I've used rooting hormone with no issue, Tommy. When using rooting hormone with most plant cuttings, it seems to be best to just have a light dusting on the cutting. Nancy, I would agree with Tommy that the problem may be that the hydroton might not be staying moist enough. You might try taking one of the cuttings out of the pot, repotting it in the same type of set up BUT then bag it -- pot and all -- in a clear plastic bag. The bag will keep the humidity high. Open the bag once every week or two to check on water and to refresh the air. Keep the bagged potted cutting in a warm (temps in the 70s) brightly lit (but no direct sun) location. It can make a difference whether your Nep is a highland, intermediate, or lowland plant. This pertains both to rooting and general growing culture. Many Neps look very similar if not identical -- especially if only looking at their foliage. The pitchers are where differences -- sometimes very distinct, sometime extremely subtle -- are seen. Those differences are what is often used to get a rough ID of NoID neps. Unfortunately this ID process is made even more challenging by the fact that pitcher form on a particular plant often changes substantially from the pitchers of a young/juvenile plant and those of an older plant (typically referred to by hobbyists as lower and upper pitchers). Best bet would be to contact the seller and see if they know what they sold you. Mike, neps do very well with humid conditions -- dry conditions do them in. Temperature can play a huge role with neps, though, as highlanders verse lowlanders have very different temperature needs. That is why if you are buying a nep, you should inquire whether it is a highland, intermediate, or lowland nep. If the seller does not know, don't by from them. (Unless it is so super cheap that you won't mind it dying if it turns out to need different conditions than you can provide.) Nepenthes can also be grown in orchid bark mix or coconut husk chunk mix. HOWEVER, as you'll be growing it in Florida, I can't vouch for any mix suggestions like mine or Tommy's. Your conditions, Nancy, are simply so radically different than ours. And don't feel too bad, Nancy, I found that even from the same plant in the same media, some cuttings would root easily, others refused.

Good to know! I almost gave it a buzz cut this morning!!! It looks so good in our bathroom (almost like a spider plant) but as I see the little pitchers growing, I wondered if the stems were not wasting the plant's energy to grow more. I often see pictures of pitcher plants with very few stem (only stems are the ones with pitchers attached) so I thought maybe this was the secret. I was ready to cut 3 off which would have broken the spell of the room. If it doesn't bother my plant I will let it be! :) Can you tell me which fertilizer you use? You mentioned a fertilizer with bat guano? You have a Source? A link? I don't trust the ones in store here (limited options).

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.

Overview: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq5520.html Sarracenia flava: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq5525.html Sarracenia minor: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq5528.html Sarracenia purpurea: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq5530.html Sarracenia rubra: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq5535.html Rare Sarracenia: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq5540.html Growing Sarracenia from seed: http://www.carnivorousplants.org/seedbank/seedgermguide.htm