Plants your kids can get excited about

CARNIVOROUS plants exert a fascination, particularly to children. The idea that a plant can gobble up an insect is gruesome and intriguing, and the best known of these is the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). If an insect or spider is detected, it opens its serrated jaws, (well, leaves really), and traps the prey inside. The method of digestion is also quite gory it's a slow death for the victim who is slowly broken down by degradative enzymes over a period of a week or so. Once fully digested, the leaves open and the husk of the insect is ejected. The reason carnivorous plants eat insects is due to lack of nutrients available in their environment. Many originate from poor boggy soil and wet savannahs with little in the way of nitrogen and other minerals available, so they turn to small creepy-crawlies for sustenance. This gives us some clues about how to look after them. You are trying to replicate their original conditions as much as possible. They need to be in acidic moist soil and use rain water only as they are too delicate for tap water which contains chlorine. Keep their feet wet during the growing season by standing in a saucer or tray with water. In the case of the Venus flytrap, it doesn't don't need a heated greenhouse an unheated greenhouse with the windows open so insects can come in is perfect or a sunny windowsill indoors. Cut back the leaves at this time of year they will be dying back anyway but keep somewhat moist over winter, somewhere cooler as they are dormant and they will regenerate in the spring. Sarracenias are probably the most ornamental of the carnivorous plants. Also known as pitcher plants, their leaves are long and slender, tubular in shape, creating a slide for insects to drop into and await their deadly fate. This plant will happily gobble up bluebottles, houseflies and wasps a truly organic method of pest control. The top of the tube or hood is often brightly coloured

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or patterned to help lure the prey in.

Sarracenia “Juthatip Soper” is a beautiful cultivar with deep pink and purple coloration. These are hardy so could be an interesting addition to a boggy garden.