Carniverous plants can not be placed in normal drinking water that contains bleach, chlorine and fluride etc...

Of course pond water after sitting a while has had most of this taken out. Plus if you use pond starters or pond chemicals that take out the chlorine that should be fine.

I must also add that if you buy a carniverous plant that is used to well water or distilled water your plant will not do well in its first year of growth going into your pond that is not one of those types of water.

They will brown and die off until well established and get used to your water.

Also, these plants DO NOT like any type of fertilizers whatsoever that is what the insects / bugs they capture are for.

And if they are brown make sure they are not dormant and not dying. These types of plants brown when going dormant.

Also, these plants do not like hot late afternoon sun liek I get in Texas.

Just a little tid bit information as I am building a wonderful collection of carniverous plants and have learned these facts over time for my zone 8 climate conditions.

Use only rain or distilled water. Our well water is very hard and not a good choice in Northeast Ohio. I have a rain gutter that flows into a rain barrel and overflows into the bog garden.

I plant companion plants in the bog to help keep the garden looking natural and it reduces weeding which I only do when I know for sure a plant is a weed (you can get some great spontaneous plants in a peat bog!)

I have 8 species and hybrids of Sarracenia, 3 species of Drosera, Venus fly traps, as far as orchids I have 2 Species of Platanthera, Calopogon, and Spiranthes. All of these plants have been in since the bog garden was put together in 1997 (and moved with me in 2000)without any special treatment (other than the rainwater) and no winter protection except whatever blanket of snow we get.

Thank you!

Yes the Venus Fly Traps stay out in the bog through the winter. They start out a bit slow but by mid July have traps equally as large as those I winter inside (from my experience the Aki Ryu cultivar is less hardy than the usual form)

They are virtually a maintenance free plant but you still can not use normal tap water and you still can not use fertilzers on them. Mine stay out all winter in both bogs - container and bog. Mine do not like full TEXAS sun. Over 100 degrees of pure sun for hours is way too much for my CP's. They burn. Thanks. We dont even use distilled water for the CP's anymore. After they have established themselves with weening from distlilled water they have been flourishing in the containers with straight pond water now.