The flowers may or may not have seeds.
You should cut of the flower stalks when it completly blackens.
Then sprinkle the flower stalk over a sheet of white paper to get the seeds.
Since drosera rotundifolia is temperate, the seeds will need to be stratified for 8 weeks.Info on germinating them at: http//www.cobraplant.com/seeds3.html
Good luck,
Adrian

Hello daveyjones,

Follow carnivorousplant's advice on those D. rotundifolia seeds. Since it is well into summer now, you might just keep them cold until winter and then stratify them in damp sundew media all winter in a cold place, about 40 degreees or so will do, until spring, then place them in a warm, well lit place to grow. You could also just keep them under florescent light in a warm room after cold, damp stratification for 8 months or so and grow them for the rest of this year and next and wait till next winter to take them into dormancy with the adult.

The seeds will be tiny, black ovals, so be careful, you can loose them easily. The white paper will help you see them.

Sorry,
Made a mistake on the website,
Colon after http.

Yeah I made a mistake too, it is 8 weeks, not months... I guess I was thinking 2-3 months.

Thanks for the help guys. As for dormancy, I was just planning on putting this little guy plus my 3 VFTs in the fridge. I figured I'd leave my Sarracenia Purpurea near a cold window since it doesn't lose its leaves apparently. Any other suggestions? Thanks for the help!

daveyjones:

You can go with the refrigerator route, and cutting back some of the Sarracenia leaves (particularly the browning ones) will not hurt it if it is too big when it is going dormant for the winter (Since S. purpurea is a slow grower, it is good to keep most of its green and purple leaves overwinter). You can always use an ice chest or place them outside or anywhere you can get the temperatures to about 40 degrees or so. Just make sure that when November comes around that the plants are where they will receive sunlight so they know when winter is coming. Placing them in the fridge without them knowing that the photoperiod is getting shorter might kill them. The combination of short days and colder weather creeping up makes them sleepy and they start to live off their root starches and rely less on sunlight for energy. They also produce hormones that protect them from cold weather when the photoperiod gets short, so they will freeze to death without that.

If you can't place them outside in your area (the North American species are winter hardy from zone 8 like the Venus Flytraps, to zone 5 like the Drosera rotundifolia and Sarracenia purpurea) you can try other options like the fridge. They will all survive a frost, however; in pots, they need to be protected from total freeze drying. Keep them moist and protected with a plastic tarp to keep freezing wind off them and they would be alright in 30-40 degree weather outside or in a baggie in the fridge.

I tried an ice chest with frozen water bottles and a thermometer under a florescent light. I covered it for 12 hours at night to drop the temperature to 40 degrees and opened it by day with the light a foot away from the plants to air out the chest and get some light on the soil to help cut fungus attacks. The chest keeps the plants moist with condensation and a light frost will appear where the ice bottles touch the pots. Just remember to change the bottles every 12 hours when you open and close the chest. It takes more work, but the end result was a healthy Flytrap and over a 70 percent yield in stratified Sarracenia seeds within 2-3 weeks after taking them out of the ice chest. By day the temperature in the chest will rise to about 50 degrees which is fine. I think the slight change in temperatures helps with stratifying seeds, but don't mark my words on that. I might have just been lucky. I had worse luck in the fridge though since that option tends to promote mold on any organic matter in a closed, dark space. Have your fungicide ready, Neem oil or sulfur based stuff works, no soap based fungicides. If you see mold, spray the plants and mold every couple weeks until the mold is gone.

I've had my temperate sundews outside for ~8 months of the year, in buckets of minibogs. When fall sets in I tote them to the attic and place the buckets at a south window sill. I live in Western NY, so the winters can get well below freezing, outside. However, the attic apparently draws enough apartment heat to keep them from freezing to death.

As winter turns to spring, between the increasing photoperiod and the waffling warmer temps, the plants begin to wake up. By April I bring them outside again. When the sundews flower, I let them drop seed and they germinate right in the buckets - at least the D. intermedia and D. rotuntifolia do. D. binata & filformis I keep going by leaf cuttings.

Now for Sarracenia seeds (that were sent to me), I put them in sealed plastic tubes of water and placed in a bucket, in the attic, for several weeks. Then in late winter I placed the stratified seeds in covered plastic pipette dispenser containers, on to pof the media. After several days they begin germinating.

Would it be easier for me to increase my number of sundews by splitting it, rather than seeds? It seems it might go a little quicker. I am actually a college student living in an off campus apt. right now, so my options for dormancy are limited to whatever comes the easiest. I have nowhere to grow my plants outside, so they sit in a west facing window (which actually gets a lot on sunlight in the late afternoon til sunset) with two fluorescent lights glaring on them all day long. I suppose as it gets closer to october/november I will leave the lights on less and less so they know it is time to sleep. When I am at home they sit outside all day and enjoy the full sun, but that is not at all a possibility where I am right now.

As for length of dormancy period, when do you guys put yours away generally? I've seen some people say October to March, but others shorter. I will also be preparing to buy some fungicide. I really want to keep these plants going, they seem to be doing pretty well right now. I'm very nervous about losing them this upcoming winter.

Hello daveyjones,

D. rotundifolia is actually easiest to propagate by seed. Leaf cutting can be successful as well and will produce adult plants in a few months after a patient period of weeks to months for sprouts to develop. In any event, sundews are among the faster growing of the carnivorous plants, so they will mature more rapidly than most.

