Have fun!

California Carnivore is a trusted nursery & has provided more exotic plant when they have them available. You have to check your specials now & then to get lucky for the most exotic species. All my butterworts, including Pinguicula primuliflora (which I bought from Lowes) is long lived. But I donÂt have my book the Savage Garden, my copy was destroyed. The problem is that, while they do have a huge collection of CP (something IÂve seen myself when I personally visited their nursery), they have a limited supply to sell to the public. It takes time for them to propagate enough numbers of their most exotic species to sell to the public. Personally seen where they propagate their plants they plan to sell. Last November they were selling tuberous sundew and they sold like hot bread. I tried to pick up some but I learned about them too late & they sold out fast! You have better luck getting more exotic species if you visit their nursery personally; I was able to get my B52 VFT, Triffid, & Sarracenia alabamensis that way. But one thing I discovered about the B52 is that it is slow growing plant. Reason why they may not offer that cultivar for sale often. This is my B52, still a small plant but its getting their.

chrisv 89, Also, the Venus Flytraps will not need a terraium to grow as they are not tropicals. They do not have to have high humidity. The miracle gro moss and coconut fiber will kill your Flytraps in a couple of weeks. Fertlizer as carnivorousplants stated, rots carnivorous plant roots and kills them since they live in unfertilized acid soil. The moss to use comes in a big square bale of dry moss that states premium Canadian sphagnum peat. Little bags of moss and soil usually have fertilizer and is not good for carnivorous plants. I think the reason you placed the Venus Flytraps in orchid mix is that the label on the pots you buy in stores gives all the wrong information so that the plant will die and you have to go buy another. Throw the label away and look up some good info about your plants at places like this forum, cobraplants.com, californiacarnivores.com, and books like Savage Garden by D'Amato. The Nepenthes is a tropical and can be grown indoors in a bright window or under florescent light. Just be patient and give it time. It will not mind being in coconut husk, but fertilized moss will harm it too, so repot it in unfertilized moss and use the coconut husk as drainage mixed in the moss well. For the Venus flytraps, repot them into unfertilized moss with half perlite or horicultural silica sand for drainage. Get the Flytraps as much light as possible as they are more like garden plants and thrive in direct sun outside. Slowly acclimate the plants to low humidity by placing a clear plastic bag over them after you pot them in a regular pot with drainage in the bottom. Punch holes in the plastic bags every 3 days until the bags are so full of holes they do not hold humidity after two weeks, then take them off. Acclimate the Flytraps to high light by placing the pots in a morning sun window while they have bags on them. After the bags are off, place the Flytraps in an all day sun window for a week, then place them outside or place a strong florescent light over them about 4-6 inches from the leaves and of about 6000-12000 lumens for 12-16 hours a day. Water the plants with distilled, rain, or reverse osmosis water only as tap water usually contains too many minerals that will kill your plants. Terrariums are not necessary for carnivorous plants of most species and can lead to mold and bad drainage of water, as you are experiencing. The Nepenthes can also live in a pot as the Venus Flytraps are, just place a bag over it and slowly acclimate it like you can for the Flytraps to low humidity and it will be fine. Just be patient and give the Nepenthes time. It will need to be watered like a houseplant every 3-4 days and no water left in the tray. The Flytraps will need about 1/4 of their pot in water so they stay moist as they like more water than the Nepenthes. In winter, the Nepenthes will need to stay indoors and warm with plenty of light for 12 hours a day to keep healthy. The Flytraps will need to go dormant in winter as they are temperate plants from North Carolina. In November they will slow down in growth if given sunlight and go to sleep when the first cold hits them. Keep them about 40 degrees in temperature all winter and when Spring days grow longer, they will come out of dormancy and start growing again after February. Venus Flytraps do not need to be fed... especially if they have little light and fertilized soil to contend with. Get them good light and unfertilized soil first, then be patient. After the plants have what they need, they will be able to grow properly and catch flies on their own.

Hero81, This does occur on occasion with some Venus Flytraps. Personally, I think that it is due to tainted water (minerals) in my case as that is the only logical thing it could be since all other aspects of plant health are present. My Flytrap had a few traps that blackened and dried up before forming, however; others that continued to develop normally. When traps do not form properly, it is for any number of reasons: low light (much less than 9000 lumens usually), hard water, chemicals (some fungicides) with copper in them (carnivorous plants are generally allergic to copper), fast humidity drops (bringing them indoors in air conditioning after they were outdoors in humid conditions), sudden increase in ultraviolet radiation (like placing them in direct sun after they were in a dark store shelf), or fertilizer in the soil or in too strong a mix on their leaves. Pests like aphids can also damage young leaves before they grow out, causing deformed or dead traps. Young plants of any species will die off as weaker ones succumb to mold, bacteria, or simple genetic inadequacy. Darwinian philosophy as you indicated. Algae just means that you have good light. It can be unsightly, so clean out the trays every week or so. I generally wait for the water level to lower and then empty and clean the trays when it is time to refill them anyways. If you leave the trays too long, you might even detect slime mold and a fishy stench as the peat breaks down.