little house of horrors

Whenever I tell people I collect carnivorous plants, they would immediately think of Seymour, the Venus Fly Trap ("VFT") from the movie the Little Shop of Horrors. I can't blame them for thinking that way, for carnivorous plants have only been introduced commercially fairly recently.

There is a lot more to these plants than just VFTs. For example, there are the nepenthes (Pitcher Plants), sarracenias (American Pitchers), sundews, butterworts and the aquatic bladderworts, just to name a few. I started collecting carnivorous plants sometime in early 2008. At the time, I was somewhat fixated with the idea of creating a terrarium consisting mostly of carnivorous plants. However, the set up didn't last very long as the artificial lighting couldn't quite replicate sunlight, which I found to be essential to the sundews and sarracenias. I have since placed the sarracenias in a trough in my balcony and I am pleased to add that they have grown quite significantly.

My largest collection of carnivorous plants has to be the nepenthes. To-date, I have about 10 different species of nepenthes and counting. There is something unique and very exotic about this genus of plants. However, many of my friends find them rather creepy and sinister, possibly the plants look that way.