PLANT CARE

• Like all plants, carnivorous plants need water and sunlight to survive. While they get their energy through photosynthesis, these fascinating species have evolved to eat insects to supplement their diets with nitrogen. While most plants are able to extract this essential mineral element (and others, such as phosphorus) from the soil, many carnivorous species grow naturally in habitats that are wet, acidic or lacking in these nutrients.

• Carnivorous plants do best outdoors (more bugs) but during summer it’s easier to keep them alive indoors, as they prefer a moist environment and will die if it’s too hot and dry. Pitcher plants can be partially submerged; sit their pots in an inch or so of water.

• Pot up in a 50:50 mix of sphagnum moss and coarse sand. You can buy blocks of New Zealand-grown, sustainably harvested Besgrow moss from garden centres. This naturally renewable moss comes from wetlands on the South Island’s West Coast and holds up to 20 times its own weight in water.

• Keep them moist with rainwater, filtered or bottled water.

• Don’t feed carnivorous plants with any sort of fertiliser; you’ll kill them.

• Deadhead to remove the tired traps and parched pitchers when

they have fully browned off.