chains (not even going mention their names ) even to 'save them' the more they are likely to mistreat the plant that we love, the less we buy from these people, the less they are likely to stock them, why continue to fill the pockets of these people who don't really care! Unfortunatly for the sake of letting 4/5 cube thingy's die, we could all buy from reputable CP growers, i know it is going to be a little more expensive, but in the long run we are going to put money into the pockets of people who actually put time and effort into educating and helping people interested in a very cool plant!

I'm not having a go at anyone just on an anti big business, just sell it know matter what buzz

Slark

Still if it's a cheap way to get plants it seems the best way tho i do buy most of my plants from reputable growers,actually,i get all of 'em from reputable growers

squirtoman wrote:Still if it's a cheap way to get plants it seems the best way

I do agree with the first half of that. It is THE best price to get plants, but they aren't in shape. It's also fun to bring plants like those back from the 'dead' and rescue them. And in most people's mind, rescuing the VFTs is a good thing, not a way to give Lowe's more money....

Personally I've found the plants themselves are intitially grown by a company who knows what they are doing, but it's the companies they stock the plants to who mess it up somewhere.

I've seen the same plants (species), supplied by the same company in two different locations -- one was Homebase the other was a local garden centre. The ones in Homebase looked half dead, abandoned, mouldy and covered in cobwebs (not to mention mislabelled). The ones in the garden centre were bright, flourishing and beautiful -- in fact I bought my first nepenthes from the garden centre and she is a stunning young beast.

I completely respect what slark78 is saying but I do have mixed thoughts on whether or not I should continue to purchase from large chain-stores. Prehaps sourcing our "cheap plants" from stores dedicated to gardening (like Frosts' or Millets in the UK) would be better, I've certainly gotten some fantastic value yet beautiful plants.

I like the thought of "saving" a plant from these chain stores, but at the same time if I find I can't save it, I'd have just donated money to the one who is killing them in the first place. Hmm.

Grey wrote:The ones in the garden centre were bright, flourishing and beautiful -- in fact I bought my first nepenthes from the garden centre and she is a stunning young beast.

You are so lucky to have a local garden centre which sells neps!

Grey wrote:I've seen the same plants (species), supplied by the same company in two different locations -- one was Homebase the other was a local garden centre. The ones in Homebase looked half dead, abandoned, mouldy and covered in cobwebs (not to mention mislabelled).

Not so lucky there huh! At my local homebase, the plants are flourishing with about 3cm bright red traps with lots of divisions so like about 4 or 5 healthy plants in a pot!

Oh aye, it's amazing how much is varies per store. I did find a beautiful venus flytrap from a newly delivered batch of plants at Homebase (Big Red <333333).

I got a Sarracenia purpurea in a "death cylinder" from a local garden center.
It came with proper growing instructions, and they actually had it in half decent shape

But, the rest of the plants (vft's 1 judith hindle) were dying

Sad to see a judith hindle dying...

I bought a VFT in a death cube from Lowe's in August 2010.

It just came out of 3 months dormancy where I put it outside. ( Oct thru Dec )
I live in Seattle where it gets cold at night during those 3 months.

It was droopy and sad looking when I first bought it.

Now it is the biggest plant in my VFT family and it has 1" traps on it!

This plant is getting freaking huge!

It is now growing indoors on my coffee table and gets mostly blue LED lighting 14 hours a day. (with some red LED's)

By the end of summer this plant will be huge!

In 8 months I will take photos!

Lowe's VFT's rock!

Max Payne

I went down to Homebase again today to pick up some propogator boxes (I got 2, they are FANTATSIC) and was very pleased to see the flower stalks on their venus fly traps had been cut off! Although the plants weren't in dormancy it's really nice to see that they DO know something. Haha.

It seems department stores can learn =].

Max Payne wrote:It just came out of 3 months dormancy where I put it outside. ( Oct thru Dec )

Glad to hear your plant is good, but I have to ask why you decided to take it out of dormancy so early? . Normally you can follow the rule Thanksgiving to Valentines Day, and that is a good dormancy.

I often find myself buying a venus flytrap from lowes lol if it looks good, but that is because i never really knew waht i was doing. now i just order online or trade, but i think it actually is cheaper toorder from a reputable grower because you wont have so many plants dying on you if you are a beginner.

dantt99 wrote:

Max Payne wrote:It just came out of 3 months dormancy where I put it outside. ( Oct thru Dec )

Glad to hear your plant is good, but I have to ask why you decided to take it out of dormancy so early? . Normally you can follow the rule Thanksgiving to Valentines Day, and that is a good dormancy.

There was a big freeze coming so I took them all inside.

3 months is ok for dormancy I think, unless the plants are smart enough to know the exact months of the year.

Just use the same dormancy months year after year for your plants and I think they will be ok.

Max Payne

Yeah, in that case it should be OK, I was just curious