First, its important to know what species you have. My guess is that "Red Pitcher" is Nepenthes Ventricosa, a plant which would adapt to most house-hold south-facing windows. Water it enough to keep it wet, but it doesnt like being water-logged.
Purple-Pitcher is either Sarracenia Purpurea, or Sarracenia x "Judith Handle," either way, put it in full sun during the summer with a tray of rainwater underneath it. Do the same with the Flytrap.
You can do the same with the butterwort, but they typically like a little less sun.
The Sundew is likely to be Drosera Adelae, in which case, you could probably get away with growing it like the N. Ventricosa mentioned above, only with more water.

Good luck Robin. You at least have the proper names now and can do some more accurate research.

Thanks!

Red Pitcher (S. rubra?)
Purple Pitcher (S. purpurea)
Venus Fly Trap
Butterwort (P. primufilora)
Sundew (D. adelae)

You live in Maine? For now I would set them all up at a window sill or a rack by a window. You could even put a fluorescent light over them. Place the pots in a plastic container with storebought distilled water, to ~3/4" depth. When spring finally gets here and the daytime highs are close enough to room temp, you could take the pitcher plants and VFT outside, where they should stay until October or November. The previous poster indicated that the red pitcher plant is a Nepenthes. I'm not sure what you've got. It could be either one. Does the pot instructions indicate whether it is a Sarracenia or Nepenthes? If it is a Nepenthes, then it should stay inside and receive ~12 hours of light per day.

Can you post pictures? In case you're not sure how to post a picture, you can Email me pictures you have taken and I can host them on my account.

I kind of disagree with you not researching it first on text material like books. Since a book can provide a wealth of information, inquiring a person will give you limited information. Its simply too much for one person to type. The reason there are books out there, and one of the best is the Peter DÂAmatoÂs book: The Savage Garden.

Amazon.com will sell books at a discount price, but you can find that book in a pubic library if you donÂt want to pay say $20 or $30 for it.

It usually best to research what you want to buy before buying it 1st then asking questions later. To many a newbie have killed their plants right off the bat by adding fertilizer, planting them in regular potting soil and watering them with tap water. Or simply sending them into an irrecoverable shock by exposing them suddenly to drier air, under the sun, without hardening the plants 1st.

As a result more then one newbie have wasted $2 or $5 when some purchase their plants in a general store or nursery. But others have wasted $25, $50, and even $100 worth of plants they bought from a specialized nursery.

The idea people go to forum to inquire to a particular problem like a pest problem and want to find someone how they handled that problem or learn what done wrong if a plant fails to grow. So if you donÂt want to research it yourself, people will think you will be to lazy to do you own work yourself and will eventually kill their newly purchased plants anyways.

Now I donÂt now which pitcher plant you fed bugs and how small these insects are? Since the plants themselves sold by Lowes are quite small and lacking the digestive fluids inside their pitchers. Most likely whatÂs going to happen is the bugs are going to rot and kill the leaves.

Sundews and butterwort (P. primuliflora) donÂt have catching appendage, since it is the leaves itself that does the catching. The leaves of sundews are covered with hairs and has a "dew" drop on each hair. Butterworts on the other hand their leaf surface is covered with sticky mucilage.

DonÂt feed the plants, they can do that themselves. DonÂt try feeding the Venus flytrap, even if it grows new traps, it will be too weak to digest the insect. Digesting an insect takes a lot of reserve energy before it can utilize it. It may take up to a month or 2 for a VFT to recover.

Now your "Should they be fed into the soil like a regular plant?", are you referring to adding fertilizer to the soil. If so DONÂT. That is a common mistake made by newbies trying to grow their 1st CPs, adding fertilizer to the growing media.

Fertilizer will kill your plants, CP have a weak root system, and is mainly used to anchor the plant to the media and draw out moisture, and thatÂs it. Fertilizer will destroy that root system and eventually kill your plants. That also means not to use regular potting soil, even if part of the ingredients contains sphagnum peat moss and perlite. It also has other things like fertilizer and wetting agents.

