VFT need full, intense, sun, and then some more sun on top of that. They will probably need to be acclimated to that as they recover from the box store. I have a new one that I leave out for six hours of morning sun each day, and it hasn't burned yet. This weekend I plan to move it out onto a table in the center of my yard where it will get sun pretty much from sunrise to sunset. I'm in S. Florida, to give you context.

Oh, and don't use tap water to water them - tap has too many nutrients - try rainwater or RO water (not bottled mineral water).

Here is one of the best websites I've found on VFT care:

http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html

Hi

The really tough part with VFT is the need for a cold rest period . I've always provided that my putting in the frige crisper in a plastic bag

Google them and you can find variuos methods . Will give you length and temp s necessary gary

Thank you for the link Oldmangroot, I will read through it and see if there is any other tips I can pick up.

Gary, I have read conflicting reports on the winter dormancy. Some say they need thecold and some say it is more about the shortening of days. According to some, as long as temps get below 50F and the plants go through a natural shortening of days, they will go dormant. I imagine some of this has to do with the variety, of which I will be at a loss as the packaging the plants came in just said Venus Fly Trap with no mention ofa Latin name or variety.

I admit that I am a little disappointed to hear that they want true full sun or as close as I can give them. I was hoping to keep them in the lanai where the kids could watch them and my yard isn't exactly moist enough (not even close) to provide the other conditions they like. I will try moving them to the western ledge of the lanai where they will get full, but slightly filtered, sun from about 12:30-1:00 until Sunset during Summer. During winter months they will get a bit more shade from an oak south of me and maybe this will help with dormancy. If they end up looking like they want even more sun, then I will find another spot.

Thank you both for your input.

Too late now, I know, but any concern for the sourcing of these rare plants? I've heard too many times for there not to be some truth in it that such items are routinely harvested from the wild by less-than-scrupulous plant brokers.

+oM

Well, they were picked up at a big box store. So I am guessing they were legally procured/propagated, otherwise there would be backlash against the big box store.

As far as I know, poaching is only a concern in coastal Carolina, and a few isolated places in N. Florida. VFT have a very limited range, are native to one single swamp, and have been naturalized in two others (one in FL, another somewhere in the NW? Can't remember).

It is illegal to collect them in the wild, but they are also super-easy to clone.

Interesting. Not even sure I've even seen one. We've got the pitcher plant up a little north of here, sometimes in good numbers in little-known, small lakes ringed with acid, clear and low-nutrient water, tamarack trees would be common also, surrounding the wettest zone, just too cold for the VFT.

Michael, somewhere, some when-but it was recent-I read something that was in a credible source, the name of which I can't account right now, pretty-much implicating the entire supply chain, but yeah, maybe with the apparent ease of propagation, maybe 'tis so. I want to believe it!

+oM