FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello,
I work for the NYC park dept and we are putting together a program for the "Its my Park Day".
We are installing a large terrarium in our education center and It has become my job to fill it.
Im looking to fill it with many species that enjoy terrarium conditions. I would love to incorporate orchids and some carnivorous species.

I see that many of you seem to have many great plants, I know the children will love (esp the plants that eat bugs)

Is anyone willing to donate some clippings, seeds or plants to help fill the new terrarium? I dont really have much to offer. I can pay for shipping but other then that our budget is limited (Albany cut our parks budget). I am familiar with growing orchids and other similar types of plants. Please help out and donate to help educate our city kids.
Thanks for your help.

Alex

I know you said you're on a budget but you could prob afford something like this-

http://www.flytrapcare.com/store/specia ... lants.html

I'm sure you would be happy with it. Steve and Matt send very healthy plants.

The mystery box in the link above is the way to go
3 plants- 9.95
6 plants- 16.95
Great deal for CP's
check that out

Cool. Thats a great site. Im looking to stay even cheaper then that. With shipping it really adds up. I saw they had some seeds. That might be initially the way to go.

mordoria wrote:I saw they had some seeds. That might be initially the way to go.

Venus Flytrap seeds will take 3-4 (or maybe 5) years to mature. The first two years you would need a magnifying glass to see them in detail. Most other carnivorous plants, because they grow in such poor soil with so few nutrients, and because they cannot be fertilized except (in only some cases) very weakly and gently, will also take a long time to grow.

In addition, one would need to be expert at terrarium planting not only to keep carnivorous plants healthy (some people can do so but many people have problems with terrarium growing), but also to accommodate carnivorous plants with other types of plants such as orchids that need a different type of growing medium, can be fertilized to a greater extent than Venus Flytraps without harm, and have very different water requirements. In addition, while many orchids can fry in sunlight that is too bright, Venus Flytraps love sunlight. However, in a terrarium, often the sunlight Venus Flytraps need cannot be supplied without drastically overheating the interior of the terrarium and the growing medium and root zone, endangering all the plants.

SO-- plan carefully.

When do you need these?

I think for a terrarium, sundews would be best.
If you are growing them with orchids, which like dappled light, I would suggest Drosera adelae, because it can withstand MUCH less light than most other carnivorous plants.
The only problem is keeping its soil (50% sphagnum peat moss/50% perlite) separate from the other plants, and watering it with only pure (distilled, reverse osmosis, rain) water.