What you need is pure sphagnum peat moss and perlite to aerate the media, nothing else. Make sure it doesnÂt have any additives at all. You mix it up in a 50:50 mix. This is the true and tried growing media for most CPs. Sit the VFT, sundews, Sarracenia pitcher plants (the purple pitcher plant) in a dish with 1 inch of water. The butterwort P. primuliflora in my experience does well growing in straight long fiber sphagnum moss and likes its media quite wet. Nepenthes only require having their media most and not as wet as other CPs.

Nepenthes will require a mix of long fiber sphagnum moss used for orchids, again make sure no additives and you can mix it with one part perlite and one part fine orchid bark. They like their media most but with enough drainage for their roots.

Use distilled water to water them, donÂt use for any reason tap water, purified water, or drinking water. These still contain minerals that will eventually kill your plants. Second choice is rainwater collected in a bucket, followed with R/O water but distilled is still the best choice.

For now have them growing in a wind sill from indirect sunlight in their own Âterrariums (aka the cubes-of-death by the CP community), lift one corner slightly to allow ventilation, checking for drooping or wilting leaves. Be careful not to let the media dry out. In a weak lift one corner a bit more, again checking for wilting and do this slowly. This way you can harden your plants to a drier environment and give the plants time to build the natural wax coating over their leaves that protects them from drier air.

As they develop new leaves, gently expose the Sarracenias and VFT to stronger sunlight, keeping an eye on wilting or sings of burning leaves. Control the amount of sunlight to allow them time to harden. Although the sundew will recover the quickest, followed by VFT & Sarracenias. Neps may take 4 months to develop new leaves and even then it will not develop new pitchers. They are known to take about half a year to recover.

Nepenthes, butterwort, and the sundew will do best growing under indirect sunlight or under very bright fluorescent lamps. Nepenthes especially require at least 12 hours of bright light to grow their pitchers properly, Neps are tropical plants that do receive long hours of light.

That basically covers the basics but it is better to you research things 1st and read books for information to avoid mistakes in the 1st place.

Good luck.

Hello Again,
Thanks for the feedback. When I said I have wanted CP's for a while, I failed to say that have done some reading over that time. However, actually owning them is another matter. I have the internet at my disposal & books too, but I have not gotten a book on this subject yet. While I feel books are an excellent source, and I read about plants very often, I am, at this time, looking for personal experience stories. I did know that they are fussy about water, and I did not use tap, I used Brita filtered. Now I know I had better get some distilled. I also happened upon the plants at the store, after looking at them off and on for the past year or two, at an irresistible price. It certainly looked as if they would die if I left them there. I also read the instructions on the package. I also know that regular fertilizer is a no-no, but I am organic anyway, and I was wondering if compost--which is heavy natural fertilizer is OK. Now that I read the advice, I see that only the v/p 50/50 will do. If the plants only use the "soil" for anchor and water drawing, do I really need to transplant to a larger pot? Can I let the plant get real big in a small pot?

I like to hear folk's real experiences: the ups & downs. I have seen pictures of people's beautiful pitchers in a hanging basket in a window--with out the surrounding terrarium.

We also have some sort of pitcher plant in the dune of a local beach. By the way, I am from Massachusetts--on the south east coast of it. These pitchers obviously go through the Winter. Some day, I wouldn't mine something like that out in my yard in the little bog area where I have cranberries growing. I have sphagnum growing in my yard too.

For now, I am content to work inside with what I've got.

OK, according to the boxes here is what I have:
Dionaea Muscipula
Sarracenia rubra
Sarracenia purpurea
Pinguicula
Drocera

The last two only have the genus listed.

I really do appreciate all the replies. I look forward to the adventure of growing CP's, and I will look into the recommended book. I earn points on-line, and I can choose an Amazon gift card, so I could get the book that way.

