FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I really got into flytraps this past spring, and ended up getting my very first ones. Which happened to be three small typicals I snagged off ebay for around 10 dollars. From there I now own about 5 or 6 different varieties, most of which are in 2 very large pots clumping and the rest in smaller pots for single plants. Now dont get me wrong, some varieties are very colorful and seem to stand out more than others, but I see a lot of people spending high dollar on harder to find types. Me, well its all about having the biggest traps and I have now noticed over months of growing different varieties strictly outside under same conditions that the typicals are outgrowing the rest. From trap size, to the stem, to the overall size of the plant. They are growing much faster a producing much larger traps than even my b52 which was larger when I purchased it. It kind of baffles me since some varieties are described as growing faster and producing larger traps are getting outgrowing by typicals. Typicals which you can buy just about anywhere and much cheaper than most varieties. Not saying that I dont find the other types I have interesting, in fact the low giant is my favorite, but right now the most impressive plants I have are those 3 baby typicals which have now grown into very robust and very large plants since this past may when I bought them. So Id like to ask you collectors if it really is worth paying a lot of money for other varieties that can be cloned and will probably be more readily available once more plants are produced?

MisterE24 wrote:So Id like to ask you collectors if it really is worth paying a lot of money for other varieties that can be cloned and will probably be more readily available once more plants are produced?

A couple of things to note from your question:
1) What something is "worth" is subjective based on how badly someone wants something. A subjective question such as this one will always be answered "yes" by those who believe the plants to be worth the cost (obviously they do because they're purchasing them) and "no" by the people who prefer to wait until supply goes up, demand drops and prices come down (if that ever happens).
2) You're making the assumption that more plants will be produced quickly enough to meet demand and thus people can wait for the price to drop before buying. That may never happen for some cultivated varities of flytraps. There aren't very many people out there tissue culturing flytraps and despite what many people believe, even with tissue culture, it isn't possible to produce plants quickly enough or in sufficient quantity to meet demand unless there is a large scale operation behind the TC production and the growing and distribution of the plants.

The fact is that there are many dozens of flytrap varieties now. Most large-scale tissue culture operations, such as Agristarts 3, would not choose to mass propagate many dozen varieties of flytraps because the demand likely isn't high enough for that. Not to mention what a headache it becomes to keep track of all of the different varieties.

That leaves the propagation and distribution of most of the flytrap varieties to smaller-scale operation, such as the FlytrapStore. Some of these varieties have quite high demand, but we don't have the man power, space nor resources to grow enough to always meet demand. Thus prices for certain varieties will likely always be quite high.

As plants get more distributed, growers will be able to offer natural divisions for trade and for sale and that will help decrease demand as well. But that may take as long as 5 to 7 years after a variety is released in mass quantities to the public. Most people do not want to wait that long and are willing to pay $20 to $50 for a flytrap that they really want right now.

And compare the cost of a "rare" flytrap to that of other things you spend money on every day. Many people spend $5 on coffee each morning. Some buy $50 video games regularly. Going out to dinner usually costs $20 to $40 for a couple. Those things are gone or get old in a matter of minutes or months. But a flytrap can last forever if care for properly! And not only that, you can get your money back on the flytrap if you propagate it and sell or trade the divisions.

In the grand scheme of things, I definitely think a $50 flytrap is worth it for someone wishing to indulge their desire to have a unique or rare flytrap as soon as they can, especially if they will get the kind of joy out of it that I do out of my flytraps

Well I appreciate the answer, but really the reason why I posted this is because I remember seeing the dc xl going on ebay for as much as 400 dollars at one point. And if im not mistaken it was available on the flytrap store for around 50 dollars not too long ago. Now that is certainly a plant that I would like to see in my collection, though I missed out on it and I would of paid the 50 dollars for it. Just not 400, but there is one plant that I have been wanting for a while and that is the dracula. I just think its a really cool looking plant and for that one I wouldnt mind spending a little extra. But I guess like you stated, it really is up to the person. I tend to be a little patient, and sometimes im not, but hopefully I wont miss out on the dracula once it becomes available on the flytrap store.

It reminds me a lot of any new technology that comes out. It is always high priced, and those who have to have it then to complete them will pay exponentially more than they would a few years down the road. BTW, so far this year some of my typicals are at least keeping up with the B52s; the traps on the typicals are longer, the traps on the B52s are wider. Speaking of the latest new thing, I can't wait for Dracula and Purple Ambush to become available.

sbrooks wrote:Speaking of the latest new thing, I can't wait for Dracula and Purple Ambush to become available.

Yes, seems like quite a few people are waiting for those to come in stock. We should have a decent quantity of Dracula this year since I got it in TC in 2011. But FTS Purple Ambush was just introduced to TC last spring, so we won't have very many of those until next year. Though we should have a few to offer later this summer.

I think some of the people paying those crazy high amounts were people interested in tissue culturing the plant. So for them it was worth it to be among the first people to be able to offer it for sale.

Others though just have a more expendable income. I often daydream about what I would buy if I were a millionaire, well I'm sure there are people in this hobby that have quite a bit of money and $400 for something they really want probably isn't a huge deal.

I agree with you that typicals are very robust. But think about it, all typicals are cultivars, just not named ones. There are realistically probably only a handful of cultivars that are cultured for mass sale. And being that they are grown with the intent of wide distribution they are naturally the hardiest, best growing, larger cultivars.

I'm sure that in time the max trap size of your B52 will be larger than the typical. But your typical is going to be a better grower because that's why it was chosen for TC. It's also worth mentioning that with a lot of these "largest trap" varieties they're talking about the largest trap the plant can produce, not necessarily how large the majority of the traps on that plant will be.

It's all about how much disposable income someone has. If they can afford to spend $400 on a rare plant, more power to them. To some, it's worth it, especially if they plan to clone/TC/or breed from it. To others, it's simply not. I know buying the $50 Dracula will be worth it to me, especially since I'll be taking it to college with me (if I buy it before it runs out, of course... ) but it might not be worth it to someone else.