They can still be brought back to life.
where do you see them by chance... And what kind do you see. Theirs many difrent kinds that can be purchased. It just depends on what kind u want. I would start with a Venus Flytrap, if you can grow a Venus flytrap, Then move on to a S.Purpurea if you can handle those move on to a nep or butterworts. U will ususaly need to purchas these of an internet site... But try growing a Venusfly trap, im sure if you look around You will find many mutations such as a Red dragon, Dente, Big mouth (has biggest traps). I havent been to canida so i dont know what they have for stores, i get my plants usualy at Lowes or Walmart if htey have them their.

LAter.

You may want to look at the following link. They do not list any of the VFTs on their site but if you e-mail them, they usually have VFTs in stock and they are in Ontario. Go to the link below then click the link at the top right hand side that says "Nepenthes" and that will take you to the carnivorous side of that site.

Cheers,
Ravn

Here is a link that might be useful: Carnivorous Plants Canada

I have seen them at the local nursuries like Sheridan Nursuries, and I have seen some at Home Depot. I used to grow VFT's as a youngster, so I already know something about how to keep them alive. I am particularly interested in the Big Mouth variety and the Red Dragaon. I can't remember if these stores bring in those varieties. A lot of the internet growers do not ship outside their country of origin. So If I could find a source in Canada for these strains, it would be great.

Well if you cant, a site that ships anywhere on the planet and at great prices is Cooks Carnivorous Plants (www.flytraps.com)
I got a BigMouth from Dean Cook and it was stunning and healthy on arrival, the shipping was also quick and effient.

As akhead said, you may want to try and save the poor plants from those stores.
If they half dead then barter with the store manager and get a low price on his merchandise which will soon be mulsh.
Fresh peat moss mix with clean water and good light (good humidity until its healthy enough to harden off) and the little guys should be up and growing in no time.

Cheers

Sheldon

Thanks everyone. I emailed Cooks and they do ship to Canada if I send the appropriate paperwork. This years growing season is about over so I will likely order in the early spring. Once again, I appreciate everyones help and look forward to next year. Cheers.

sorry about the spelling of Canada, youre probably thinking Ignorant Americans! lol, Any ways Hope all goes well for you. Im sure once you get a nice set of Venus Flytrap's or trap you will be very happy.

Good luck and Cheers!

No offence taken, akheadbanger. We Canadians are a pretty layed back bunch. Unless someone beats us internationally in hockey, lol! I do look forward forward to growing some VFT with very big traps. I see some pics on the net with traps over an inch and a quarter long and I can hardly believe my eyes. They were way smaller in the mid 60's when I grew them last. Must be the growth hormones in the flymeat they are eating these days.

Hey nicholas

Well the biggeest trap Ive ever had on my Big Mouth was just under 2 inches long, ITS WAS HUGE.
It was roughly 1.82 " long, but anyhow, at the moment it pushes out traps from 1.2 - 1.5 inches long, although the lill thing is recovering from "an experiment",lol
I found out that as tough as they are, desert heat does not serve them well.
Anyhow Ive finally got them pushing out new leaves once more.

Good luck

Sheldon

That's amazing, Sheldon. Almost 2 inches! From my very quik glance through the net, it would seem that the variety Big Mouth is the one to get for huge traps. One question: does the plant need to reach a certain maturity in years to grow traps of that size?. If I were to order some of these from Cooks next spring, will they sprout huge traps right away or will I need to nurture them for a few years?

Well no, young plants of course would not until fully mature.
Cooks has options on the age/size of the plants he sells, I got one labeled at +5 years old, the expensive boys (not really expensive but compared to the younger they were about double) were labeld at over 10 years in age.
Mine came with 1 trap at about 1.8 inches and grew mabey 2 more that size so far, the new traps have gone down to anywhere between 1 inch and 1.5 inches.
They are awesome plants, very tough and they grow really really fast too!!

Cheers

Sheldon

Awesome! I can hardly wait. He seems to be out of stock of the Big Mouths at the moment but as soon as he gets some, I will send him payment as fast as lightning. Would it be wise to grow them over the winter in a terrerium with growlights, or should I put them in the refrigerator so that they go dormant and then kick them off in the spring?

Well I take it that your in Canada and to me Canada+winter=ca ca ca ca cooooooold, hehe
So if you have some unheater place that gets cold(like an unheated garage) then you could let them grow there.
I have mine on a windowsill in an unheated garage that gets sun most of the say, thus the plant can go dorment if it chooses.
I think having them go dorment from the natural cold is better than bumping them in a fridge in a ziplock bag and easier as well as they can get the natural light from a windowsill (if you can find one or simply turn to fluoresent lighting.

Cheers

Sheldon

Our winters are verrrrry cccccold.....

Ye ok awesome, thats good for you...
Mabey you can grow some American Pitcher plants outside too :)
You would just put them in a big pot in full sun, give them lots of water and in winter mulsh them with pine needles.
They survive MASSIVE extremes.
I think if you can find an unheated shed or garage that would be perfect for your VFT's.
I would suggest for ease (and I think its more enjoyable to grow them like this) to get your plants, put a dome over them (like half a 2 litre coke bottle) and then harden it off you your humidity.
I dont know what kind of summer temps you get there, but if the temp is less then 95 F (35 C) then VFT's can handle that fine, when its over 100 F (38 C) and the humidity is very low (like the desert here) then you push it and they dont do well.
If your summer temps are fine then you can grow them outdoors, you would just adapt them to full sun over a wekk or so.
Once winter hits, if you enjoy growing them outdoors you can try giving them a heavy mulshing and using mabey an insulated plant pot (they are lightweigh fibreglass and have a hollow filled with an insulation, this keeps the pot warmer during cold and cooler during heat)
You may just find they survive perfectly out there.

