bomber what kind of plants are you talking about? If its just sarracenia and native drosera dont sweat it wait for a few frosts thats what really brings out the deep reds in the sarracenia

CP bog? Johnmark is right, the fall pitchers are the BEST for size and color. I usually give 'em a nice blankie and put 'em to sleep sometime in mid December (I'm in zone 6b-7), that is unless I want to use the wife's christmas garlands and wreaths as mulch, then I wait a bit. I have a lot of southern varieties and hybrids. Not sure how oreophila will feel about this arrangement, growing it for the first time.

OK. I'm talking about Sarracenia and it's hybrids I picked up from Botanique. I have a few from earlier this summer and just received a couple more additions to my garden. They helped me select for zone 6.

The garden includes sarracenia, Calopogon Orchid, sabatia kennedyana, drosera intermedia, Bog Gentian, Irises, Cat tails, Cranberries, Bottle brush.

I grow a lot of the same stuff (great minds and all that ;o) and I think you have a good month and a half before mulching the heck out of 'em. I use pine needles, a couple inverted plastic pots, burlap, at least a foot of fluffy leaves. If you're still not sure/unconvinced try and ask these guys. They seem like a nice bunch, I joined just 'cause we don't have a CP society down here. Isn't Black Jungle somewhere up there too? They might be a nice resource for you too.

Good Luck! (...oh by the way GO YANKEES!... couldn't resist ;o)

I'm from central NY originally. My father is a diehard Yankees fan. However, one of my brothers is a passionate Red Sox fan from birth. Baseball is a subject the two can never talk about together. It gets way too emotional. We'll see how it works out tonight.

As for the bog plants, I am comfortable to wait and enjoy the fall colors of the sarracenia. I do like your idea of pine needles, plastic pots, then burlap. I can then put leaves over the burlap. I certainly have enough maple tree leaves.

What about using plastic instead of burlap and then salt marsh hay? I can get the hay easily and can reuse it next spring in the vegetable garden. From what I understand, it wouldn't be good to let the salt from the hay leech into the bog. That's why I'm suggesting plastic.

I wouldn't recommend plastic, too easy to promote rot.

I too have a lot of plants from Botanique, but I do nothing to my bog in the winter. Even S. minor, S.Alabamensis and the Venus fly traps come through with no mulch. I mulched the first couple of years and it was such a pain to clean the bog out that I quit and found that there was virtually no difference in how the plants did.

Don't know who I'll be rootin for. The Indians were doing great, then as usual, for Cleveland teams, drop (no pun intended there) the ball at the last minute >:(

I agree with Fred, no plastic, I think it could go anerobic, keep in too much moisture and could heat up as well. I use the pots and burlap so there can still be some air getting in and out.

I have both mulched and not mulched and from my experience some things definitely do better having been mulched. For me it has been worth the extra effort. It helps the spring health and vigor of the flytraps and drosera especially but some of my Sarracenia as well. The D. filiformis, intermedia and the Dionea seeds from the previous summer germinate under the mulch in late winter very early spring and I have increased all of these 10 fold. I have some purpurea at the bog edge so I can leave it uncovered and enjoy it all year.

I think some of the damage that can happen during winter is not the cold so much as the low humidity and dessicating winds.

Fred do you trim your fall pitchers off or just leave them during winter?

Yes, I do to a certain extent trim any pitchers that have dried up in fall.

I might try your method of mulching with burlap and leaves. My flytraps flower and set seed but none ever germinates that I can see. then again I've got a heavy layer cranberries that have covered the entire bog surface. I'm going to redo one of the bogs (it got polluted with nutrients) and leave out the cranberries so that some of the more sensitive plants don't have to compete.

Right now I have about 20 stems of Spiranthes blooming in the bog and last year I outplanted some seedling Cypripedium acaules that I'd flasked into the drier edge of the bog and they've done very well.

"I have about 20 stems of Spiranthes blooming" Awesome! I have maybe 8-9 but they aren't completely open yet. They were in a completely different location in the bog for the past three years then this year they decided to move.

I forgot to mention I always put a fresh layer of uncut sphagnum each spring after I remove the burlap blanket covered w/ leaves (that arrangement really does help the cleanup). I use the plastic pots so whatever pitchers I decide not to trim don't get crushed by the weight of leaves, snow, burlap it also lets some air get in and out. I leave a few areas where I see the Dionea and Drosera germinating uncovered by the uncut sphagnum, that ends up being just the surface of the sand/peat mix. Later when they are a bit bigger I might dust the surface w/ a little sand/peat mix to help them get better rooted. I had so many more Sarracenia blossom this year I'm hoping some of those seeds germinate this spring as well. I left the flowers and pods all season to dry for the first time.

Haven't done cranberries but yours look so good in the pictures you post I might try them contained on the edge of the arrangement I have now. I like having different niches in the bog like your dry spot for acuale. I have a contained area on one edge that I lime heavily and grow Cyp candidum and reginae (like a fen).