Thanks to the folks over at ExpertVillage for providing this terrific video about pruning your Venus flytrap.

When Venus flytraps flower, they are often left in a poor state for a considerable time afterwards (often up to a year). They usually do not grow as quickly during this time and are likely to look sickly, limp and are more susceptible to dying.

To avoid this, most growers remove the flower stalks before the flowering process takes place. The flower stalks look different from regular trap growth as they are not as flat as the trap stalks. If you are unsure if your stalk is from a trap or a flower, then you can let it grow out a centimetre or so and if it doesn’t look like a trap by then you can safely chop it off. Don’t let it grow any further though as your plant may suffer for it.

If you don’t pay much attention to your plant or haven’t read this till you’ve discovered a 20+ cm long stalk with a small bud at the end growing out of the center of your Venus flytrap, then you may as well just let it flower as it’s too late. Enjoy the beauty of the flower in all it’s glory as chopping it off now is unlikely to help. Your plants energy was wasted growing that stalk.

Photos on this page are courtesy of Torgrim Johansen

Dozens of traps

If your plant is growing 16+ traps and some of them are reasonably sized (1 cm across), then it is possible that you may have more than one plant growing in your pot. This isn’t a big deal and don’t panic. Your extra plants will usually happily coincide in the same pot no problem at all. If they are already in a very small pot (4 x 7 cm) then you may need to repot at some stage to give them room to grow.

If your plant is brand new, it is possible that it is fresh out of tissue culture. Many plants sold in shops are grown in labs with all sorts of exotic chemicals, nutrients and hormones. This process often leaves the plant in a rapidly growing state and they may not get over this for a few months after purchase. They should eventually slow down however, many of the traps will die and the remaining few will hopefully (fingers crossed) grow nice and big.

This is apparently not a completely understood topic and is believed to be caused by a hormonal mistake.¹ If this happens to your plant, we recommend waiting till the stalk looks like it’s stopped growing, then clip it and root the new cuttings in the ground. With luck they’ll grow into nice big healthy plants.

Photo courtesy of Barry Rice who has an interesting article on this topic.

The reason people remove the flowers is because creating them costs the plant a lot of energy. Their growth cycle will normally slow markedly after flowering and this often continues for a year after flowering. If your plant is kept in extremely bright sun light, then flowering may not be a huge problem. However all Venus flytraps kept indoors will struggle to grow after flowering and may even die.

A post with instructions on how to recognise a flower stalk and the best ways to remove it will be posted at a later date.