My sundew flowered for the first time, and the flowers are starting to dry out and turn black. What should I do with the flowers at this point?
Can it propagate if it was the only flowering plant? If so, when do I take the seeds? If not, is best to just cut off the flower stalk?
The plant is doing great. I have not noticed it get any droopier or weaker since the flower stalk went up, so I'm not really concerned about the flowering hurting the plant in any way.
This is my first sundew or carnivorous plant of amy kind, so any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
by MudTurkey13
4 Comments
Grab a bowl and hold it under the flowers and snip ’em into it. The seeds will look like miniature black grains of rice and there’ll probably be about a million of them.
Those should yield a couple hundred seeds. Fresh seeds germinate pretty quickly too!
They are self-compatible, meaning they pollinate on their own. Wait until the inflorescence looks like the one on the left in this photo.
https://preview.redd.it/3f55r6tdfuag1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3be776f7a6f526e335bf29305f6e07514b1b29b4
This is how you get seeds. Cut it off when its just a bit older like the other comment shows. Then let it dry out. You can get the seeds out by shaking them or crushing them with your fingers. The seeds are very small. I’ve started them by sprinkling them in wet long fiber sphagnum moss in a covered container and putting them in a warm place under bright light (not direct sun, that doesn’t work well with sealed containers).
If you don’t want seeds you can just cut it off. It will just turn brown now.