Went to a plant show yesterday with no intention to buy. I've had a h. gunung gading (bottom) on my list for so long though and the price was right so here we are... Also there was a carnivorous table so I picked up a sundew (top) to go with my pings that I had at home.
Ooo, a carnivore. Which one is that? Aren't many of them really hard to take care of?
The top one, the sundew! The ones I have aren't too bad honestly, I only have 4. Pinguiculas are the 3 I started with and the main thing to remember is they need low/no-mineral water (I honestly have just been using bottled since I had a case handy). They need neutral soil (plain sphagnum moss has been my go-to), and as long as they're kept relatively damp since they're naturally found in a swamp you're good to go!
They've been easy to take care of and I definitely appreciate them picking up the stray fungus gnats. If you're interested, definitely read up on them but they're honestly super easy to look after and have been a great starter carnivorous for me. I've heard sundews are even easier so I'll see how that goes!
Do you live in a warmer climate and/or have radiator heat? From what I've read, carneverous plants like higher humidity and Midwest winters + forced air make for a pretty dry house.
Also, be careful with bottled water. They all have some level of minerals in them to get their flavor profile. That said, if you've been doing this for any period of time carry on!
I live in Canada, the province I'm in is more on the humid side but nothing crazy. The humidity in my house is usually around 45-50%. My one ping was around a heat pump and has been doing fine, no issues with the bottled water yet 🤷♀️
Sundew are pretty robust. If it's super dry they'll produce less snot but given lots of light and distilled water they'll eat lots of gnats. Enjoy the Hoya, let that guy dry out a bit between waterings.
I have an incredibly happy sundew that doesn't mind the colder temperatures by my windows in the winter at all.
I took a big round-bottom flask, threw in some wet sphagnum moss, added the sundew, and capped it with parafilm. Zero upkeep besides an occasional turn and it's thrown up multiple flowers. It's an artificial marsh with the sun causing the water to circulate and keep the humidity high while it's quite low outside the flask.
This has worked well for other carnivorous plants too...until a cat decides to yeet itself onto that window ledge and knocks everything over.
In between life, we garden.
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