Large Sized Pinnacle Giant Venus Flytrap - Fly Trap - (Dionaea Muscipula) Carnivorous Plant 3 inch Pot

I've always been fascinated by carnivorous plants. Over the years, I've bought many Venus Flytraps and a couple of pitcher plants at local grocery and home improvement stores. The pitcher plants have thrived for years because I keep them outdoors in a boggy offshoot of our koi pond's waterfall. The multitude of Venus Flytraps, on the other hand, have all perished pretty quickly on my sunny kitchen windowsill -- offering the kids a bit of interesting education before dying despite my efforts at keeping them watered and fed (the plants, not the kids).Turns out I was doing it all wrong. Venus flytraps can't tolerate regular water and, instead, should be kept sitting in a tray of distilled or reverse osmosis water. Plus, while feeding them bugs isn't absolutely necessary, it does help them to grow faster -- BUT, overfeeding them apparently saps their strength. I'd been doing it all wrong in the past by using regular water and shoving bugs into their traps constantly.The bare root Pinnacle giant VFT that I received was very healthy and came with a net pot and more than enough spaghum moss (I saved the excess for whenever I need to repot to larger net pot). I then used a wider, more decorative pot as the 'tray of water' for the net pot to rest in. The instructions were great at explaining how to wet the moss and plant the bare root VFT into the pot. My VFT first arrived with 12 open traps, but has since grown 5 new large traps already in less than four weeks with several tiny new trap heads poking up out of the moss also. I can't believe how fast it's growing and it remains very health looking. I don't recall my old doomed VFTs ever growing lots of new traps -- heck, I used to consider myself lucky if I could keep one alive for a month!As to the size of the fully grown traps? The largest traps on mine are 1-1/2 inches across. Not sure if they'll get any larger? The others are about 1-1/4 inch. New little traps grow very quickly and it's fun to watch them go through the stages of growing their "teeth" (cilia) and then opening for the first time.There were two sheets of double-sided instructions included that were very helpful. While the instructions recommend only feeding one trap once a week, I'll confess to feeding two traps per week. Occasionally, I'll use a live bug, but I also keep a small bottle of dried bloodworms that I rehydrate with distilled water and use as food. Yum.

The way this vendor (JoelsCarnivorousPlants, hereafter referred to as JCP) packs/ships plants shows that they really care. They used a rigid box for protection, not a soft envelope. The plant arrived sealed in a plastic bag with moist tissue paper wrapped around the roots; this in turn was inside another bag filled with the sphagnum moss so the plant was well protected and cushioned. When potted, the plant was only slightly wilted and this went away after maybe an hour (!). That's phenomenal considering how stressful shipping can be for any living thing. It was obviously a healthy specimen, well cared for. The plant remains beautiful and healthy, exactly like the picture. I really like the look of the large traps on this variety. The next time I find a bug in the house, I'll have a use for it! Hehehe.Included in the package is a (very) porous net pot. That alone distinguishes this supplier. From supermarket floral shops to other vendors right here on Amazon, you often see Venus fly trap plants sold in a terrarium or in a regular pot covered with a dome. Often they are in regular potting soil. Both scenarios reflect the ignorance of those other vendors. Both will soon kill a Venus fly trap, some time after the sale has been made, of course.JCP actually took the time to understand the needs of this unique plant so they got it right. They also included a detailed care sheet explaining exactly how to take care of this plant. Everything in it is simple and easy to understand. That includes the mandatory use of distilled water (or comparable) because the dissolved minerals in any other water will kill this plant. The sheet directly advises you not to put it into a terrarium because Venus fly traps have soil drainage and humidity needs that are exactly the opposite of a terrarium environment.If you want a carnivorous plant in a terrarium, get a tropical sundew - I recommend D. burmannii or D. sessilifolia because they move rapidly like a Venus fly trap. Watching that happen before your eyes is one of the more unique and fascinating things about having a carnivorous plant. By contrast, the more commonly found "Cape Sundew" wraps its tentacle(s) around the prey over hours or days. If you want a healthy, thriving Venus fly trap, this is the best I have ever seen.If you ever purchased Venus fly traps in the past and wondered why you couldn't keep them alive for very long, one look at the way JCP does things will quickly clear up the mystery. If I buy any more Venus fly trap plants, this is where I will get them.

I Purchased this VFT back in June 2017...it was the second that I purchased from Joel's Carnivorous Plants...it was delivered to the wrong address by the USPS...that was an ongoing issue with that particular postal carrier...when I finally got it about a week and a half later, it was sickly, very limp, and appeared that it was going to die...I immediately put the plant and pot together, watered it and placed it in the sun...the following weeks were touch and go...now 4 months later, the plant is going strong and has grown like crazy...Joel's videos and his information sheet were helpful and very informative to me about caring and raising these plants...even though these are very delicate plants, when properly taken care of these plants are incredibly resilient and strong...keep in mind that these plants cannot be watered with regular tap or even bottled drinking water...for both of my VFTs and to be safe, I use distilled water only and the sphagnum moss that Joel generously sends out with his plants and pots...Update:I also purchased a B52 from Joel's Carnivorous Plants as well...both of my plants made it through the winter...I have moved them out of their first pots and moved them to the 6 in that are pictured here...the B52 is in the foreground and the Pinnacle is on the background...both plants are also starting to flower...the Pinnacle has at least 2 flowering stems and the B52 has one...in addition to the insects they catch on their own, I have also fed them live crickets that I have also purchased and an occasional German Cockroach...just a quick note, if you do feed live crickets to your VFT, refrigerate them first...cooling them down will slow them down and make them much easier to handle...