I've seen these kits & my nephew bought one. Question is - did you follow the simple instructions that came with the kit? One important rule is that it needs stratification when planting them in the growing media. Stratification is giving them a cold treatment to simulate their environment. usually done by keeping them in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 weeks. That simulates winter period & once you put it in a warm sunny place, that simulates the coming spring, stimulating the seeds to sprout. I have a feeling you didn't read the instructions since one of the rules clearly states to water it with distilled or rain water, but clearly states no tap water. That was the first mistake you did.

Ohhh most likely a S. x' Scarlet bell ' a slight chance its a S. leucohpylla google the last one and see what you come up with i just got my first one recntly. Hear is a photo of my scarlet bell (im preaty sure its a scarlet bell hybrid) As much as every one wants them indoors, Trust us we all do! They do best out doors in lots of sun! If you cant put them out its ok, you can keep them in but they will do alot happyer if they are indoors, pluss youre Sar will get a bit big for staying indoors. WE would all put out our Neps if we could, but they cant stay out all summer and lighting them during the winter is preaty tuff w/ out a green house. so put out youre Plants, but if you really want them indoors i would get a few lights. Cheers

50/50 sphagnum peat/perlite or silica sand. You can also use LFS (long fiber sphagnum) by itself but IMO the roots will intertwine in it and make it harder to separate them if you ever do a complete media change which is recommended every 2-3 years due to mineral buildup. Yes you're going to have to use distilled or RO water if you don't save rain water. I now save water via a 55 gallon drum. It is possible to distill your tap water but hardly worth it. It will cost more in gas/electricity than just buying the water.

I got my Venus flytraps in and they were potted in perlite and sand and some vermiculite and other junk- probably sphagnum peat moss. I pulled media away from the roots and found that every plant had some really bad roots in that mix, so I put them all in the re-wetted sphagnum moss I used to grow my orchids in and all the venus flytraps are growing new roots and they look SO much better. The roots were all black and rotted looking, but each flytrap had a new root or 2 that were coming out when I saw the corms after rinsing them off. I figured the sphagnum moss would keep the roots moist but give good air flow and it seems to be the best thing for them so far as each plant has grown very well despite getting sunburned badly. I guess I lucked out since it was so close to dormancy the plants recovered leaves quickly and new traps also. Even the tiny VFT 'pink ' is starting to grow new trap leaves but all of them are going dormant and I can tell as the leaves take minutes to close instead of seconds now. The traps are large, but the leaves are small and very full and the color on most is still green as we have had snow here now for the past 3 days and all the new growth has missed the full sun since I was afraid to burn them again. I recommend potting in the re-wetted sphagnum moss or long fiber sphagnum moss that lowes or home depot sell- just make sure it is all fertilizer free with no additives as that can kill carnivorous plants. Also, I use rain water to water my carnivorous plants and they do better from rain water than distilled. You can re-wet the dried out sphagnum moss by soaking strands in a bin or bucket of rain water then layering them on top of each other in the pot. Once you have wet moss about half way up the pot, I put the corm or bulb in the middle with roots draped in a circle to keep from damaging them and then trying to stick the new roots right into the wet moss so they grow better. I drape more moss around the sides of the bulb in a circular motion so it is nested in the middle of the pot and so far, that has worked well for me. Last thing- you can sometimes get sphagnum moss to start growing if you let the pot sit in rain water when the plant is actively growing- they normally grow nested in a nice sphagnum moss bog which will keep the environment more close to what they are used to. I have new sphagnum moss growing in the wet dead stuff in the pots and I hope it grows big enough to keep the cp's roots moist and help them grow vigorously.