The pitcher plant is a carnivorous plant that is relatively easy to grow at home.
When I was a child I was fascinated by carnivorous plants. I remember getting a Venus flytrap as a gift, catching flies and feeding them live to the flytrap with a pair of tweezers.
So, when I was at the Pennsylvania Horticulture harvest festival this fall, I saw a vendor who specialized in growing native wetland plant material, which included carnivorous plants. Naturally, I was drawn over to see what they grew and had for sale. The nursery is called Aquascapes Unlimited Inc. and is located in Pipersville, Pa. (aquascapesunlimited.com).
The variety of plants that caught my eye and piqued my interest were Sarracenias, or pitcher plants, named for the shape of its leaves, which form deep, slender tubes full of liquid. There was a cultivar of a pitcher plant called Dana’s Delight that just left me awestruck. Dana’s Delight is a dazzling plant that produces slender pitchers over two feet tall, with heavily ruffled red and white hoods. The red is almost fluorescent.
The name Sarracenia honors Michel Sarrazin, an 18th century Quebec botanist and surgeon. Most of the species have erect and tubular pitchers which are considered modified leaves. Insects are attracted to the pitchers because they mimic flowers—the pitchers are brightly colored, and are endowed with sugar-exuding glands called extrafloral nectaries.
It is significant that the pitcher plant’s coloration and distribution of nectaries are usually strongest near the pitcher opening—a perilous place for incoming insects! The plant’s leaves have evolved into a funnel in order to trap insects and digest their prey. The genus Sarracenia consists of 15 species and subspecies which are found only in North America.
There are thousands of Sarracenia hybrids, each with their own growing preferences. Sarracenia are among the easiest carnivorous plants to grow. If you have a location outside with full sun for at least six hours, the right type of media would consist of 50 percent peat moss and 50 percent perlite, and to keep them wet. They are bog plants, so they like water a few inches below soil level. Rain or distilled water is best; if that is not available, tap water that has sat for about an hour to allow the chlorine to gas off will work. You want water that has less than 100 parts per million in minerals and has no chlorine or heavy metals.
There are several varieties of pitcher plant that one should try. “Candy Stripe” produces crimson flowers in the spring before its characteristically small spring pitchers that are deep red with white spotting on the lid. Its most robust and handsome pitchers are then produced in the early autumn. It is one of the largest and showiest Sarracenia.
“Fly Demise” produces 10-inch upright pitchers that appear as a dusty orange with dramatic red veining toward the top of the pitcher and the outside of the cobra-like hood.
“Judith Hindle” is a pitcher plant that combines the best of both the white-top pitcher, Sarracenia leucophylla, with a bright red form of Sarracenia purpurea. The results are a stunning 15-inch tall pitcher plant that has white-top pitchers with a dark raspberry overlay.
The pitcher plant “Scarlet Belle” produces large numbers of rounded, white pitchers with abundant and deep veining. This is quite a robust plant, and it matures and spreads quite quickly. Scarlet Belle also keeps its foliage much longer into dormancy than many other varieties of Sarracenia, and has a very high tolerance to cold.
If you don’t have the area that is suitable for growing pitcher plants, try growing them in tubs or decorative pots that don’t have drainage holes. Just fill with potting media, add water and plant.
Craig Dupée is a garden-design consultant. He lives in Ewing with his wife and daughters. Send him your email questions at hort1014u@aol.com.
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