FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Changing or Adding your Location
You can add your location to your profile here.

There are a few key factors to growing carnivorous plants that you must consider: temperature, light, humidity, water and dormancy. You could live in a hot, arid desert or in a cold tundra and still grow carnivorous plants as long as you can replicate their natural life cycle and natural growing conditions.

Each country is unique and has its own climate. We need to know what climate you come from in order to give you the best advice. I’ve seen so many questions from anxious new carnivorous plant owners that simply cannot be answered unless we know what country they are from. Yes, we can ask, but sometimes we receive no answer or by the time we are given an answer it’s too late to help the person.

Here are some of the main reasons why we need to know your location:

Dormancy
We desperately need to know what country you are living in to give you the correct dormancy advice – the wrong advice will slowly cause your plant to die. Why? Simply because dormancy conditions and times vary dramatically depending on what country you live in. We could be giving you advice on how to put a plant in the Northern Hemisphere into dormancy when you really live in the Southern Hemisphere! That would be no good to any one.

Supplies
Sometimes members will join with questions on what supplies they’ll need. “What soil should I use?” “Where can I get it?” “Can I get it online?” are all common questions. Knowing your location will allow us to give you information on soil mixes and other supplies that are easily and widely available to your resident country. You may find yourself paying double the price for something online (PLUS shipping!) when you could have purchased it at a nearby store for much, much cheaper.

Outdoor Plant Health
If you like to keep your carnivorous plants outside but have questions about their care and overall health, it is imperative that we know what country you are from. It could be too hot or too cold for some species to survive and you may find you’re doing more harm than good by keeping them outdoors. By knowing your country, we can potentially prevent a devastating loss.

Ordering Plants Online
This is a very important reason as to why we need to know your location. Some countries require a variety of permits and certificates in order to import or export carnivorous plants; if you want to know where to buy something online, and we just give you a list of places without knowing where you are living, you could end up in a lot of trouble with customs officials and find yourself being fined and the plants confiscated.

Communities
One of the most wonderful aspects of sharing your country is meeting people from the same place. Obviously we don’t expect you to go and meet up with someone just because they live on the same continent, of course not, but I personally feel there is something magical about sharing a hobby – a lifestyle with those who grow their carnivorous plants in the same conditions as yours. You can learn of and share local nurseries or department stores that offer the finest things for your plants, and new places to find plants in the wild for you to gaze in awe at.

While we're on the topic, I would like to say that adding your location is completely optional, however if you are going to ask questions I would implore you to at least tell us what country you live in when you post your question even if you don't add it to your profile. This will really help us respond to you faster and with more accuracy.

The first response to this thread by protocarnivorous 61 contains an image relating to the average winter temperatures in the US. Each coloured area is a different "zone". If you really do feel uncomfortable sharing your country and are from the US, feel free to add your zone number as this relates to a wider range of locations. Please remember though that this does not provide an ideal amount of climate information.

I would also like to mention the importance of keeping your online information safe. 99% of those in this community are trustworthy, wonderful people but like everywhere online and offline we do occasionally get a "bad egg". Make sure you only put your resident country/state/county in your profile and not your exact address. We do arrange trades on this forum but those are dealt via Private Messaging (PM) and so your address is never made public.

Nice information Grey , thanks , maybe this will be helpful to some members also ?

That is just OK for the western US.
I live in zone 8, where it is supposed to drop to 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit as the winter lows, but it the lows are never below 20.

I live in Zone 10, and Grey, as always you produce spectacular writeups!

protocarnivorous 61 wrote:Nice information Grey , thanks , maybe this will be helpful to some members also ?

I would like to thank you for the image and I'll add a note in the main post regarding it however I won't add it to the main post as it only covers the US.

And thank you for the words of encouragement .

i live in western Oregon zone8 but its not a normal 8 because we have a cool summer

zone 11 for me, but I live next to the ocean so very cool breezy summers with high humidity and nightly mists.

This is a great write up Grey. Thank you.

i live in central texas, zone 8. we get several freezes in the winter and extended periods above 100 in the summer. my exact location is rather arid, we are in a bubble that receives less rain than the area around it.

Hi,
I don't live in any of those locations I live beside Mexico I live in Guatemala
here it is usually around 20 to 27 Celsius, 27 is the most and there in no winter in all year.