Dionaea muscipula

#foliagefriday

Blooming again! #upclose

Mealy bugs too

What!? NNOOOOO @kelsey92

Yep

Spray it with rubbing alcohol and q-tips too

#foliagefriday

This funny little club will eventually be #fabulousflowers

#foliagefriday

...and another flower stem is emerging!

Blooming!

Almost!

OK, I wasn't sure at first but this is definitely shaping up to be a flower stem #houseplant

I need a few. The flies come inside when it’s going to rain. The house is closed up but they still manage to get in.

This emerging nubbin does not have the usual folded-batwing shape of a new leaf. Dare I hope it's a flower stem?

It does look like a flower starting.

A few dead soldiers, lost in the battle against fruitflies and ants

This #unique plant has done remarkably well for me. Here she is in her original Walmart packaging...

#houseplants with snappity mouths

#carnivorous-plants

@aldebaran this is the whole setup. Note the layer of soggy charcoal on the bottom and -- now that the furnace is on -- the clingfilm covering most of the top...

I can't keep these 🫣 their heads go black and drop off. No matter if I water them or not 🤷‍♀️

@emch oh boy! I've really bitten off more than I expected! I've now got mine in the skull planter (love, cheers) inside a glass hurricane with leca at the bottom, and I'll post an updated pic soon 🤪

These itty-bitties emerging in the center are the #newgrowth

@emch what medium and environment do you use for your fly trap? I just went out and got one today and want to make sure it’s happy. Any tips are appreciated.

@rudester I just kept these in the pots they arrived in, soaked some sphagnum moss in DISTILLED water, covered the bottom of a nice fishbowl with fishtank charcoal, set the pots on top of that and packed the soaked moss all around the pots. Voila! Tap and swipe to see the setup from better vantage points..

#venusflytrap-care-tip

#foliagefriday

Zillions of new traps emerging after a big meal in June! #curiouscases #foliagefriday

Was the big meal bugs or ferts?

What is a fert, @sushiwaitress ?

Oh it's my lazy typing -- I meant fertilizer. @emch

Fertilizer kills these guys @sushiwaitress ! The only food they can eat is bugs!

Huge new trap emerging #interestingfoliage #newgrowth

The flowers just keep on coming!

#whiteflowers

Pretty flowers to lure prey

#houseplants #foliagefriday

Just one more shot!

Looks awesome 👍

Wow! Never seen flowers on these 👍

Fully bloomed out!

Wow, first time for me to see that. #carnivorousplant

Cute! Mines produced another flower stem, so I’m letting it do it’s thing rather than cutting it off like the last one.

It’s awesome!!! 💚🤍💚

I didn’t know they flowered!! How cool!!! And how pretty 🤩 @emch

You might want to feed it a mealworm or so, @sieveheadsarah !

In full bloom!!! Color me astounded that it came to this...

WE HAVE LIFTOFF. THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!

Wowwwwww! 🚀

Wow never seen them flower!!

Awesome flowers. 🤍

WooHoo!!! 🎉🎉🎉🥳🥳🥳

Wonderful!

👏🏼👏🏼

In one of the week's most #curiouscases I found yesterday that one of the traps had sprung open, revealing an untouched mealworm inside.

I have this image now of it trying to spit it out!

Exactly, @richard.spicer.7906

If you look at the center of the plant, you can see a second flower stem emerging! #anticipation

Either these bloom VERY briefly, or the first bud rotted. Never mind, there are more buds warming up in the bullpen #anticipation

Any time now #anticipation

...and closer #anticipation

#terrarium

You've all seen a lot of my only #terrarium lately, but since GT asked specifically, here's another inaction photo of the flower stem on my Venus Flytrap... #anticipation

#yum

Those buds are enlarging and getting branchier by the day... #anticipation

Today's bold experiment. After learning that I can only buy live mealworms in large and king-size, 100 at a time, I learned online that I can use the dried kind if I rehydrate them. Made a nice hot cup of larva tea and fed 1 or 2 to each plant. (To my surprise I seem to have 3.) We'll see how this goes. #geniushacks

Flower bud!!! Color me astonished!

Wow!!! That’s fantastic!!! I can’t wait to see the flower! @emch

I chopped mine off Eileen

I know, @sieveheadsarah but I am going to supply my plant with more mealworms so I can see those flowers!

Does it not eat when flowering? I'm impressed with this one. They are notoriously hard to keep alive! What's your magic??

I’m looking forward to seeing the flowers Eileen

@KariSamuel I just kept both flytraps in the pots they came in, plunked them in a fishbowl lined with charcoal, surrounded them with soaked sphagnum moss, and covered most of the opening at the top with clingfilm. A shot of repellent kept the kittehs out of it. After that, distilled water and mealworms...

Live meal worms? I had a coworker in the vet industry, who had multiple large parrots in their home & she RAISED meal worms! Well, had a meal worm farm under her sink. It was oddly satisfying to see! 🐛 @emch

I don't think dead mealworms would trigger the traps properly, @KariSamuel

So I wondered! 🤔 Wigglers!

#foliagefriday

Each closed trap has a mealworm... #curiouscases

Suppertime for the ladies...the closed trap in the center is digesting already but the mealworm just underneath is refusing to walk, which is what triggers the trap to close... #curiouscases #exoskeletal passive resistance

Better shot of the terrarium #curiouscases

Very cool!! I want to try these.

@cheriej I have succeeded at last with these by keeping it simple. I put them in the pots they came in into a big fishbowl with a layer of stones at the bottom. Soaked some sphagnum moss with distilled water and packed it around the pots. Stretched clingfilm across the top and spritzed that with kitteh repellent. This is the first time I have been able to keep them alive. RIP sundew plant from GrowIt that came in the mail with the green Venus Flytrap 😢

Great!! I’m keeping the instructions, I really want to try them. Do you feed them bugs? Or are they good without? @emch

The greenie was good for a year plus without bugs. I fed each one a mealworm a week or so ago @cheriej and they immediately started putting out new traps...

Mealworms are a great idea! I already have them for the Bluebirds.

New leaf emerging days after the plant was fed a single, tasty mealworm... #newgrowth

I can’t keep these alive

I didn't think I could either @jaeCee but I finally seem to be succeeding!!!

Trying again, @jacaranda #foliagefriday

Perfect! 👍

#trytryagain

A little distorted by the fishbowl #native #curiouscases #foliagefriday

Kitteh broke into the terrarium and yanked the plants out of position so many times that I finally went to the pet store for kitteh repellent. That appears to have worked... #crimescene #geniushacks

What is the repellent?

@heatherdirtyhands it's called Keep Off! Cat and Kitten Repellent. Made by Four Paws, a brand we always trusted at the pet store where I used to work ages ago. It's still working today!

Crude but effective: clingfilm over the top of the fishbowl to keep the humidity high.

It's hard to find leaves more interesting than these... #foliagefriday #curiouscases #native

I love mine !

New terrarium