FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Gary wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 5:50 pm I wish the nurseries here (central AZ) would carry CPs, other than the death cubes VFTs at Lowe's. My father-in-law told me he used to buy VFTs at grocery stores many years back but they always died after a couple of weeks. He thought more tap water would help, so he drenched them. The poor plants never had a chance.

Here in Tucson I found a local garden center that occasionally has interesting CPs. They work with a grower who lends them extra plants. I have found interesting Pinguicula there. They were recently selling large Ping rocks. Many different plants on a single rock. Problem is, they take poor care of their plants. Even with clean water, I think there's a lack of light and maybe too much humidity.

I think an issue with the death cubes quickly degrading may fall back on the vendors and the beast of mass production and shipping. They put them in the death cubes in *their* controlled environments. They have to have them in shippable/sellable containers and on flats for easy handling of multiple pieces. The problem is that if the retailers (Lowes, Wallworlds, etc) set these out in full-sun (where they belong) those death cubes would become solar ovens...or at a minimum, steamers. Something tells me the "shady locations" that we often find them in probably were determined by some bad experiences that they had in the past with cooking plants in the sun.

Watering is definitely problematic at these big box stores, too. The plants are actually fortunate if they get *any* water. Think about it...you have a couple of dozen of these little containers sitting on a cardboard flat....stacked on top of one or more other flats. All the small containers are sealed. They look "ok" when they arrive. Another week...well, they still look ok. Another week or two and they begin to look a little rough... Maybe someone will think they need some water and give them some...but it'll only be a water hose dumping city water across the tops of the death cubes with a little leaking into the little tombs. They make perk up in a few days but then they start looking even worse than before. Unless someone working there actually grows CP themselves they're just considered a short-lived curiosity that the store will get credit from the vendor/supplier for because "they died".

The smaller growers...Flytrap Store, California Carnivories, Sarracenia Northwest, Blue Ridge Exotics, and many other small growers *including* the small growers here in the forums understand what it takes to grow, care for, *and* ship plants around the country. Quality-wise you might compare their plants as the burgers from "Five Guys Burgers" versus the Lowes and Wallyworld plants as being sandwiches(?) coming from the dollar menu at McDonalds. Quiet a bit of difference in quality...you get what you pay for...would you like a Pepcid with that McDouble?

Well, no need to stress over them much...plenty of places elsewhere to find good plants.

Yep, you catch the plants just right (soon after delivery to your local BBS) and you can get some healthy plants. But, once dust has a chance to cloud the shiny plastic death chambers all bets are off. Over the last year that I've been paying attention at stores for CPs I've only seen pitcher plants a couple of times and they looked....really bad. Over the last couple of months I've only seen *very old stock* in the stores....several layers of dust on them...growing medium shakes around like pepper in a shaker, plants mostly black, the cardboard flats (if they still sit on one) are curled up and stained from apparent watering...probably from the local municipal water supply. Oh well, at the moment with this heat I'm not that interested in added another mouth to water...which means all the stores will get in a fresh stock of wonderful pitchers of some kind.