Venus Flytraps: tray system with both top and bottom watering.. top watering draws minerals and contaminants out of the soil while bottom watering simply keeps tray full and moss moist all the time. No more than 1/4 the bottom of pot in water.

Drosera: most are similar in watering to Venus Flytraps, however; post a picture or find a pic online that matches yours to make sure... some deviate slightly from the typical.

Cephalotus follicularis: needs moist soil but does not like too much standing water in tray. Can use a small amount of standing water, about 1/4 inch, to keep soil moist and let the tray dry out between waterings. Too much standing water can promote root rot with this species. Basically much like Nepenthes watering.

You can spray with a stream under the leaves and lighter mists on the leaves of all these species... spraying the leaves cleans the plant off and removes spores. Sundews get rained on all the time, so don't worry overmuch about a little water misting on their leaves. A healthy sundew will have enough dew that water will not dilute it or wash it off easily and even if it does, the plant will make more quickly enough.

Overwinter, simply use about half the water you normally would and check the plants' soil often to ensure it is not too dry. When I overwintered my Venus Flytrap and stratified my Sarracenia seeds in an ice chest the conditions promoted condensation, so watering was not even required. I just had damp paper towels under the pots. The main thing is just to keep the plants from freeze drying.

I treat the Cephs & VFT's the same way - water from the top, sparingly, and try to avoid watering the plant itself. Cephs are particularly prone to rotting away from too much or direct watering. Sundews, generally can be water from above or around. Can you post a picture of the sundew?

Heres some of the sundew, all pics are zoomed in on so you can click to enlarge for the full picture (there about 1/2 a meg each)
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And heres some of the other plants in the terrarium. {{gwi:565353}}
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The sundew looks like it might be D. capillaris... or rotundifolia. Not positive.

Thanx Petiolaris, its only 1 year old so maybee in a few years ill know for sure.

Hey, I've have some moss growing in my terrarium that looks like the third picture in the middle row. Is this the good kind of moss, the sphagnum kind?

hi dranomax, i think/hope so, lol, im a bit of a noob.

I had purchsed some sphangum moss when i repoted this plant (its seen better days but its on the mend now). If i remember corectly, i had mixed the moss with some moss that came on the top of soilwhen i got them from the garden centre.

Im sure mutant hybrid & petiolaris will give thier 2 cents.

Adamski.
You should never keep Venus flytraps in terrariums!
The sundew looks like drosera spatulata.
- Adrian

Hi Adrian, you have me intreeged... In your opinion were is the best place to grow VFTs? I live in the UK, not sure if you know much about our climate but im pretty sure it isnt suitable for growing outdoors (but that isnt even an option for me as i live on a 1st floor flat). Also i have minimal axcess to natural light so ive introduced a 200w CF light. Thanx

The sundews look like capillaris or rotundifolia to me as well. I do not see snap tentacles, so I am not sure if they are spatulata.

The moss looks like sprigs of live sphagnum to me.

Terrariums can work for North American plants, it is just much easier to grow them open pot or outdoors where possible (I can't grow mine outside either). Just keep an eye out for fungus. The main thing is light, light, and more light for Venus Flytraps and Sarracenias. The coloration developing on the Cephalotus is a sign that they are getting just enough light to start developing color. A bit closer to the light and the Flytraps and Cephalotus will really take off and develop good coloration (My Flytraps are barely an inch from the 12000 lumens I have over them).

I can't really tell from the pictures, but here's what the real deal looks like:

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And here's what you don't want (and can easily be scraped out):

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