DO NOT USE FERTILZER, you will kill the plants. They sound like just young plants, continue to do what you're doing and leave them alone! Full sun, at least 8 hours a day or more, rainwater or distilled water only. They will be fine. They do not actually NEED bugs but believe me they WILL get bugs in them. Sarrs are PROS at filling up with bugs!

I second that, never fertilize Sarracenias. Even small plants will attract small insects, especially gnats and ants. Sarracenias are slow growing plants that will grow noticabley larger year by year, but will not take off and grow like your ivy. Expect them to be 7-9 inches tall next year. I received a Sarracenia rubra as a gift and it's leaves from last year were barely 4 inches tall and it was just coming out of dormancy. Once it was completely out of dormancy it produced 9-10 inch pitchers. If yours are the same, then just wait till next year. Like tommyr said, you probably have 2-3 year old plants. It will take them up to 5 or so years to become adult sized. So long as they are growing new leaves, everything is fine.

Give them time to adjust to their new surroundings. Rainwater and sunlight are the best ingredients for growth.

But, these were larger plants last year. I wintered them over in an unheated room in my house. I expected them to be at least as big and beautiful this year as they were last year instead of so little and scrawny.
Okay, I will do as you all suggested and just keep them watered and in the sun and hope for the best.
Thank you all for your kind responses.
Patsy

I agree with the advice that they have given you, I donÂt have anything else to add on how to grow your plants. But it has been my experiences that spring leaves (maybe because of where I live) are smaller; my sarracenias slows down their production of new leaves. But when autumns arrive, they send out a new batch of bigger and fatter leaves. My rubras, alatas, leucophylla, and Judith Hindle have that behavior, small trap in the spring, but long fatter traps with even better color in autumn. The only plants that donÂt show that behavior are my flavas, psittacinas, purpurea.

Maybe this is whatÂs happening to your plants, and if you bought your plants late summer or autumn, the may be the reason they looked so beautiful last year. I havenÂt really found out if what I experience with my plants is true with the other growers.

hunterkiller03's advice sounds good too, my rubra made progressively larger leaves (only 5-7 inches then) all spring, but now that it is summer, it is just making 9-10 inch leaves. Are you getting a good amount of sun there? If the photoperiod is being cut off by long periods of overcast weather, they might not be ready to grow larger leaves yet. The only reason mine is growing such large pitchers already is that it is getting 16 hour photoperiods of 12000 lumen florescent light as I simply am unable to grow it outdoors right now. It seems to be doing well enough indoors for now, but my Flytrap, as expected under such fake light, is a bit slow. Sarracenias should be fine in 90-100 degree temperatures.

Here are some pictures of Sarracenias at different ages and growth patterns.

This is my S. rubra obtained about 3 months ago. It looks like a 3-4 year old plant.

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This is a picture of its rhizome level, showing a new offshoot that will likely grow into a new plant soon.

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These little guys are my seedling hybrids (unknown ancestry) that I have been growing for about 6 months.

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This one has bright purple like a S. purpurea, however; grows more upright. It is about an inch and a half tall.

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These guys are about two inches across now.

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In comparison, this seedling Flytrap is absolutely tiny at all of about 1/4 inches across or so. Of course, it is only about 3-4 months old now.

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Next year, the seedling Sarracenias should be 3-4 inches in size. Yours should start growing out and getting bigger, back to their normal size plus a couple inches or more added size. Sarracenias can grow slowly, so just be patient.

Good point about fall growth, forgot to mention that!

One more thing I thought about was dormancy. You indicated that you had them in an unheated room. How old did the room get and what lighting did the plants recieve? Did they get sunlight during fall to allow them to respond to fall photoperiods before winter dormancy? The smaller growth could be weakened plants from inadequate dormancy. Not that this is the case as the plants simply might not have awakened fully and produced full sized leaves yet. Just a thought since they were overwintered inside. That can be tricky if the plants dont receive good light indicators during fall to let them know to produce dormancy hormones and start living off their reserves. If they got that fall sun, then they are probably just sleepy. I hear of some plants that simply do not want to wake up, even with good spring sun.

Okay, they wintered next to a window with an eastern exposure and in all but the coldest weather I kept the window open in order to keep them as cold as possible without actually freezing.

So now you have all got me convinced that things are going okay with them and I just need to relax and wait for that beautiful growth to return. I'm keeping my fingers. crossed.

Thank you all so much for your kindness and suggestions.
Patsy

One other possibility...
I had an entire pot of Sarracenia do horrible this year. I've got ~150 plants that were all excellent, but five I had in a new pot I bought just kept getting smaller, weaker, and sicker-looking. Finally, I realized this was a pot I bought on sale at a local garden shop. All of my other containers are plastic or fiberglass. THIS pot was coated with fiberglass, but made out of some kind of concrete-like crap. I replanted all of the plants, pulled out the sphagnum, and sure enough the lining was flaking off. I believe the calcium carbonate was leeching into the sphagnum hurting my plants. The ones that survived are now recovering well in pure long-fiber sphagnum.
So, check your pot. Just a suggestion.

Oh, bad stuff calcium. Keep it far away from your plants.

I'm doing some reading and research on the Sarracenias prior to getting one, and I found this entire post quite educational.

I'm wondering about the dormancy part of growing these highly interesting plants... I'm located in central Illinois, zone 5... how long and cold of a dormancy do pitcher plants require?

Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can offer a novice grower!

From my experiences with North American plants, Sarracenias and Dionaea mostly, I have found dormancy periods of about 3 months to be just about right between the months of November and February.

Temperatures of around 45 degrees are good, though variations between 40-50 will not hurt anything. As a matter of fact, those variations seemed to have sped up germination in my Sarracenia seeds that I stratified as over 70 percent of them sprouted within 2-3 weeks compared to some reports of germination as long as 4-6 weeks or longer.

Just keep the temperatures under 50-60 degrees and over 30 degrees and the plants will overwinter just fine. Watch out for mold and keep them just moist, but not wet and not completely dry. You can keep some (about 1/4 inch) water in the tray and let it dry between waterings in winter.

Thank you very much for your informative response... judging by what I've learned so far, pitchers don't seem to be impossible to grow. I think I'll go ahead and try one... they're very interesting plants!

I'm curious as to where you are. Mine are in similar conditions and it has also been miserably hot and dry.

I did spritz some with the nep fertilizer this morning so I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed. They got some last year and were fine.

I have pitchers that just do not look healthy or are non-existent altogether.

Hello ilbasso 74,

Actually, more experienced growers, like yourself, occasionally fertilize their carnivorous plants with foliar feeds, but very little and very weak in solution. It should not hurt anything for just a small amount to be applied, it is just better to say don't fertilize as most of the time, it really is not fertilizer the plants need. In any case, it is also easier to overfertilize and kill them than not to fertilize at all. Like you say, it might be certain zones that these plants just do not do well in at certain times of the year.

Ilbasso, If you are asking where I'm located I'm in northwestern Montana, surrounded by forest fires burning in every direction. Ahhhh,the smell of smoke. I hope it isn't detrimental to my plants!
So, now may I ask where you are located that has been so hot and dry. Missoula Montana just went through a record setting July. Missoula was hotter than any location in the state of Texas! So much for the northern states being cooler than the southern.
What are peoples thoughts? Is hot and dry detrimental? I'm thinking a little more shade might be good? So far our highest temp. at our house near Kalispell has been 103°.

Patsy