Q: My Venus flytrap is flowering! What do I do?




Dionaea

A: Now why did you let your plant do this? Don't you know better?

Time to make a decision. If you think you are pretty good at growing Venus flytraps, you can let your plant flower and be perfectly comfortable in knowing your plant will probably be fine.

If you are a novice grower, you should not let your plant flower because you might not be doing enough things correctly to ensure the plant can go through the flowering process and not be overly exhausted after the event. An exhausted plant will look pathetic for up to about a year, and might even succumb to fungal infections and die.

If you think that you shouldn't let your plant flower, but you waited too long (maybe you just stumbled onto this FAQ entry as the plant is elongating its flower stalk), you're probably screwed. Once the flower stalk is just about to flower, you might as well let your plant finish flowering. The plant has already invested a lot of energy into making the flower stalk, and you have committed it to a near-death experience. Don't don't hope for too much! The flowers are pretty dull.

I suppose you could try to encourage your flower to produce seed (unless you are morally a ZPG kind of person). If that interests you, read on...

Page citations: Personal observation.