Carnivorous plants

REMARKABLY UNDEMANDING and surprisingly hardy, carnivorous plants need to be checked in spring. I grow Sarracenia flava and ‘Vogel’, as well as a few Drosera capensis, and confess that I haven’t repotted them in the past three years. But I do cut off all dead or dying growth to encourage new shoots to appear from the base, which they do with increasing vigour as the month unfolds. I keep sarracenias in the greenhouse to act as flycatchers along with the droseras, which come from South Africa and need to be above 5˚C, but the sarracenia are hardy enough to freeze solid and survive. They need a dormant period of about six weeks, when they should be cool and drier to trigger good new growth, and then in April can be given more water and some heat. From now, I stand the plants in a shallow dish of rainwater, which is topped up every day so they never dry out. If you want to repot them, now is the time to do it. I fill the pot with a mix of peat-free ericaceous compost and grit to lower the nutrients. New plants can be made as new growth appears, by dividing the rhizomes and potting them up.

Sarracenias will keep the pest population down by catching insects in their pitchers

Use scissors or secateurs to trim sarracenia of dead foliage