Frequently Asked Questions

There are many varieties of carnivorous plants that are easy to grow and are perfect for a sunny windowsill or an outdoor garden in most of the USA.  We recommend people starting out to select plants in our Beginners section. 

There are some species that do require specialized conditions similar to their native habitats.  However, thanks to breeding programs like Carnivero's, we have been able to breed for vigor and ease of growth while retaining the exceptional characteristics of some otherwise challenging to grow species.

We recommend taking a look at plants in our Beginners Section.  These plants are typically more vigorous and forgiving than other varieties.  Also, take a look at our Growing Tips as you prepare an area for your plants.

Many carnivorous plants make excellent candidates for windowsills. Sarracenia, Venus Flytraps, Heliamphora and Drosera generally tend to require brighter light (at least 6 hours of direct sun).  Nepenthes and Pinguicula can thrive with just a few hours of direct sun and bright indirect light the rest of the day.  The best windows to grow carnivorous plants are usually east, west or south facing.  If you live in a drier climate, it's often beneficial to have a room humidifier or mist the plants a couple times a day.

Well fed carnivorous plants will usually grow faster and stronger than those that are not. That being said, most species can go months without feeding.  It's also possible for plants to be overfed and that can lead to premature trap/leaf/pitcher rot.  It's usually best to feed each trap/leaf/pitcher, 1-2 appropriately sized insects per month.  Plants are quite efficient at catching insects on their own if they are in the vicinity.

Carnivorous plants have evolve to capture insect prey so it's best to feed them insects which will fit in their trap/leaf/pitcher.  Plants are quite efficient at capturing insects on their own if they are in the vicinity.  For plants grown in environments without many insects, freeze dried crickets or blood worms from the pet shop or purchased online work well.  Many growers also report small bits of crushed fish flakes yielding good results.  

Caution should be exercised when fertilizing carnivorous plants.  They have evolved in environments where nutrient content is low; therefore, many can be harmed by fertilizers.  The best approach is always to feed plants insects.  However, if they aren't available, we have found that a monthly application of Maxsea applied as a foliar feed at 1/4 label strength works well.  This can be applied directly into the pitchers.  We've also found that a single Osmocote pellet can be fed into Nepenthes and Cephatotus pitchers with good results. 

Always be very careful about fertilizing the soil.  Though it may seem that the plant benefits quickly, under the surface the roots can be burning or rotting.  Often times, it can be too late to catch it.  

Note that sphagnum moss responds well to fertilizers; however, this may not be indicative of good soil health.  Some well known Nepenthes nurseries have mistakenly overfertilized their large collections because they relied on sphagnum moss as an indicator.  However, root rot set in and resulted in the loss of many plant species.

In some situations carnivorous plants can catch pesky insects, like flies, roaches and wasps.  However, rarely does this eradicate an infestation.  Sometimes the wet environment needed for the plants to thrive may attract more insects.  We have noticed that certain plants like venus flytraps and forked leaf sundews (Drosera binata) have a voracious appetite for house flies and if placed in a sunny windowsill can often take care of the occasional pest.

Many carnivorous plants are native to temperate environments and cease growth during cool winter months.  Flytraps, Sarracenia and temperate sundews all fall into this category and these plants endure dormancy periods usually from November - March.  Often times, older leaves will brown or blacken during this period and the plant may seem like it's on a decline.  However, this is a natural process and the plant is simply resting as it waits to emerge invigorated in spring.  

Note there are some groups of more obscure Australian and South African sundews which have developed the reverse adaptation and go dormant during the hot, dry summers.  

As far as we are aware, there's never been an injury imposed by carnivorous plants onto children or cats/dogs.  They've evolved to attract and capture insects and we're pretty far away on the evolutionary tree.  Some Nepenthes pitchers have been reported to have fluid that is fairly acidic.  However, in the 24 years or so we've been raising Nepenthes, we've never once been even remotely harmed by the fluid (and we get accidently splashed on a daily basis).

Terrarium enthusiasts often ask us for recommendations of plants that will not harm amphibians or reptiles.  We usually recommend low growing Sarracenia like psittacina/purpurea/rosea or Nepenthes with ampullaria parentage like Diana or Lady Luck.  These plants usually don't produce acidic conditions in their pitchers.  Butterworts are only quite innocuous.

Carnivorous plants span the globe on every continent except Antarctica.  They have adapted to life in some of the most extreme environments on earth and exist in nearly every biome.  Species like Nepenthes and Heliamphora are strictly tropical whereas others like Sarracenia and venus flytraps reside in temperate regions in the southeastern United States.  There's also diversity hot spots of carnivorous species native to South Africa and Western Australia.  

We recommend choosing a plant that speaks to you and which will thrive in your conditions.  We have an eclectic range of offerings, some best suited for tropical environments, others temperate.  We always recommend starting out with plants that are a bit more forgiving (like our beginner plants recs) so that you can fine tune your growing environment for plants that are more challenging later on.

We offer randomly selected plants and exact plant listings.

Exact plants are specific plants being sold. We've started adding dates to the photos of exact plants (new photos can be requested every three months).  We also offer lots of exact plants during our LIVE sales on Instagram and Palm Street every week. Here's the schedule.  Additionally, we do rare plant auctions most weekends that end on Sunday night.  

