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My drosera capensis has been pouting after it got obliterated outdoors from the full sun it was getting, it was acclimated as slow as I could acclimate it, the south Texas sun is way too intense for it, I moved it indoors about 3 weeks ago, it was so upset it made a hibernaculum, the water is reading 30ppm coming out of the bottom, it is homed in a 1 liter coke bottle bottom. It is still showing signs of life, it’s in a south facing window. I am still waiting. The key that I have learned from these to keeping them alive is to treat them like if they were still thriving. It seems to be making little growths all along the hibernaculum, it hasn’t quite declined yet. The old growth turned into a crisp sandwich so I trimmed every black leaf off (All of them.) it seems to be trying. The plants is about a year or two old now.



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I'm amazed at what Capes can do. A couple of years ago, some of my Capes got blown off the deck and fell 15 feet to the ground. I repotted them right away, but they were in shock and the hot AZ sun crisped them. A couple of them looked a lot like your plant, but they all came back. Several months back they were getting kinda trashy-looking so I trimmed them off at ground level.
A month later they sent out new plants and they're thriving.
Capes are very resilient. Just give 'em time.

Gary wrote:I'm amazed at what Capes can do. A couple of years ago, some of my Capes got blown off the deck and fell 15 feet to the ground. I repotted them right away, but they were in shock and the hot AZ sun crisped them. A couple of them looked a lot like your plant, but they all came back. Several months back they were getting kinda trashy-looking so I trimmed them off at ground level.
A month later they sent out new plants and they're thriving.
Capes are very resilient. Just give 'em time.

Time is something that everything and everyone needs to grow and to become stronger. This is my 5th attempt at a cape. And I’ve had this one for the longest. So I ain’t giving up on it. These plants, like you’ve said are VERY resilient, they aren’t like fly traps that give up if they DO have something wrong. Drosera capensis is one plant that you cannot kill, and that’s why I chose it to be my indoor gnat slayer, I have fruit flies out of the rear to the front. I am counting on this plant to come back and handle those little jerks from landing in my water cup, I haven’t tried pings because I don’t want any thing with fleshy leaves. Some people claim pings are easy, I just avoid them with my life. I have other exotic and tropical plants that I have raised from seed, even lemon trees, cacti, ficus trees (VERY DIFFICULT TO START FROM SEEDS) I also have philodendron plants that were once a LARGE clump of nothing but plants and vines, the cold killed most of them, I am trying to get those to come back quick and strong because I love the looks. I have had a unknown cactus I bought from Home Depot 8 years ago and I have all of the pups from that cactus from when it died, they are just as large as when I got the mother plant.


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capes can create hibernaculums? i thought they didnt go dormant?

Spunro wrote:capes can create hibernaculums? i thought they didnt go dormant?

They form them when they are under major amounts of stress, or if they recently died back from extreme temperatures. I know this from my experience with drosera capensis.


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One of my Capes did this after getting roasted. Someone here (Panman, I think) described it as a "resting bud".

Gary wrote:One of my Capes did this after getting roasted. Someone here (Panman, I think) described it as a "resting bud".

Yeah, I have a lot of experience with drosera and fly traps, nepenthes too. Very interesting plants.


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Yup, there's always hope for a capensis. It took a year, but one of mine just popped back up this last January and would have sworn that it was dead as a doornail.