Right, Christine, Tradescantia zebrina. It DOES look good. "So your recommendation is, don't add anything in it, not even water for about a month and see how it goes?" Not really, just to let it get fairly dry before adding more water. That could be tomorrow or next month, and not particular advice to this plant, just to any plant in store-bought potting soil, especially during the cooler, shorter days of winter. Monet, it could be salt buildup, just looks kind of fuzzy. You raise a good point about allowing water to drip out though, not sit in the saucer, to help avoid that situation. Sitting by a cool window and/or blasts of hot dry air can be difficult for plants. Something to consider if they start looking poorly. Stirring things up with a fork might be a little drastic at this point, possibly causing more harm to roots than good from adding a little air. This plant looks fine. If you get the gut feeling to do something like that in the future, a skewer might be less dangerous, kind of stick it in, pry up slightly, maybe a little wiggle. If your plant is drying out in a reasonable amount of time, and looking fine, I wouldn't engage in such unorthodox measures. It's good that you're not afraid to 'get in there' though. At some point it'll be a good idea to remove the old soil from the pot and around the roots and replace it with new. Trimming a few roots at that time, if they are really long and/or curled around the pot, would be a good idea. When days are longer & warmer, it's easier for plants to recover so this is most often done in late spring/early summer, before it gets too hot.

To find out more about Pinguicula, commonly called Sundew, try an internet search. Pings have several varieties. The fatter the leaves, the more sticky surface for the bugs to get trapped. Pings need to grow in sphragam moss, not in soil. They need to have bottled water and not water from the tap. No fertilizer is necessary since they feed from insects trapped. I am now trying other Sundews--seeds planted in spragham moss. You can also do a search on insectivores which will have pictures of a few other plants that will help you out. These range in price from about $$5.-$9.00 depending on size and seller. They can be purchased from ebay. Just write in Pinguicula and it should pop up. I'm not sure what it feeds on after all the bugs are eaten. I seem to have pretty much a bug free room (tap on wood) and my three plants are doing very well. They will grow 9-12 inch spikes and have pretty lavender single flowers. Even the flowerstalk is sticky and will catch dust or bugs. Nancy

its much easier to PREVENT THEM .... rather than try to cure them ... sterilize your media ... per the link ... i dont care what the bag says.. do it just prior to use ... also sterilize all your pots and implements.. with 10% bleach .... the drench is not sure fire ... as you kill only those parts in the proper stage ... which means you have the potential for the ones flying around to come back and re-lay eggs ... sterilize some media.. and repot all your plants .... clean soil is a good start.. then figure out how to kill all the ones flying around.. perhaps move the clean ones to another room.. until the primary room is devoid of gnattal life forms ... [with their short life span ... its not a long wait ... ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

BTi is the best thing I have ever found for fungus gnats. You mix it with water, then water your plants with it. You have to do it several times to kill all of the larvae in their various stages. Yellow sticky traps will take care of the adults. If you can't find BTi in a liquid, you can buy a package of Mosquito Dunks. Put one of these in a gallon of water overnight, then remove it and use the water on your plants. You can reuse the leftover Mosquito Dunk for your next batch. Do this several times a week for 3 weeks. You can also buy Mosquito Bits (or crumble up a Mosquito Dunk) and put it on top of your soil. BTi is harmless to humans and pets.