Venus Fly Trap 'Akai Ryu/Red Dragon’

Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu', Venus Fly Trap, Carnivorous

Venus Fly Traps are one of nature's wonders, imagine a plant that can eat insects.  VFTs are easy to grow and prefer sunny positions indoors or outdoors and do best in colder climates as they need the cold nights and shorter days in winter to rest and prepare for spring growth.  Over winter, Venus Fly Traps become dormant, having fewer, smaller, or no leaves. In Spring growth is rapid with green leaves mostly prostrate, in summer leaves tend to grow upright and traps turn a pinkish-red colour in many forms.  Autumn growth becomes prostrate, and all leaves turn red.  Winter growth is prostrate with new leaves continuing to appear in winter at about 20% of summer size.

Picture one shows the plant in its summer colours, they will vary according to the season with much larger leaves in summer and smaller leaves in winter.

From late April to October plants supplied will be either beginning dormancy or in dormancy so leaves and traps will be very small, and plants will continue to shrink until October when new growth starts. Plants are supplied potted with mature corms underground, these can be transplanted in late winter to Spring or left untouched.