Venus Fly Trap

Light

Place your pot in a location where it will receive 12 hours of direct sunlight daily.

Soil

Mix horticultural sand with an equal amount of peat moss. Fill your pot with this mixture.

Water

It is better to water Venus fly trap with rainwater than tap water. If possible, set up a rain barrel outdoors to collect the rainwater. Remember this plant grows in a bog, so it loves outdoor water.

Fertilizing

Do not fertilize. Venus fly trap performs best in soil low in nutrients.

Feeding

Because Venus fly trap is a carnivore, care for it also differs from care for other houseplants in that you will be feeding it (preferably live) flies, mosquitoes, and gnats to nourish it (in addition to whatever it may catch on its own). Grasping the insect with tweezers, gently insert it into the trap in such a way that a piece of it makes contact with a trigger hair inside the trap. Keep a journal so that you can note which traps you feed and when, because a trap has a set number of times during its life that it can open and close.

NOTE: You might not think that a bug-eating plant would be attacked by bug pests, but aphids and fungus gnats do occasionally bother Venus fly trap. These pests are too tiny for the plant to eat

Venus fly trap goes through a period of dormancy beginning in fall when sunlight levels decrease. It will lose its leaves and appear to die, but it actually lives on underground through its rhizomes. This is normal, and you should not try to make up for the reduction of daylight hours by giving the plant artificial light. Cut back on the amount of water you give the plant during this time.

Pick off the flower when you see the plant coming into bloom. Flowering leads to seed production, and this whole process will only divert energy away from the plant unnecessarily (unless your goal is propagation through seeding, which is less effective, anyway, than division in spring). Venus fly trap is not grown for its floral beauty, rather, it is grown for the carnivorous display it puts on.