Hello Jay, Glad you helped a plant in need. Venus' flytraps are plants from North Carolina, whilmington. They are sun loving plants, they also love high humidity around them. They usually go dormant around late october through late February. When this happens, you must respect the plants to rest. I read so far that you placed some dead leaves and some old potting soil from an old plant around your place. Just remove your plant out of that old potting soil and old dead leaves, this is not an appropriate media for venus' flytraps. Since that old potting soil has a bunch of stuff they don't appreciate it. Venus' flytraps thrive well in Medias such as the following: Peatmoss alone, a mix of 50% Peatmoss + 50% perlite, or sphagnum moss alone. Use only these that are listed. Try purchasing peat moss of the brand; shwultz, Lambert, or Canadian brand, I tried "scotts" peat moss but after a while, my plants grew with floppy leaves and malformed traps. so stay away from the "scotts" brand. You should water your venus' flytrap with a watering tray method, meaning, use some type of dish or saucer, fill in water and sit the pot on the water. this is how usually venus' flytraps are easily watered. Venus' flytraps love full sunlight, they appreciate atleast 4-6 hours of full sun in order for them to grow vigorously. However, since you bearly purchased your plant, slowly aclimate it under flourecent lights, not incandecent light bulbs. Slowly give your plant(after repotting it) atleast 16 hours of artificial lighting for atleast 2 weeks, after that, introduce it to full sunlight. begin with 4 hours, then after a week allow 6 hours. Since you bought your plant just now, you can skip your plant's dormancy period, i do this all the times i purchase plants of season, then give your plant its required dormancy next 2006 winter. DO NOT FORCE IT TO GO DORMANT, you will mostly kill it attempting to make it go dormant. You must learn several principles before allowing your plant dormant. Just keep on growing it. Now that some advice has been given, The only procedures you must do is: 1)Purchase new peat moss and perlite from walmart or lowes. Make sure its shwultz , lambert or canadian brand peat moss. 2)repot your plant into a new media, if you desire, into a 4" pot. 3)After repotting, carefully over head water it, after that, use the tray method system to water it for now on. 4)after watering it, Grow your plant under flourecent lights atleast for 2 weeks. 5)After acclimating it under flourecent lights after two weeks, you can grow it outdoors for 4-6 hours of full sunlight. Easy as that, if you follow these simple procedures, Frankie might reward you with white flowers & seeds someday. There's many odds about venus' flytraps , which caught my attention. These plants are very easy to grow, but don't worry about losing your first plant. Not everyone is born knowing. We learn from our mistakes, that's how we become better every day. I've been growing vfts 2 1/2 years ago, i killed my first, but that didn't discourage me from growing more. now i don't have any troubles growing these plants, i personally own hundreds now, from seeds, division and cuttings. It is easy to find information about venus' flytraps, you just need to look on-line or books. Hope all goes well with you & Frankie... Later...

wow, you found a cobra plant at Lowe's? Cool. No, don't try to put them in dormancy, keep them awake and let them go dormant next winter. Don't let your VFT flower, though, cut off the flower stalk when it grows. Since it is not dormant, let it eat. It should be good for it, I don't think it would take food if it was in too much of a shock or anything like that. I have some of my plants in just spaghnum moss, and others I have in a mix with perlite, and others I have in a mix with orchid bark. It should probably be fine the way you have it. If you start noticing any problems, it may be due to root rot and then you would need to report them with perlite for more drainage, but since they have already gone through so much, I would leave them alone right now. The darlingtonia especially will not handle moving and repotting, etc. very well, they are hard to keep. I have really only had problems keeping nepenthes too moist, I haven't had problems with any others in just straight sphagnum. Start getting the plastic domes off of them, though. Those aren't necessary and will promote mold growth. Good luck!

nice plant. it is indeed a typical variety. you are quite lucky to have such wonderful plant. flytraps usually send their leaves upwards into the air as temperatures rise and days become warmer & longer. this is natural for them to react such ways. patience is require in order for them to perk up.

Well, when you have a certain growing shape on many plants, and you see they all look the same, even when they are growing together if you see the same growing shape on all of them, chances are that will be the way the plant will grow. I have seen many plants at lowes, Kmart, and Walmart for many years, but this one keeps its shape on every single one. Even the Big Mouth when you grow many in the same environment they grow a little different sometimes. The slim leaf this plant has appears to be a strong genetic factor, for all of the plants have it. This is not a Big Mouth. The cultivar was probably mass produced by a large nursery, and they probably could not care lesss about giving it a name. The plant could later deploy wider leaves, but I am sure the other leaves will dominate their growth if kept in a sunny spot. It grows nicely flat, but it could be a tall growing plant as well. We will just have to wait and see.