Petiolaris complex plants typically like hot, humid conditions (Equatorial) , with lots of light. It's like having Neps, only with more light. I am contemplating strongly of setting up a fishtank with a glass jar of water and a submericble heater, for heat and humidity. An artificial light should take care of the lighting.

Here's old pictures of a dilatato-petiolaris, along with a now dead colony a D. paradoxa, and a D. ordensis, from that family of sundews:

{{gwi:561799}}ordensis

{{gwi:561801}}paradoxa

{{gwi:561802}}paradoxa

{{gwi:561804}}dilatato-petiolaris

{{gwi:428437}}flowering paradoxa

{{gwi:547132}}my favorite pic of paradoxa!

That last picture is gorgeous!!and thanks for the info. At the moment I'm trying to figure out how to set up two storage containers of cp's. One container has my dews and the other has my pings. I bought one of those "intelligent" plant lights and my husband is building a larger holder for it since I decided to expand my collection from 3 to 6. The small light just doesn't quite cover them all.
Here's the catch......we live in a motor home(RV)and the narrow window just behind the "co-driver's" seat is where they are going( the usual seat was replaced by cabnets)
The biggest problem I'm having is how to get enought light to both containers sitting on one small cabnet....
Just means driving to the store and buying more duck tape!
Thanks again for the info!!

Can you set up an appropriate sized rack and emplace a flourescent light over it? I had two storage containers in my closet, until recently, with just a shoplight over them:

{{gwi:550240}}

Here is a link that might be useful: The collection - all over the place!

Hi twotut,

Petilaris is the resident expert on pygmy sundews so I have nothing to add to his advice.

Let us know how that "intelligent plant light" works out. It would be my opinion that it will not be able to provide adequate light for most plants. My Venus Flytrap is just surviving on 12000 lumens from four 40 watt florescent light tubes 1 inch from the plant. The intelligent plant light is barely a tenth that intensity with a 9 watt light.

In any case, good luck with those plants.

Some plants just really need to be outside, even though they may appear to be doing well enough at a window sill or under artificial lighting - particularly American pitcher plants and VFT's.

The Petiolaris Complex of plants are also high light, relative to most of the other CP's, but the real successful growers have them inside, usually in fish tanks, with high humidity and hot temps. They're a bit more of a challenge than most sundews, which do just fine at window sills, with the small ebb and flow of temps and larger change in photoperiod.

Thanks again for the info! Now for my senior moment....
I set the thing outside on my deck and ended up burning the dew covered pads. It was beautiful when I first received it too...
Now for my question...is it possible to cut it down to the soil and wait for new growth? I read this approch in a web site about asking the experts( can't remember the exact site). Anyway this was recommended for another drosera that had been put outside too soon. So, what say the powers that be?

Hi twotut,

That Drosera would probably be D. adelae, a weed like plant that grows back like a hydra grows new heads when you chop it's growth point off and remove root sections from it.

I am not sure how the Pygmies would do so lets wait for petiolaris's advice on that. I would think that clipping a few burned leaves would not hurt, but these plants are so tiny, it would likely be best to just leave the burned leaves and wait for new growth. In any event, just keep ramping up the light intensity more each week by placing it in brighter places progressively, starting with a partial light window or under some light shade cloth outside to cut UV light.

One idea would be to place several (3-4) very gauzy layers of shade cloth over the plant, just enough to cut intensity and UV light, then each week remove one layer until all of the layers are gone.

Leaf burn will not kill a plant, but will take some time to recover from.

Does it look like this?

{{gwi:428435}}

This is D. adelae