FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

so I got these sundews from a botany teacher at school and when I got them they were soooo dried out it was ridiculous. so I put them in water and have been giving them a lot of sun light. But one of them is very sickly and has a whole bunch of dead leaves. I have plucked them all off and tried to get the soil as good as possible. Do you think there is any chance of this one surviving? There are no leaves and only a little bit of green on the very top.

Also is using flourescent lights for extra light ok?

Yes, flourescent lights should be fine. Sundews are pretty hardy, and even if they seem to die, they may come back from their roots. What varieties are they?

There's no way to tell for sure if they will live of not though... What sort of soil do you have them in?

I am not sure my botany teacher got them from a kit made by carolina science products. it looks to me like some sort of peat moss. But I could not tell you for sure. and to me they look like capensis but I could not tell you for sure. I looked at the web site and they do not specify. but that would be my best bet.

Try to keep them sitting in a tray of water. You could cover them with half a soft drink bottle to keep the humidity up while they recover - just make sure that you don't place them in the sun while covered or you will cook them! Sometimes sundews will resprout from the roots even if the top has died, providing that the roots are healthy and kept wet.
Good luck with your new plants.

Well, hopefully there is no fertilizer in there. If it were me, and I weren't sure, I would get peat and perlite and repot it myself. If they are capensis, there is a good chance they will come back. Maybe you should get a bucket of distilled water and shake the roots in the water to get the soil off, then repot it in the peat/perlite mix. I tend to be a bit paranoid, and maybe it is fertilizerless-peat, but you never know (Unless you can see the little balls of fert in it, then you do know ;]). Be sure not to cut off any leaves that have any green on them! Good luck! I hope they come back for you. It may be a while so be patient. :]

ahhhh patience is the one thing that i am not good at. but ya repoting them is prob a good idea. but thanks for the info and ill make sure to update on the recovery.

Hehe, I know. But as long as the roots look okay they'll probably come back. Best of luck to you!