Hey Guys,
Something to watch out for if you shop at Home Depot for your pete and perlite - WATCH OUT! They often sell the Miracle Grow brand which is fortefied with fertilizer. BAD THING.
You want to make sure you get PURE pete and perlite. No fertilizer.
Sars CAN be fertilized, but the solution has to be quite diluted, and the Miracle Grow formulas are way too rich, and will destroy your plants.
Next,
Hibiscusmile, the directions looks hard....but it's quite easy, really.
I grow many of mine outdoors year round (zone 6, NY - and I know people who do the same on the Vermont boarder, zone 5 or even 4).
I put a pond liner in the ground, filled with pete & perlite mixed about 2:1 or so. planted the sars, and top dressed pine bark mulch . Most people use long fibered sphagnum moss of this, but I dared to be different. However, in retrospect, I wish I HAD used the LFS because my pine chips would blow away in the wind....
At any rate, the only maintenance required is around thanksgiving I have to cover it with a think leaf mulch, and in the spring (late April or so) I have to remove the leaf mulch.
And every couple of years I have to dig out the plants and divide them because they grow too big!
Sarracenia and venus fly traps are often fussed with too much, which is the eventual cause of their demise. All they need is the right soil, pure water (filtered or rain), sunlight, and to be left alone.
Someone mentioned the Black Jungle a few posts above - those guys are great. We had fun getting ripped Saturday night of the show (check the NECPS show thread for awesome pics)! They have some great plants, and excellent service.
You can also check out www.terraforums.com, and the associated store flytrapshop.com