Cold hardy types

[flytrapking]

Hi all, what are the hardiest types of venus fly traps that you have had good sucess with? I live in zone 5 and wondered what the best type is for outside growing all year. I have heard different things so i am asking your opinion. Thank you

[Ray]

I would think all VFT are pretty much the same when it comes to how they handle the cold, though I dont think cup traps will do well though.. all others survived for me (typical, dente, red, and all green) and I think I live in zone 5 too

as long as you either bring them in a unheated garage/cold storage if they are in pots or cover them with pine needles or burlap they would be fine.

hope this helps

~Ray

[lloyd]

I find that keeping the dormancy temperature in the 1-3°C is good. Lower and they freeze and too high they get mouldy.

[thorns65]

Hi there.  Great question.
Last year i planted in my mini outdoor bog, various plants including, I'll call them typical Venus Fly traps. They came from Colasanti farms.  They told me they were just  Dionaea muscipula.  Anyway I live in zone 5 too, on the shores of Lake Ontario just east of Toronto.
I let my fly traps bloom and drop seeds.  They grew fantastically, large traps an inch across easily.
Come late fall, I covered the whole bog with a winter plant blanket.  The white kind I picked up at the dollar store.  Bought a bail of hay and scattered it across on top of the blanket.
Fingers crossed...
When March arrived, I lifted the edge of the cover and saw that an inch of ice was above the edge of the plastic bog garden.
I left it the way it was till mid April when i peaked again and saw the ice had melted.  I removed the straw and looked under the blanket. To my surprise, the fly traps did have some black leaves but a lot of fresh looking green traps from last year.  I left the garden blanket on for a week to let the sun bake a bit through the blanket.
After that, I removed the blanket.  Everything had lasted, and now, I have VERY LARGE traps, plants and flower stalks.  Nice thick flower stalks.

So to answer your question, YES no problem for this zone.
Might add B52's if I can get my hand on some.

Final note, the plants that I had in the bog other than VFT, were S. Minor, Danas Delight pitcher plants, S. Purpurea, D. Rotundifolia and Linearis. Scarlet Belle . The latter flowering now.

Hope this all helps.

[jonnybee777]

I live in zone 3 in the prairies and kept typical VFTs alive in an outdoor bog for about 4 years straight. They never thrived due to our long winters so I haven't tried again, but they survived, barely. All I would do is mulch with wheat straw(that's all I had) and then we would also get a foot or more snow over top for insulation.
I think you'll do fine in zone 5

[bradmon]

do vft stop growing when the temperature drops? I have a few plants that seemed to be doing well in May, but its been a pretty weird June temperature-wise and my plants don't seem to be doing so well. The tiny leafs that have sprouted just kinda stopped growing all together, like they just stopped in time. They're not dying but they're not getting any bigger either. Is that normal?

[roraima]

In my experience believe it or not 'Justina Davis' is absolutely one of the most hardy cultivars through cold, dark, and wet conditions.

Cheers