Thanks to everyone for all their suggestions and help. I have now finally dug and planted my first bog garden!! While it's not what I originally envisioned, I was faced with getting all my wonderful plants in the ground ASAP as weather and other projects were fast becoming an issue. And, thanks to 7 hurricanes and dozens of tornadoes, I have two 50 gal barrels of rainwater on hand for my bog! While visiting my family in CA last month, I visited California Carnivores twice and shipped home several gorgeous plants - thanks to Peter's help and advice. Additionally, I had purchased about 2 dozen specimens off the Internet, so I had quite a variety to get started. So far, I only have pitcher plants, fly traps, bladderworts, butterworts and sundews. I look forward to adding a great number of others - thanks to Fred's wonderful suggestions -next year. I also have a new pond going in this week and as soon as that and the deck near it are completed, then I can seriously get started on designing the final home for my bog. Right now it's appearance is quite utilitarian, but as soon as all the pond building paraphenalia is gone I will finally be able to get near it again and take a picture to post. Thanks again for everyone's help - I can already see that this new delight is going to start competing with my ponds for real estate space!!!!!

I have to trade seeds of Sarracenia Flava, S. purpurea,and Venus flytraps. to trade for your drosera rotundifolia and or D. Filiformis var. filformis.Let me know if you are interested. Thanks Ernie

I'm tardy to the party, but I wanted to make an input for anyone else to see this: Re: Dean Cook/Flytraps- A good 85% of my current collection is from Dean Cook, and I've NEVER had a problem with him. Patience is required, because he does have a day job, and on the website, it does state that it can take 7-10 days to process an order. I've had some difficulties with communication, but again, patience is required. They do get back to me eventually. Yes, sometimes the plants received aren't the best, but I do believe the season has alot to do with it. Since figuring out what I'm doing, I'm yet to lose anything he's sent me, and they've all grown nicely! I did lose one plant from them during shipping, and they sent me a replacement with the next order I placed. I wouldn't say they're out of the game yet, nor "gone bad". 4/5 Re: Lois Ochs/Raccoon Ridge-I found her on eBay, and purchased a Dana's Delight, Hummer Hammerhead, and 15 (received 18) lost-tag Sarracenia. The Danas, Hummer, and 16 of the rhizomes were all rotten! Talk about spotty communication, and when I finally heard back, they refused to reimburse me or send replacements because "plants are perishable". When they're received in such shoddy condition, I think the sellers should be responsible. It seems the only people that've received good things from her were physically at her nursery. Total crap, and I'll never order from her again. 0.25/5 Re: Sarracenia Northwest- This is where "you get what you pay for"- between the plants being potted and the associated shipping, it was hard on my wallet, but they are worth every penny. I guess people that don't know what they're doing are better off buying from them, but for me, it's just silly to buy anything from them that I could buy from Dean, and make flourish with a little TLC. 4.5/5 (.5 deducted for price) Re: KillerPlantShop- These guys are new on the scene, and they don't have a huge variety, but they've got great prices and quality which rivals Sarracenia Northwest. 5/5 Re: Kristi King/MKFarmsofMS- She's an individual grower with a busy life, but she ships orders within a week. I've found her prices to be very reasonable and her plants are always in very good condition. 4.5/5 Save for Lois, I've bought from everyone else atleast twice, so I have more than "one experience" to judge.

N. X ventrata is an easy hybrid to grow; it is a tropical plant so it doesn't require a dormancy period like the American pitcher plants. Nepenthes grow year round as long as their growing condition are met. Sarracenias enter into dormancy when the photoperiods starts to lower and temperatures go down at the begging or end of autumn. The first sign that the Sarracenia are entering dormancy is that it simply stops producing new leaves and the growing tip becomes compact. The old pitchers start to loose their color and will develop dead spots and its edges curled and browning. Sarracenia flava, alata, leucophylla, and oreophila will sometimes produce a couple of sword-shape leaves called phyllodia. That's normal. Sometimes, depending where you live and the species of the Sarracenia, like S. purpurea, will keep its pitchers but it will be too damage by the next growing season. If you are not planning to grow them in a bog garden and only want to have them growing in pots. To store your dormant Sarracenias, most people simply place the plants in a cool room and maintain their soil moist just enough to keep the rhizomes from drying out. While others, simply snip the old leaves off and place them in the fridge if they live in a warm climate. Wrapping the rhizomes with moist moss to keep them from drying out. Still some few people risks just keeping their dormant plants covered in snow out in their yards, Sarracenia Northwest once posted pics of their yard of Sarracenia covered with snow. But it is best not to do that to Southern growing Sarracenias like S. flava, S. leucophylla, S. minor, and S. purpurea ssp. venosa. Where I live in Arizona, it used to gets cold enough that I simply snip the old leaves and simply place a shade-clothe over the greenhouse. But this past winter, the winter was too short and not quite cold enough and I wasn't paying attention so they didn't get a proper dormancy. Only one S. flava and two of my rubras flowered this year. Well, here are some of my pics: This is S. flava var. rugelii or "Splotch Throat". Although it doesn't have the splotch, yet. S. flava var. "Copper Top" S. flava var ornate or "Heavy Veined" My ventrata is barely making 3-inch urns. I had S. flava "Red Tube" but unfortunately it became the victim of rats, they also destroyed my S. alata "Red Throat" and damaged three of my rubras. Damn pests! Well, the trick is simply keep them in a cool place and the photoperiod low, and make sure that the media its growing on is moist enough to keep the rhizomes from drying out. Hope this helps and happy growing.