Propagation methods
Most carnivorous plants can be multiplied at home from plants you already own. These pages follow the published step-by-step methods and say which plants each method suits. Seed and plants should always come from cultivated stock, never from the wild.
For most carnivorous plants
Cold stratification for Sarracenia, Darlingtonia and temperate sundew seed
Stratification means keeping seed damp and cold; dry seed sitting in the refrigerator does not count. The ICPS gives 4 weeks for Sarracenia (5 for S. purpurea subsp. purpurea) and Darlingtonia, 4 weeks at 1 to 4 °C for most cold temperate sundews, and 8 to 12 weeks for cold temperate butterworts. The simplest method is a small bag of damp, finely chopped sphagnum in the refrigerator, or pots left outdoors over winter.
Sowing carnivorous plant seeds: surface sowing, step by step
Scatter the seed on the surface of a damp, fertilizer-free 1:1 peat and sand mix, mist it with pure water, and keep the pot in a closed plastic bag under LED lights. Do not bury the seed. Most species take 3 weeks or more to sprout and many take 6 to 9 months. Sarracenia, Darlingtonia and cold temperate sundews and butterworts need a damp cold period before they will germinate.
Venus flytrap
Dividing a crowded Venus flytrap and replanting the pieces
Divide and repot a Venus flytrap every year or two, or sooner if it has grown into the side of the pot or new traps die before opening. Separate side plants and break off the old, rotting end of the bulb, then replant each growing point just into peat and sand, off center so it grows toward the middle, and top the pot with pure sand. The removed old bulb and outer leaves can be turned into more plants as leaf pullings.
Venus flytrap leaf pullings: new plants from old leaf bases
Take leaf pullings when you repot: pull outer leaves off the bulb outward and downward so each comes away with its white base, cut off the trap, and set the base just into peat and sand under a layer of pure sand. Pieces that carry some rhizome or roots are the best; a leaf that snapped off above the rhizome is usually worthless. In the ICPS example the young plants were ready to separate after 5 months, and the CPN version of the method shows them at 6 to 12 months.
North American pitcher plants
Dividing Sarracenia: splitting a crowded pitcher plant clump
Divide a well-grown Sarracenia every three years or so, ideally at the first sign of spring growth. Unpot the plant, rock large pieces back and forth until the old rhizome gives way at a weak point, and aim for at least three growth points per division; single-point pieces struggle for a year or two. Pull off all dead leaves and cut away any brown rhizome before replanting, because dead tissue is where rot starts.
Sundews
Pygmy sundew gemmae: collecting, sowing and mailing them
Pygmy sundews make gemmae, tiny buds that grow into new plants, in late fall and early winter, but only if they get seasonal light cues; plants under a constant day length usually make none. Knock the gemmae off with forceps into a scoop, then set them at least 1 cm apart on the surface of a sandy peat mix in the tall pot where they will spend their whole lives, because pygmies rarely survive transplanting. Within a few weeks the red root stub grows into the soil.
Sundew leaf cuttings in water or on peat
Cut a healthy, fully open, dewy leaf from a vigorously growing sundew, then float it tentacle side up in about 1 cm of distilled or reverse-osmosis water in a closed jar or tube, or lay it on very wet peat or sphagnum in a sealed bag. Plantlets appear on the leaf blade, usually after a month or more; D. binata and D. filiformis can come up in the second month, while slow species may take 5 months. Pygmy, tuberous and petiolaris-group sundews, and D. regia, are propagated in other ways.
Tropical pitcher plants
Nepenthes stem cuttings: from climbing vines and rosettes
Take cuttings from a vigorously growing plant, ideally from a long climbing stem when the plant also has a basal rosette to fall back on. Cut under water with a new razor blade, make sure every piece has a growth bud and at least one bud below the surface, and set the cuttings in damp long-fiber sphagnum, sphagnum and perlite, or rain-leached coir and perlite. Seal the pot in a plastic bag in bright light out of direct sun; rooting takes from a month to a year.
Butterworts
Mexican butterwort leaf pullings: timing, removal and rooting
Mexican butterworts are easiest to propagate from leaf pullings, and the thick, non-carnivorous winter leaves work best; the ICPS suggests taking them in spring just before or as the first sticky summer leaves appear. Lay whole leaves on a damp 1:2 vermiculite and perlite mix, or keep them in a zip bag that is opened if they rot and misted if they shrivel, out of direct sun. Small plants appear in 1 to 2 months and can reach maturity in a year to 18 months.
Albany pitcher plant
Propagating Cephalotus: crown divisions, stem cuttings and leaf pullings
The ICPS calls crown divisions and stem cuttings the easiest and quickest way to propagate Cephalotus, giving well-growing new plants in under 6 months. Its cuttings were set in almost pure sand in short pots standing in a few millimeters of water under a humidity dome. Leaf pullings with the petiole intact, ideally with a sliver of stem, also work but are slower and less certain: in one ICPS example, two of four leaves had made small plants after seven months.