I'm guessing a bit here, but I think the key to overwintering a zone 7 pitcher plant would be to prevent the rhizome from freezing. Even if the above-ground parts are killed by freezing (or naturally die off each winter regardless of freezing or not), if the rhizome survives then the plant should regrow quickly in the spring.

Don't just leave an exposed pot outdoors, it will freeze. I would bury the pot in the garden somewhere, level with the ground surface (or even sunken in a bit). If you are in a dry climate you might want to line the hole with peat or long fibre sphagnum to help with water retention, though I see you are in Ohio so you probably get ample winter precipitation so this is not needed -- you just need to make sure the pot is moist and doesn't dry out.

Anyway, once the plants are completely dormant, but before any really nasty winter weather sets in (ie very cold temperatures), mulch the pots generously with loose straw or some other light and breathable mulch material that won't blow away in a wind. That should give you at least one extra climate zone for overwintering. Heck, I've successfully overwintered hybrid tea roses for the past 6 or so years in a dry zone 3 climate, and I think they are normally considered zone 5 or warmer plants. Good luck!

-Don

Hello Drtoddh,

The information Don555 gave you should help you out. If you bury the pot (a fine idea for keeping the pot insulated) make sure that fertilizer and regular soil from your yard does not get into the pot. Perhaps wrap the bottom of the pot in thick plastic would be wise to keep anything from leeching into your nutrient poor carnivorous plant mix. It will not be a big problem if you repot the plant right after winter in fresh mix. Repotting is always a good idea for Sarracenias right after winter anyways as it will revitalize the plant and you can inspect for root diseases before the growing season.

If in doubt or you simply do not want to bury the pot and mulch it, you can always move the pot inside a garage or protected spot where it will not freeze completely. A garage with a window would be perfect, but light is not a big deal for dormant plants other than to keep fungus off them. When the weather starts warming up, just place it back in its normal sunny spot and it will come out of dormancy with increasing photoperiods.

There are other methods of overwintering that take more effort, like placing the plant in a slightly opened plastic bag and placing it in the refrigerator over winter after it stop growing (always make sure a plant is dormant before doing that as sudden darkness all the time for a growing plant will kill it). I also use an ice chest with frozen water bottles around the pots. I cover the chest at night and open it to air it out and give some fungus killing light (no more than 8 hours while plants are dormant) by day... replacing the ice bottles every 12 hours. The ice chest clearly takes a lot more work, but it gave me great results with dormancy and stratification of seeds. At night the temperature should be about 40 degrees and by day with it open, about 50 degrees. The ice chest also keeps them moist due to condensation from the ice bottles, so no watering needed.

If it's a sarr, unpot it, rinse off the roots with rain or distilled water. Wrap some dampened long fibered Spagnium moss around the roots. Place in a zip lock bag and place in your refridgerator.

I live near Buffalo, NY, so my plants would freeze to death outsode! The approach I have used successfully has been to tote my buckets of minibogs to the attic and place in front of the window sill, starting when the overnight lows are going to be consistently below freezing. I water sparingly and wait unil late winter before I see signs of new growth emerging. Otherwise, insulate / mulch with sphagnum peat and por pine needles. Burying them is good.