Cape Sundew Drosera capensis pink-green
Cape Sundew Drosera capensis pink-green
Latin name: | Drosera capensis |
Delivery type: | Supplied as container plant |
Guarantee: | 6 months growth and flowering guarantee |
Color: | Pink,Green |
Preferred location: | Sun, Half shadow |
Green stayer: | Yes |
Leafs all year: | Yes |
Hardy plants: | No |
Self polinating: | No |
Edible: | No |
Scented: | Not Scented |
Grafted: | No |
Cutting flowers: | No |
Growing Height: | 10 - 15 cm |
The Sundew is an exceptional houseplant that comes in a nursery pot. Follow these instructions if changing the pot. Use a rough mix of peat or in any case something that won't be too nutritious. Give the plant a wide, shallow dish with holes in the base. Add your soil and plant your Drosera at the correct height. Fill up with more soil and press firmly in. Water your sundew generously immediately after planting. Stand the planter in a nice warm and light spot but do protect the foliage from all too bright sun. Keep the saucer full of water in the growing season (to keep the soil moist and to aid humidity).
There are some sundew plants that can withstand quite a bit of cold and will do well outdoors too. There are even some that can be planted in marshy soil in the garden and survive the winter!
Sundews don't like the soil too limey. This carnivorous plant will thank you for using rain water to water it. Do water from below, and not on the plant. Keep the soil constantly moist because Drosera originated in marshy regions. The saucer under the pot can be kept full of water.
No need to feed this plant and indeed, if you were to overdo it, it would be bad for the plant. Keep the plant dry, preferably in an unheated room, over the winter. The carnivorous sundew plant may well then lose some foliage but the plant should shoot new leaf in the spring again.
This carnivorous plant, the Drosera, 'catches' small insects in its foliage. This lovely sundew plant has lots of transparent and sticky droplets on the leaves that shine like little diamonds. This is what attracts and captures the insects because once they land on a drop of this 'dew' it will never get away again. Once dead, they are slowly digested by the enzymes contained in the dew drop. This digestion period can last up to ten days and occurs continually. It allows the plant to absorb the minerals from the insect with no further feeding, via its foliage. Mostly this involves proteins containing nitrogen.
Once this plant is thoroughly 'at home' it should flower in the summer. Often with white but also pink flowers. Funnily enough, this carnivorous, insect eater also need insects to pollinate its flowers.
Drosera is classified under Droseraceae.