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Three deadly carnivores to terrify insects and delight kids

If you are a regular reader, you might just have noticed that I have a slight fondness for exotic plants. Hell, let’s be honest, it’s more of an obsession. Yet I like to think that part of my love of them is not just due to personal bias, but because there is simply no other group of plants that quite captures the imagination of such a diverse group of audiences, which might not otherwise be into horticulture. The massive leaves, dazzling colours, even weird behaviours, just seem to embody the feeling of a storybook adventure in ways that polite herbaceous borders simply don’t. And if you are looking for pure Roald Dahl levels of wide-eyed-wonder, you really can’t get more storybook than carnivorous plants.

Yet you might be surprised to learn that despite their exotic appearance, many of these plants, far from being tender tropicals, can find the cosy, year-round warmth of the average living room just too stifling. Instead, they prefer the cool outdoors of even our most mediocre summers and come the winter are more than capable of shrugging off some pretty Arctic blasts. In fact, many actively need this period of dormancy to grow well. So if you have a sunny spot outdoors sheltered from strong winds, here are three of my favourites to surprise and delight the kids (and big kids) in your life.

Venus flytrap

The deadly, hinge-jawed Venus flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, is probably the craziest of all. Hailing from the bogs of the southern United States, they are no strangers to chilly winters. In fact, the biggest challenge to indoor growers is being able to give them the winter resting period they need. They make great specimens in bog gardens planted in a specialist carnivorous plant mix, or in water-tight containers where the growing media is kept saturated. There are even some quirky named cultivars available with longer fangs, strange, folded traps, and one whose foliage is entirely stained deep blood red – called ‘Red Dragon’.

Pitcher plants
These are divided into two groups: the tropical ones largely from southeast Asia (Nepenthes), and the cold-hardy Sarracenia, which share habitats with the Venus flytrap. Despite having remarkably simply appearances and sharing a common name, these plants are unrelated. They have simply come up with almost identical solutions to similar evolutionary problems, drowning their prey in columns filled with digestive juices. For outdoor growers, side-step the Nepenthes and stick with only Sarracenias. There are loads to choose from, including the stout, scarlet traps of S purpurea and the long, graceful, sulphur-yellow organ pipes of S flava. They are perfect bedfellows for the Venus flytraps, with an underplanting of verdant green moss to set it all off.

Sundew
Finally, if you have any space left, consider adding a sundew to your growing pack of carnivores. With pads covered in tiny lollipop-like structures topped with sticky dew, they use a third, and completely distinct, evolutionary strategy to snare their prey. If you live in a mild area you might be able to get away with the large South African Drosera capensis. If not, go for the UK native (yes, really) Drosera rotundifolia to make your collection complete.

Email James at james.wong@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @Botanygeek

The headline of this article was amended on 21 May 2018 because an earlier version misspelled “carnivorous”.

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