FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey all!

I'm Zone 8, and we're looking at some nights with lows in the single digits next week. My current plan is to put my carns (Carolina Yellow Jacket sarracenia and VFT) in the storage room and block the door with a towel--I have them all together in a big box with finely shredded leaves to keep them warm, and they're all dormant. Will that be enough? IDK what the low end of cold tolerance is for these guys. It's getting into single digits and then teens during the nights next week.

I can always move them indoors, but due to other stuff I have going on right now it'd be kind of a hassle.

As long as they stay above freezing, they'll be fine. If the storage room is stable and cool, leave them there until Spring, just remember to water them.

I also live in zone 8, I leave my plant out all winter. Its not the cold that hurts your plants the the frost burn drying the tissues of the plant. This takes time and is sped up by wind. It has dropped into the low 20's F many nights for me so far this winter. It warms up to in the day time so it wont have much effect on my plants.

Where I live, I might need to cover my plants for a few days once every five years or so if it drops into the 20's even in the daytime for more than a day or two.

optique wrote:I also live in zone 8, I leave my plant out all winter. Its not the cold that hurts your plants the the frost burn drying the tissues of the plant. This takes time and is sped up by wind. It has dropped into the low 20's F many nights for me so far this winter. It warms up to in the day time so it wont have much effect on my plants.

Where I live, I might need to cover my plants for a few days once every five years or so if it drops into the 20's even in the daytime for more than a day or two.

This has been my experience growing outdoors in zone 7 as well. They don't mind freezing as long as they aren't exposed to drying winds once they are frozen and can't transport water to keep their tissue hydrated.

When I grew flytraps outside year round in large pots, they experience single-digit temperatures and came back fine the next year. I didn't even protect them at all, but they were in huge pots (wine half barrels).

I have grown my Sarracenia outside for the last 3 years, and even in small pots, most species don't seem to have a negative reaction to very cold temperatures.

I am in zone 7b, and I grow my plants outdoors year-round. The only time that I had any problem with the cold was in January 2018. We had a big cold snap roll in, and the temperature stayed well below freezing for 200 contiguous hours (over 8 days).

I moved most of my plants into the garage, but I left several big Sarracenia outside, thinking that their 12-14 inch (30-35 cm) pots would provide enough insulation. That was a fatal mistake. The pots froze solid, and the ice pressure cracked half of them. My beautiful Sarracenia flava var. ornata died, and only 25% of my Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora survived.

Lesson learned (the hard way). Now I don't let my plants sit in the cold if it's dropping below 26 F (-3 C). I have way too many plants to haul all of them into the garage. Instead, I made a greenhouse out of PVC pipes and plastic sheeting that I can stash in the garage when not needed. It takes half an hour to assemble the thing, with a small greenhouse heater plugged into a thermostat set on 40 F (4 C). I've used it several times this winter, and it was well worth the $200 investment.

Edit: Fixed spelling mistakes.