You should grow Sarracenia outside all year long if at all possible. If your humidity is at least: above 30% most of the time, and winters don't dip below 0º F for more than a few days at a time you can. Just make sure you keep them in acceptable soil and winterize them if necessary. You need to have at least cool winters for them, or room in the fridge for winter storage.

If you have cold winters and no good place to protect them, or for whatever reason, you can store them in the refrigerator for the winter. Many find this the easiest method, I like it for young plants. See the way its done for flytraps, the methods are the same. Use the transplanting link below to see how to bare root sarracenia. Cut off dead pitchers, if half the pitcher is dead remove the dead half. We like using the crisper to house them in. They should be heading into dormancy or dormant before you do this.

Just don't make it harder than it is. They can take pretty cold temps and bounce back from things pretty good. Leave them outside year long if at all possible, or at least as much as is possible. The best thing you can do is put them in large pots, 16" minimum for cold winter survival. Wrap bubble wrap or something with insulation properties around the pot and over the media. If it gets in the low 20's or colder and/or a wicked wind is blowing protect them with plastic. Cover the plant and media, black plastic is best. Remove when conditions improve, even if thats just for a few hours in the afternoon. Keep them in the sun during the day so the media can absorb the heat. If you winterize them and protect them from the crazy stuff they'll do fine. Learn more on the winterization page.

Water - The most important thing about water is the type to use. I personally use reverse osmosis water. Distilled from the store and rain water are also acceptable. If you get distilled water from the store make sure it says "Sodium Free" right on the front of the jug. If you have very many plants a reverse-osmosis under the sink model from Lowe's/Menards/Home Depot/etc. will pay for itself but make sure you figure in the yearly filter costs.

The other thing about water is how much to use. Use a plastic pot with drainage holes and place it in a plastic water tray or something to keep it in water all the time during the growing season. Keep at least a 1/2" of water in the tray at all times for 4" & 6" pots, more if in bright light. 4" pots should only be used for first and second year plants, even then 6" really would be better. The more light the more water can be tolerated.

Plants grown inside should be moist at all times, never overly wet. Use the tray method like with most other cp's. Your goal is to keep the media moist at all times. You can top water now and then to help keep the tops moist too, just don't over do it. In low light they can rot. Sarracenia can handle more water than most any other cp, just not inside.

Plants grown outside in full sun can stay rather wet most of the time during the growing season. It will be hard to over water most of them in full sun conditions. Most can tolerate water up to midway up the pot. I grew some in a pond for awhile, mid way up the pot. They loved it. But only in full sun otherwise they will rot. They by no means need to be this wet, but they can be. You must keep the media pretty moist at minimum. Larger pots should be in a couple inches of water anyway. Top water now and then to keep the top part of the pot good and moist. Leave them out in the rain, its good for them. They do not like to grow in "mud" so use some common sense and don't get carried away. If the water is deep on the pot don't saturate the top of the pot and allow the water level to fall several inches after a good rain before adding more.

Here's a pic of one of them. Works great for 6" pots. Larger pots we top water daily when it doesn't rain. The rest are in the bog. We generally keep at least a half inch of water in it all summer. It fluctuates from almost three inches deep down to the half inch. After a good rain we syphon the water off into a five gallon bucket to use later. We use aquarium air hose for the syphon hose. If you have very many pots this type of setup can make life very easy, you can make them any size you like. We staple the plastic to the outside edge and then cover the top with something to help secure it in high wind. Like nailing slats to the edge of the 2x to sandwich the plastic.

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Everyone finds their own way of doing things that works well for them. Whatever method you use just keep them good and moist at all times during the growing season and all will be well. You don't want to keep the parrot pitcher as wet as the rest though. It handles water prettyy good but I wouldn't put water mid way up the pot, 1/4 way on large pots is generally tolerated.

Soil - Carnivorous plants evolved to eat bugs to make up for the nutrient poor acidic soil it naturally lives in. Regular dirt or potting soil kills them fast, and never use fertilizer. Use 50% Sphagnum peat moss and 50% perlite. You can mix in 25% long fibered sphagnum moss and/or use it for a top dressing if you like. I like using it for a top dressing with Sarracenia. Make sure you get pure Sphagnum peat moss, you don't want Miracle Grow or any other chemicals mixed in with it.

The majority of small pre-moistend peat bags are contaminated. Get the dry sphagnum peat moss that comes in bails. If a bail is to much for you we sell smaller quantities in the Web Store section. Or click HERE to go directly to Soil.

Planting -When you plant your Sarracenia make sure you don't bury the growth points. You only want the roots and lower portion of the rhizome beneath the soil. The back of larger rhizomes can be deeper if needed to keep the pitchers growing vertical. I fill the pot about half full, depth depends on what is needed to accommodate the particular plant you are planting based on root length, then I hold the Sarracenia over the pot in the area I want it and at the finished height I desire. Then I finish filling the pot while holding the Sarracenia suspended where I want it. Slightly pack the soil down and finish filling to desired level. Gently water to settle the soil around the roots, add more media as necessary. Optionally you can fill the pot and then make a hole large enough to hold the plants roots, as pictured on the transplanting page.

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Light - These need lots of light, at least 6 hours of direct sun. Growing outside is highly recommended. Fluorescent lighting can be used for smaller plants. If fluorescent is the primary source of light use four 40 watt cool white 4' bulbs within 14" over the plant. Economical shop lights work well for this. Put the light on a timer to go on and off with the sun. It will be very hard to grow good looking mature Sarracenia under artificial light without some help from the sun.

Humidity - If all of the other requirements are met this is not a big issue except in the driest of climates (below 30%). If one of the other elements are lacking humidity can take up the slack, to a certain degree. 50% - 65% humidity is ideal but they can acclimate down very well.

These are very hardy plants and best grown outside. Anyone but those in the driest and coldest/hottest climates can grow these outdoors year round. Just don't plant them in the ground unless its in a container to hold their special soil, and even then keep the top of the container above ground level. If winter temps in your area drop into the teens or colder for weeks at a time please read the winter care area.

This winter (05') came in pretty fast and being as busy as I am I did not get the Sarracenia winterized at my house. I wanted to try a pond with Sarracenia and other carnivorous plants. It worked well, a bit tough to keep water in from time to time though. At times I would loose 5 gal a day or more due to evaporation. Since this was a trial to see how I would like it I just set it up on my deck. Fast and easy :-). This spring I think I am going to place it in the yard as a bog garden. Anyway . . .

 
This is what it looked like in the fall, app. 3 months after initial plantings. Yes, I should have started them in the spring. This was a late idea. Most of the water has been allowed to evaporate away to prepare for winter. The pond is kept full of water during the summer, midway up on the pots. The pots sit on crates in the summer to keep the top half of the pots out of the water.

I took the plants off the crates and sat them on the bottom of the pond. This provides a little protection from the cool wind. Suddenly winter hits, ice/snow and temps down to 1º F. After the first snow I covered the pond with black plastic to at least provide some protection

 
There was already 8" of water in the bottom when the freeze hit. Another inch of ice and snow were added during the first storm. These plants are sitting in ice, covered in snow, and in near zero F. temperatures, sub-zero wind chill. I un-cover them on days that reach 30º F or more.

So far they are doing great. Once we get a 40 degree day or so and the ice melts I will drain the water, wrap the pots with bubble wrap and put around an inch of pine needles on the top of the pots. They will only be covered with plastic during storms and when temps drop below 22º or so. Now imagine how much abuse they could take planted in a decent size bog and mulched!