The Venus flytrap is one of those cool, carnivorous plants that everyone loves because of its iconic snapping traps. But you know what’s even more rewarding than buying one? Growing your own from scratch! If you’re looking to expand your collection, there are actually three different ways to propagate these little guys.
Methods for Propagating Venus Flytraps
Multiplying your carnivorous plant collection is actually a lot easier than you might think. You can propagate a Venus flytrap using:
- Seeds
- Division
- Leaf cuttings
Growing from Seeds
If you already have a mature Venus flytrap, you can try your hand at growing them from seed. Just a heads-up: your plant usually needs to be at least three or four years old before it starts producing flowers and seed pods. To make sure you actually get seeds, you’ll need to pollinate the flowers. I recommend using a small paintbrush to manually pollinate them yourself just to be safe.
Once the seed pods turn brown, they’re ready to harvest. Since these are “cold-stratification” seeds and need light to germinate, keep them in a cool, dark spot until spring, then sow them on top of your soil.
Propagating by Division
The easiest way to get new plants is definitely through division. For this, you’ll need a nice, large Venus flytrap. The best time to do this is in the spring when you’re already repotting. As the plant grows, it naturally forms offshoots (little baby plants) at the root ball. Simply pull or snip these away from the main plant and pot them up individually in fresh peat moss.
Using Leaf Cuttings
For this method, pick a healthy leaf and make sure you get a tiny bit of the white rhizome (the base of the plant) when you pull or cut it off. Stick that cutting directly into a pot filled with a peat and sand mixture. Treat the cutting just like you would a full-grown plant, and before you know it, you’ll see a tiny new flytrap starting to form!