Thanks again for the help!
Robin

I've bought all the "Lowes Cube Of Death" plants and it is likely that you have D. adelae:

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P. primuliflora:

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VFT:

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S. purpurea:

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No picture of a S. rubra, but here's what you can do in the spring:

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MA = Massachusetts
Me = Maine

My bad.

Heres a down experience for me this year in mid January.

I have most of my Sarracenias and VFT dormant in their pots. I also have most of my sundews growing happily this part of the year. Which are cape sundews, staghorn sundews, pygmies sundews, a paradoxa (I know paradoxas can't tolerate cold temperatures but his just dandy), and 5 tuberous sundews. Unfortunately, when out on vacation, in mid January, here in Maricopa it reached almost between 80 & 82 degrees. Needles to say, that means 10 degrees hotter inside the greenhouse with the vent window closed. So it got to warm form my tuberous sundews.

I had my tuberous sundews one species of auriculata, 2 subspecies of peltata, one species of macrantha, and one rupicola. I may have lost most of my tuberous sundews except for rupicola.

One mistake left the area when it was cold and raining, with promise of more bad weather, assuming it was going to stay that way. The next day from the day I left - you now how unpredictable weather can be - the sky cleared up. I think it was a joke from some god I came back with the sky raining and cold, so I was surprised that my tubers were brown and quite wilted. I had a neighbor tell me that change of weather.

The rest of my plants inside the greenhouse are doing a-ok as if nothing happened. It did wake my 2 S. purpurea ssp purpurea, which one is a heterophylla, "woke-up" early but are growing just fine.

I consider myself an experienced grower of carnivorous plants, so it infuriated me I made such a stupid mistake. This was my 2nd year growing my tuberous sundew and look what happened. Im just hoping there are not did, my rupicola has just sprouted a 2nd growing point but it looks pretty weak. I hope I can salvage at least this one.

Well... enough for my troubles.

What kind of Sarracenia grows in Massachusetts? Is it very squat and round or long and tall? It would be neat if you can post a pic to identify the species. didn't know they grow there too. But wouldn't be surprised it some species of Sarracenia purpurea.

Lucky you that you grow in an area where CP already grow, basically you can grow your Sarracenia, VFT, outside. Possibly even your nepenthes. The only thing is you only need to harden them.

Are you sure if it is sphagnum moss and not hedge moss, which people often confuse? If it is sphagnum moss, dont overdo it picking to much sphagnum moss from your area, most wetland are already in stressed out.

But before you utilize it. Have you added compost or any type of fertilizer organic or artificial - in your garden? Especially near the sphagnum moss growing in your garden? If so, then it isnt good for your CP anymore.

One more thing, dont add natural organic compost at all to your plants, like artificial fertilizer, it add nutrients to their growing media. Just because it's organic, it doesnt mean it's good for CP. Remember these plants grow in nutrient rich soil and fertilizer is fertilizer after all.

So good luck and happy growing
Good luck!

Update:
A few of the cheepies died (as expected), but the purple pitchers actually look better than they did when I bought them. Also the remaining ones look like they are trying to make it. At least I still have all the types--even with the deaths.

Do tell me please, should I wait a while to be sure they are dead? Can they die back to the ground and come back?

I also took pictures, but I am not sure how to post them here.
Thanks,
Robin

Yes, they can die back and regrow. Even if they look dead keep them moist and give them 3 months before pitching them out. I have one particularly strong S. Purpurpea which has died and came back 3 times now. :)

I have bought plants from lowes as well. I buy them up every year in the fall to save them from the dumpster. The most common I see are N. Ventricosa, D. adelae , D. Capensis, P. moranensis, P. primuliflora, S. purpurea, S. rubra, Darlingtonia, Some times I think by mistake S. alata. All of which are easy to grow. I hope I helped you to identify more plants.

Happy Growing!!