Randomly selected plants (also referred to as "Grower's Choice") are randomly chosen from our inventory according to the size selected. They usually have a photo showing a sample of a similar plant. Please see the Plant Sizing and Photo Representation Section of our Guarantees policies.

If an item variant is Sold Out, you are able to request a notification when the item is restocked.  Simply enter your email address into the "Item out of stock - notify me!" box in the product listing.  Do note that this is specific to the "Size" or "Specimen ID".  For example, if you request notification for a Small size and a Medium size comes back into stock then you may not receive notification.

 

Epiphytes are plants that grow naturally in trees.  Because there's not much soil available in these environments, many of these species are accustomed to having their roots dry out a bit between being wet.  Many Nepenthes and aroids are considered epiphytes.  Some plants are considered hemiepiphytes, meaning that they spend part of their life cycle as epiphytes and part as a terrestrial growing plant.

Variegation can be caused by a number of phenomena.  Some variegation is genetic.  There are also some viruses that cause variegation, such as the tulip breaking virus which drove tulip mania in the Netherlands in the 17th century.  Chimerism is the most common driver of variegation.  This means 2 different types of cells are competing for dominance, one photosynthetic and the other without chorophyll. Because of this, variegation may increase or decrease from leaf to leaf giving each plant its own unique appearance..  

Variegation can decrease or increase over time, especially in variegation that is chimeric.  Often, young plants will not express variegation until they grow into a more mature form.  For example, see the leaves on young Philodendron 'Pink Princess' go from no variegation to half moon.

 

A clone is a genetically unique individual.  For example, Nepenthes veitchii "Pink Candy Cane" is a specific clone of veitchii.  The only way to propagate clones is via asexual reproductive methods such as cuttings, or in certain cases, meristem propagation via tissue culture.

Grex (plural greges) describes the offspring of 2 genetically unique individuals.  For example, say we have Nepenthes truncata "clone A" x veitchii "clone X".  All the resulting offspring would be from the same grex.  If we remade the cross a year later, all the offspring would still be the same grex.  However, if made another cross, truncata "clone B" x veitchii "clone X", these offspring would be a different grex.

Officially, orchids are the only group of plants that can issue an official name to a grex.  Thus, we don't issue names to greges.  However, we will assign different CAR codes to different greges even if the parent species are the same.  For example, Nepenthes veitchii ("Big Mama" x "Pink Candy Cane") is CAR-0001 while Nepenthes veitchii "Psychadelic" x "Pink Candy Cane") is CAR-0126

A cultivar is a specific clone of a plant that is deemed exceptional enough to be registered officially via publication.  The governing body for carnivorous plants is the International Carnivorous Plant Society. 

The propensity of cultivar registration is an interesting phenomena.  For some genera, like Sarracenia, it seems there's a plethora of registered cultivars (even some that might not really be worthy of the status).  However, for Nepenthes, cultivar registration is few and far between.

Many carnivorous plant and other tropical species are considered endangered and are subject to laws pertaining to The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.  Plants we sell falling under CITES regulations include all Nepenthes, all Sarracenia, venus flytraps, some Pinguicula, some Alocasia, and some Anthurium species.  CITES regulations places added complexities on exporting for International Sales.

Some plants not CITES listed does not mean it's not endangered.  Many countries have their own local laws.  For example, in the USA, the Lacey Act governs trade of many plants species considered locally endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  For this reason, there's a number of Sarracenia and Pinguicula species which we cannot sell outside of Texas.

Drew is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) specialist group for carnivorous plants and works amongst a team of scientists to assess the conservation status of carnivorous plant genera and make recommendations to the IUCN redlist.  

Plants become endangered for a variety of factors. Currently, the main ones threatening carnivorous plants and aroids are poaching and habitat destruction.  To combat poaching, Carnivero believes strongly in a conservation through cultivation approach which seeks to provide enough high quality plants at economical prices that trafficking poached plants is no longer attractive to buyers and sellers.

Proxy bidding allows you to set a maximum bid amount and let the system bid on your behalf until your maximum bid has been exceeded. This way you don't have to manually enter a new bid each time you are outbid. To place a proxy use the "place proxy bid" option underneath the normal bidding form.

Popcorn bidding is a feature that extends the auction time by a small amount to give each participant a fair chance to place their final bid. If a bid is placed within the last minute of an auction, the end time will be extended by an additional 30 seconds. This prevents auction sniping.

When you win an auction you will receive an email with a link to add the auction item to your cart. You can also add all won auctions to your cart from the auction dashboard, which can be reached via the "View Your Bids" button on your account page.

Auctions must be paid for within 3 days of the auction end date and time. If you are unable to pay within that period please reach out to us and we may be able to grant you an extension. After three days without payment or contact, the auction may be offered to the next highest bidder or listed again in a later auction. If you fail to pay for several auctions your account may be banned from further participation in Carnivero auctions.

Some high value plants are given a reserve price, which is the minimum price an auciton must reach to end with a winner. If an auction ends and the highest bid has not exceeded the reserve price, the auction will end with no winner and may be offered to the hihtest bidder manually or relisted at a later date