FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I just received a red dragon and cuptrap from a vendor on eBay. Nice plants, quick shipping, good prices. His plants come with sphagnum moss and little pots. I didn't use the pots, but LOVED the sphag. It's the nicest I've used yet. Evidently its from New Zealand.

So I started looking up shagnum moss. There are four main sources: Wisconsin, New Zealand, Chile, and China. I've never used any of the last two, as the first two seem to be the most available here in the U.S. To this point, I'd always used Mosser Lee's product from Home Depot or Lowe's. $5 a bag is fair, but there's a bunch of litter in the bag, and its a dingy dark color.. from Wisconsin, I read. The stuff I received with my eBay plants, however, was bright colored and from New Zealand, with nearly 0% litter (twigs, dead plants, etc.). It looked like the stuff you often see orchids planted in.

And thus my question: is the New Zealand stuff better for carnivorous plants? I know the brighter, cleaner moss is far more attractive in a container, but will it lead to healthier plants? Seems to me like the plant litter in the Wisconsin moss will just cause aesthetic problems. I have some of the Mosser Lee Wisconsin moss I don't want to waste, but it there are advantages to the New Zealand, I'll mix the Wisconsin in with my less touchy house plant mixes.

I plan on using the New Zealand moss from here on out, if I can find it afforably. Anyone know where to get them on the cheap. I saw an outfit through Amazon that sells a bale for $23 shipped. I just don't have storage for an entire bale. If I could get small bags for $4-5, that would be ideal.

You can buy small bags of blonde LFS from Chile at lowes for around $5 a bag .

All I've ever seen at Lowe's was the Mosser Lee Wisconsin stuff. Who markets the Chile stuff of what you speak?

I've bought a bail of the New Zealand sphagnum and it's not as nice as the stuff you'll get at Lowe's marketed by "Better-Gro". See this thread:
http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/sphag ... t9792.html

Also, the live sphagnum that Steve and I grow is some of the nicest sphagnum I've ever seen. If you want to use sphagnum for some of your plants (I can't say that I like it much for Dionaea), you could grow some live sphagnum of your own.

Matt wrote:Also, the live sphagnum that Steve and I grow is some of the nicest sphagnum I've ever seen.

Matt, could you show pics from your live sphag? Thanks

I have a few tubs of it that look pretty good right now, but they're constantly under water this time of year. I'll try to snap some photos of them later. There are a few photos of Steve's moss on the store page here:
http://www.flytrapcare.com/store/growin ... -moss.html

Thanks for the info Matt. I do want to try growing some on my own. I've had some come back to life over the winter, so we'll see how it works out! I've been thinking about buying some from you guys!

After looking a little closer I found the good stuff at Lowe's last night. Mucho gusto! NIce quality, wish I would have found it before I repotted all my VFT and sarrs!

Thanks again...