If you want to grow them indoors then use fluoresent lighting (unless you got a well lit window that gets full sun) and put them in an unheated section with good lighting for the winter period.

Cheers

Sheldon

http://carnivorousplantscanada.com/nepenthesspecies/nepenthesspecies.htm

If neps is what you want to grow hears a site, not sure if they have ne VFT's still would sudgest buying a VFT first, but a nep.ventricosa they got 20 of just recently, if you go to the how to buy link up top it will get you information.
(these grow allyear round)
And a S. Purpurea (talking about N.American pitcher plants) grows in Canada, and UP of Michigain. so a S.purpurea would be great for canada.!!

Cheers

Hey akhead

I wonder if S. Flava would be fine, sure it would, the thing is so though!!

Good advice on the pitchers, n thanx for finding that link!

Cheers

Sheldon

Thanks for all your thoughtfull advice everyone. AK, I am mostly interested in VFT's with the BIG traps. In my youth I could never get good sized traps on my plants, but presently I can get varieties like Big Mouth that apparently grow huge traps. Right now I'm in a "bigger is better" frame of mind with regard to VFT's.
I spent an entire summer in the wild bush of northern Canada and came accross many purple pitcher plants growing in their natural habitat. Very cool to see. But I'm still hooked on VFT's. I may try to creat an artificial bog in my backyard next spring and fill it up with a good variety of plants...sudews, VFT's pitcher plants. But first I got to get me some of them Big Mouths!

Hey nicholas

Something for you to consider and mabey try.
Ive read posts saying "how does Jeff Dallas get such huge traps on a typical flytrap"
Well they let their secret slip to the public, now I have no proof it works but they think it is the reason.
They started using pea gravel (which they washed) as a decrative top dressing for their plants.
They said they noticed that these plants grew bigger traps than the ones without.
They said they "think" that mabey the pea gravel helps insulate the top soil at night to create a slightly warmer enviroment for a little longer which helps the plant continue with its growth.
Mabey you can be a test subject and give this a try and see how big your traps get.

Cheers n good luck!!

Sheldon

Cooks and and Cobraplants.com would be the only places i know and would recomend... might just have to go thru the hassle of getting the papers.

Hey sheldon, im doing that right now witht he Pea gravel, my dente is producing a couple large traps (compared to the other traps on it) about 1 inch. the others are only 3/4's of an inch or half an inch.. and b 4 all it would produce is the half inch, I dont know if the conditions i had it in got better but when i put the PEa gravel on it got better, and all my other smaller plants started to produce more traps.
Just som input on the Peagravel!

Still cant imagane 2 inch traps!!

Cheers

I checked at my local Home Depot (yuk) for some VFT's and they had none. I saw some the other day at a local nursery so I think I will pick one up today. In the spring I will get the paperwork together to order some Giant variety VFT's. I like the ones that are a deep red on the inside of the traps and green everywhere else. I also think they look great when planted with a top layer of live green sphagnum. Gonna start rolling up my sleeves real soon...
Thanks again Sheldon, necro, AK and others for your input.

yea, Lowes sells them to Havent seen them at Homedepo b4

Well I just picked up my VFT. Its a tiny runt of a plant. But with some TLC, I plan to get it healthy and up to size. It came in a tiny 2 in wide plastic pot, but I will transplant it into a ceramic glazed 6 in pot with coconut fibre as rthe growing medium. Hope it does OK.

Hi nicolas

If possible, dump the coconut fibre and try and get Sphagnum Peat Moss and Perlite.
Canadian Sphagnum is one of the best money can buy anyways, I think the Sphag route is the way to go unless you have no choice but to use coconut fibre.
I would really suggest you follow this advise for VFT's, Drosera and a few others.
Ive read pll have good success using coco fibre with Nepenthes though, but Neps are not that picky so that does not suprise me.

Good luck

Sheldon

I would you 2 Spahgnum peat moss - 1 sand maybe lil bit less than that thats what i use i dont know how the coconutfiber would work, i guess if you want to tray taht you can!

cheers

Hi everyone. The package on the coconut fibre says that it is an environmently friendly replacement for peat or sphagnum. It has a slightly acidic PH as well, which is good. I'll stick to it for now and if the VFT does not take off, I will replace the soil with a sphagnum/sand mix. Cheers!

Good luck hope all goes well for ya!

Ye in that case you can be a guinea pig for us all, keep us updated as to how the plants do with the coco fibre.

Cheers n goodluck

Sheldon

Check out this Carnivorous plant forum out of Ontario. We share photos and growing experiences in our Canadian climate. We also yak about CP sources and some of the rip off places out there.

Currently there are at least two Canadian carnivorous plant suppliers who are on our warning list - for taking your money and giving you nothing in return.

Here's the OCPS website: http://ocps.proboards78.com/index.cgi

Personally, I have a very large collection of CPs ( a few hundred nepenthes and hundreds of sarracenia), and I've been growing them in Canada for over 30 years. From time to time, I have some hard to find plants available for trade or for sale.

Contact me through the OCPS forum or PM me here if you're interested in trades.

Here is a link that might be useful: My CP collection