You should be in good shape.

I have a number of Sarracenia Pitcher plants outdoors all year in a bog garden. They are all root hardy here, though the ones that produce the best pitchers in spring are best in colder areas.

I also have had Fly traps outside since 1998 and they survive just fine as do Droseras rotundifolia, intermedia and filiformis.

Good luck!

Thank you very much. I had thought all those would survive fine here but just wanted to make sure someone else close to my zone region had had success.

So here is the next issue. I will be buying them very very beginning of spring but I would like to buy plants that will atleast give me a bit of a show in the first summer (refering to the sarracenia). Does anyone recomment a site that is affordable but also sells plants of a mature enough age that I can buy them and still get sizable pitchers the first year?

Alright I found several great websites for the plants, california carnivores and cooks stood out.

My next question for you all if you wouldn't mind is what are the larger sarracenia? All the types of cp's I'm gonna get are going to go around this walkway and I would prefere several tall and large ones at the very beginning to kind of make a statement before you walk down it and see the rest.
Thanks.

I live in zone 5 as well. But have had ZERO luck in keeping any CP alive over the winter outside. Even "native" pitcher plants, Plants that regularly see zone 3 and 4 conditions in nature have been frozen out. I often have zone 5 flowers die over the winter. I've even lost a few zone 4 "hardy parenials". The difference between Fred and I, exposure. I have no way of sheltering my plants from the wind, and here in Eastern Iowa wind is a HUGE factor. My place sits in the middle of a state sized corn field with no trees to stop the wind. Serioulsy there is nothing to stop the wind for miles so it blows hard and often. My guess is that the wind drives the cold into the ground causing a much much deeper freeze that I would see if my plants were sheltered.

So if you plan to grow your CPs outside in zone 5, plant them in a well sheltered south exposure for just a bit more warmth.

Just my 2 pennies.

The larger Sarracenias would be those that contain parentage of leucophylla, flava, minor, rubra... as opposed to purpurea. But purpurea can take the cold better than the others and are attractive plants.

Personally, I keep my Sarracenias in buckets, as mini-bogs, and when fall arrives, I just tote them to our cold attic and place at a south facing window sill for the winter. In March, they wake up, on their own and in April I put them outside again.

I put my sarrs in the attic here in Zone 6 and VFTs in the fridge. We'll see how they do.....

Tom

I'm worried when I start growing some of these VFT's if I can just leave them in my garage w/o windows during winter. It gets cold in there, but not quite as cold as outside were they might freeze from the Ohio weather.

If they need light during the winter, would it be acceptable to set up a compact flourescent light above them and give them a few hours of light each day in my garage?

That would be a good approach.