Caring for Sarracenia traps

If your Sarracenias are in an area teeming with insects, you may well face the problem of ‘indigestion’: the traps, which are incredibly effective, fill up with prey in a matter of days, after which a brown patch develops about a third of the way up that beautiful pitcher whose growth you’ve been admiring for several weeks… This spot spreads and weakens the entire pitcher, which breaks at the first gust of wind. Frustrating, isn’t it?

To avoid this nuisance, there’s a very simple trick.

A piece of cotton wool – not too large, not too small – will prevent the traps from filling up with insects and causing this localised rot due to an excess of organic matter. To avoid subjecting the carnivorous plant to a draconian regime, you can let the pitchers fill up to a few centimetres: that’s enough!

The cellulose wadding that makes up the cotton is harmless to plant tissue. The downside is that you’ll need to remember to remove each piece during your winter clean-up so as not to leave the cotton in the wild.