Oh thats beautiful...I have 4 I have lost and I do not know why and the odd thing is they all came from th same company I have some from other places doing great. I have mt finers crossed I wish I had a camara way t show pictures I dont I am elderly and dont ave the new products cant afford that and buy the plants to lol. I have the "Apurima" its croaking meaning looks drying up but not dead I wonder if some go dormant hummm....I will look it up but as I was saying is my fave. Tilly is the duritti one looks weird the other dont weird to. I was told you need two of those by a lovely person on the African violet site. you know the one that looks like "cousin it" I have a board full of those and they are the easiest to get to live in my book.

Hi flower8750, The Venus Flytraps and Trumpet Pitcher are North American plants that really do not need a terrarium. Are you using the terrarium idea just to set up a bog and keep it open to air or do you intend to cover it for humidity? North American plants require open air and can adapt to low humidity. They also need full sun to grow properly and a terrarium would cook them if you put it in full sun. Another consideration would be drainage. A terrarium does not get much drainage, so bacterial rot and fungus could take hold and kill the plants. I place all of mine in uncovered pots and adapt them to room humidity slowly over a couple of weeks if they come covered. (punch holes in the cover or raise it a little every 3 days until it no longer holds humidity in, then take it off) If you really want to make a terrarium, you could put tropical sundews or Nepenthes in it. They do better in terrariums than temperate plants do, but you have to ensure good drainage and constantly change out the soil every year or sooner to keep it from souring. It is just easier to keep them all alive in pots, even the tropicals. The flytrap that is not doing well is probably dried out as you surmised. Since they are bog plants, they get water constantly and die rather quickly when they dry too much. They like well drained, but always moist soil. 1. Soil needs to be acidic mix of one part sphagnum peat moss and one part horticultural silica sand or perlite, your choice. The main thing is to make sure none of the ingredients have fertilizer in them as that would kill the plants. 2. Water them only with distilled, fresh rain, or reverse osmosis water that has all minerals and salts removed. Venus flytraps like a tray of water up to about an inch up the pot and the pitcher plants would like water up to 2 inches or so deep in the drainage tray. 3. Do not worry about feeding them anything until they are getting plenty of light and are growing well. If they are healthy, they will likely catch plenty of insects on their own anyways, especially if you do not have them in a closed environment. Carnivorous plants grown in low light can never gain any advantage from eating insects no matter how many you feed them as they simply cannot get enough energy to digest them. Insects are their fertilizer, thats all. Light is primary, insects are much less important, like vitamin pills for us, a supplement. Never fertilize them, it rots their roots. 4. Dormancy is required for temperate carnivorous plants during winter. In a terrarium it is hard to get the plants to go dormant unless you can completely control the light level and temperature at a whim. It is usually easier to place them outside on a sunny patio where they are protected from animals yet get plenty of sun, air, and insects. As the photoperiod reduces and the colder air comes in, they will go dormant in winter until February or so. Just protect them from temperatures over 100 in summer and lower than 30 degrees or so in winter. It is possible to grow temperate carnivorous plants indoors, but it is much more time consuming and prone to difficulties since most people can't provide full sun conditions and dormancy requirements. Fungus often infects carnivorous plants in enclosed spaces (small pots and terrariums) too. I am assuming when you say pitcher plant that it is a Purple Pitcher plant (or one of the Sarracenias) and not a Nepenthes? Nepenthes are tropicals and require very different conditions than the temperates. Good luck with your plants.

40 years ago, I used to collect used fish tanks from people who grew tired of them. The only local "garden center" was at the north end of EJ Korvettes (West Orange, NJ). I bought bags of potting soil and plants for 25 cents a piece. A bag of big river rock and some sphagnum moss in a plastic container completed the materials. I turned the fish tanks into terrariums and sold them as fast as I could make them for anywhere from $25 to $50, depending on the size of the tank. But that's all just interesting history. What you need to remember is that anything you plant in a terrarium has the potential to outgrow its environment. Sure, there's bonsai, but the object of a terrarium is minimal maintenance; a self-sustaining environment at best. The photos below are the proof of the pudding. This is Yucca elephantipes. It was one of those 25-cent plants I put into a terrarium that I kept for myself. Over the years, it outgrew the fish tank and went from a 12" clay pot to a 24" clay pot to the corner of our house here in Boca Raton the day we moved in - June 1998.

The LED lights are from Ebay from a company called LED wholesalers INC. This will be the first time I use the lights for an application other than supplemental light. The lights come in varying wattages but I use the least expensive panels because I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars and I really don't need lights that are that powerful. A 90W LED light is the equivalent of 400-600W HPS light. A mix of red and blue LED's is the best for growth and flowering while white just adds extra brightness. The colour of the light is not very noticeable unless it's in a dark room and the lights run cool/warm instead of hot and are very slim and light which makes them easy to install. I also found some really cool LED aquarium lights that are a strip of lights sealed (water tight) in a tube and are used to simulate moon light at night. I may add two small strips to the inside of the tank to boost the blue portion of the light spectrum under the white panels. I want to see how things grow first but if they look like they need some more light I will invest in some aquarium lights. http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380108250821&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT I think people could be upset with what they get if they don't do some research. If you want an extremely bright grow light you will have to spend the money. There are 1000W equivalent daylight panels out there but they are really expensive although prices are starting to come down slowly. So far I am pleased with my single red/blue panel and my Hoyas have been growing very well under it although they do get some light from a south facing window that is about five feet away. You do need to keep the plants as close to the panel as possible to maximize it's effect. My panel is quite high above my plants but I only wanted it to provide light to the taller plants as they climb their supports. What exactly were the negative comments about LED grow lights? I can always post my experience with these lights after a few months or some time during the winter. If my plants don't bloom or grow well we will know that they are not bright enough. Mike Here is a link that might be useful: LED Wholesalers INC on Ebay