Dormancy can be 2-5 months for carnivorous plants according to environment and species. A good rule is about 3 months for most. Just start lowering the photoperiod by an hour or so each week of November until the plants are getting 8 hours of light. They will slow down in growth and produce prostrate winter leaves. The D. rotundifolia will make a hibernation bud and basically go to sleep. Then you can place the plants in colder conditions, like the fridge. After January, you can begin to take the plants out of cold conditions and give them 8 hours of photoperiod, ramping that up by one or so hours a week until they get 12-16 hours again. That gives them a few weeks in November and February to actually go dormant and come out of dormancy with a 2+ month period of actual cold weather.

I guess I might as well ask about my lighting situation while I'm at it. My plants get a decent amount of sun from my west facing window from about 2-3 until the sun goes down. I looked around at wal-mart, and the brightest bulb I could find was a GE "Sunshine F15" which I am currently using. The light output is 620 Lumens, it is 15 watts and it is full spectrum. I am also using a seemingly brighter condensed aquarium type fluorescent bulb, maybe another 15-20 watts, I don't have the package. Do you guys think this is enough? As I look outside all day, I see bright direct sun due to the lack of trees, but I have way to get my plants out there! They seem to be doing alright so far, but I haven't been in this apt. for even a week yet.

I was also looking around on bulbs.com and found some nice 40-42 watt compact fluorescent bulbs. And the ACE hardware by me has a 27 watt compact, soft white. What kind of coloring do you look for in a bulb? Is soft white ok? Or bright white, or cool white. Too many decisions!

How about a T12 for lighting??

Cool white florescent light is the way to go. Wattage needs to be at least 40 for the tubes you get for shop lights and 100 watt equivalent for the florescent compacts. In any event, it is the lumens that matter more. Drosera rotundifolia would prefer full sun, but a window with supplemental florescent should be fine. The florescent light should be about 2500-3000 lumens per bulb or tube. The most cost effective approach is to get the T12 tubes that petiolaris advised for shop lights. They are 4 feet long and usually sold in twin tube mounts that would provide 6000 lumens of cool white light. The daylight bulbs really are not much different from the florescent light you get from those tubes, so it's just more expensive. Anyways, place a couple of those lights about 4-6 inches over your plants and they should grow well.

Here's an interesting question... for some reason the newly opened leaves on my sundew are not really open. None of the little tentacles are sticking out, but the leave is spread open. All the little arms are neatly curled inward. And there are def. no bugs in them. Any ideas?

It is probaly just adapting to it's new growing conditions.

daveyjones:

What are their growing conditions? Water (source), soil, light, potential fertilizer, chemical products, insect pests... etc.

Has it gone through any recent humidity changes like from inside to outside, room to room with different ventilation, or domed pot to undomed?

Sounds a bit unhappy for the moment. Give it time and stable conditions. Newest leaves should right themselves.

Well, it was recently moved inside, where it is considerably less sunny and dryer. I have since then moved it to a secure location outside where it seems to be much happier. I really want to buy a couple more, but fear it is too late in the season to do so.

Not too late.

Do you know of any drosera which have humidity requirements?

daveyjones,

Not really. All of the sundews I have seen can adjust to low humidity well if they are given a slow adjustment period. Probably the moving in and out upset the sundews a bit.

Humidity is overrated, except with plants of the Petiolaris Complex. Mostly, what they need is adequate lighting, mineral free water, exposure to the air, and stable conditions.

So I have been putting my plants outside lately, and today a pack of sparrows decided that my Sundew looked tasty. They pulled it out of the ground and sadly ate all the seeds which we just getting ready to fall off the stalk. Grrr, I was so excited, but I guess this gives me an excuse to order some new plants. Is www.cobraplant.com a good place to buy online? I bought from Equilibrio the first time, but they were really slow and I wouldn't order from them again.

Yes!
cobraplants is probaly the best place to buy CP's in the universe!
But last time checked they were out of round-leaved sundews for 2007.
Adrian

Last night I ordered a Lance Leaf Sundew, Cape Sundew, and Asian Highland Nepenthes (Varicosa). Although Rotundifolia is supposedly easy to care for, I have had a hard time with mine, so I wanted to try some new varieties. If you order from them now before Aug 31, you also get a free Pygmy Sundew, so I'm interest to see what that turns out to be.

Sparrows are the meanest little pests I know. If you want to put your plants outside, I would suggest placing a wire cage around them with a mesh just small enough to keep birds out, but let insects, light, and water in. I think it would be kinda neat to hybridize some sparrow eating specialist Nepenthes, but sadly, most carnivorous plants just specialize in catching insects.

You should have much more luck with the tropicals as you can place them in a sunny window or under florescent lights easily and they do not need dormancy. You just about can't kill D. adelae and D. capensis unless you just lock them in a dark cellar with no water in pots of fertilizer. Anyway, your plants should be there in about a week, however; that includes processing time as cobraplant.com tends to ensure that the plants are only in transit for 2-3 days if at all possible. Mine got to me in only 2 days from date of order confirmation and shipping from half-way across the U. S. virtually every time I order. Take your time and be careful in unwrapping the plants as the pots will be taped shut with packing domes and the soil will be held down with plastic wrap.

A nepenthes rajah or nepenthes mira can ensure full-time pest control! LOL

I'm really looking forward to the N. Ventricosa (whoops, got the wrong word above) I'm planning on having a little bit better luck with these, and since I'll be keeping them inside, no sparrows!