AMERICAN PITCHER PLANT
Sarracenia
North American pitcher plants, Sarracenia, are very easy to grow. They can grow to a surprising size if they are not divided. Sarracenia need a dormancy period, and will decline in health if they don't, so make sure that they get one. Overall, they are good starter plants.
The beautiful plants to the right are Sarracenia leucophylla "Hurricane Creek White," generously shared with me by a local carnivorous plant grower.
Sarracenia can also be crossed, and the hybrids can be crossed too! So, you can imagine how there can be hundreds of different species created over time.
In general, I let the bees pollinate my plants and random hybrids are created, but I wanted to make sure I preserved a few pure species of my Sarracenia leucophylla "Hurricane Creek White."
So, I used some tulle that I got at the craft store, and wrapped the flowers that I wanted to isolate. Some people recommend moving plants indoors to isolate them, since wind potentially blows some pollen around - this is primarily recommended when you want to create specific hybrids and avoid creating unwanted hybrids.
SOIL
Three parts peat moss to one part perlite to one part sand works well.
DORMANCY
Dormancy is required for long term health, and will let the plants have a resting period. Growth will slow and usually stop during this time, and weird flat-shaped leaves will form purely for photosynthesis. These leaves aren't carnivorous.
WATERING
I use the tray method for watering, always keeping about an inch or more of water. These plants like it wet.
PROPAGATION
There are generally two ways to propagate Sarracenia. The first is seed. The flowers have five stigmas, and the anthers hanging from the top of the flower will drop mature pollen onto the part on the bottom. This pollen can be transferred to five hook-like stigmas placed in a circle around the sides. Lift up a petal and to the left and right should be two hooks. The second method is by division. Plants will divide over time, and the new plants can be separated. However, I learned that if you keep multiple plants in a clump, the pitchers will overall be bigger, so I like to keep them together most of the time.
