FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Thanks for your help!

As a newbie, you should probably start off with an adult plant; try your hand at seeds later.

Flytraps grown from seed are teeth-grindingly-slow growers for the first couple years (and stay extremely small for the first year; I'm talking millimeters for the entire plant); they also take about 4-5 years to reach maturity.

I can't tell you what online stores ship to Canada offhand, but we have plenty of people here from Canada who can probably shed some light on this.

Okay thanks Veronis. Anyone else have any idea where I can order from in Canada?

Uhhh in the summer try looking in at fortinos

That's where I got two Vfts good condition. AS well look in at Lowes theres aren't always too healthy but they're alive and with some light and water they should be fine.

If you're looking to order I know that Kheen's Carnivores is in Canada
http://www.keehnscarnivores.com/

There are plenty of Canadian members who will be able to suggest other places as well.

Where in Canada are you?

I've seen VFTs and N. ventrata at Lowes and some Home Depot stores. You can also order from www.hawaiianbotanicals.com, they've got some really nice clones right now.

I'd avoid the dunecraft kit, it doesn't seem to get many good reviews, and the seeds aren't very viable from what I've read.

I'm in Nova Scotia. Can I buy a dormant plant at this time of year, put it in my garage ( Cold ), then put it in the sun when the time comes?

Safeway had a nice bunch that was sold off pretty quickly. I wouldn't worry about dormancy right now. The plants you will buy will most likely have come from tissue culture so worry about that lin September. I'm in Vancouver. Good to see more Canadians on here!

Okay, Im going to buy a VFT from Hawaiian Botanicals. It is winter, so I will need some lighting. I dont want to spend a lot of money, but can I use a regular Fluorescent Light?

I would recommend the strongest compact fluorescent lighting.

For one plant, you can get 23-42 watt compact fluorescent light, 6500K color temp. They have them at Wal-Mart, or any hardware store like Lowe's or Home Depot. I've only ever seen up to 23W at Lowe's or Home Depot; but I found a 42W 6500K TCP compact fluorescent at Wal-Mart. The more watts the better like Adam said, but a 23 would do. Name brands like Sylvania, GE, TCP or Philips are best; just don't get a no-name brand or store brand as they don't push out near as much light intensity no matter what the label says.

Keep it about 6-8 inches above the plant; too close and you can burn the plant's leaf edges, too far and it won't get enough light since the light strength of fluorescent light decreases exponentially with its distance from the plant. ~14 hour a day light cycles. Replace every year; the light might look the same to you after a year, but believe me your plant can tell the difference.

E.g. Something like this would be a very good one and it's only ~$12 plus shipping: http://www.1000bulbs.com/42-Watt-Compac ... ents/1086/
Or you could check for it at Wal Mart of a hardware store.

A similar-to-above 23W would be fine, but the higher wattage bulb will support better growth and coloration.