Common name: Trumpet Pitcher, North American Pitcher Plant
Scientific name: Sarracenia
Common Info: There are many different varieties displaying many different shapes, colours and unusually beautiful flowers in the spring when mature. Sarracenia are an ideal candidate for micropropagation as the plants are slow growing and take from three to five years to mature from seed. Also known as the trumpet pitcher, is a hardy North American carnivorous plant. One variety (Sarracenia purpurea) can be found easily in eastern Canada and is even the provincial flower for Newfoundland.
 
Care: A 2:1 mix of sand and peat moss is a good soil mix for Sarracenia. For larger plants another one part of perlite to the mix helps prevent compacting. The plants all require a winter dormancy and temperatures dipping below freezing for short periods will not harm them. Keep the soil just damp through dormancy and increase their water as new growth starts in spring, they enjoy sitting in water for the summer months. Direct sun will bring out the best colours in them and they have a voracious appetite for insects which will be noticed in the drowning pools in their pitchers.

 
 
 

Sarracenia purpurea venosa

Sarracenia purpurea

Sarracenia 'Judith Hindle'

Sarracenia purpurea ssp venosa is a low growing hardy North American pitcher plant that develops a beautiful Red coloration to it. The pitchers open wide to collect rain which acts as a drowning pool for insects unfortunate enough to venture inside. A formidable array of downward pointing hairs awaits those insects with enough strength to climb out of the pool making escape impossible.
Sarracenia purpurea ssp purpurea is a variety of Sarracenia that can be found growing in Canada. It's a zone 3 plant making it very easy for outdoor growing. We keep ours outside year round in four gallon non draining pots of sphagnum and water daily with RO water in the growing season. In fall when growth stops we cover them with burlap and leaves for the winter.
Sarracenia 'Judith Hindle' is a cultivated cross between 3 different types of Sarracenia and is one of the more popular pitcher plants to be found at nursery centers. It grows well outside in Canada in the summer but needs extra protection in winter in anything less than zone 7.