The Venus Flytrap: A Complete Care Guide (2025)

Tom Bennet

By Tom Bennet
Last updated

I've been growing a wide variety of carnivorous plants for over 2 decades. I got my first Venus flytrap at age 10 and now have an entire greenhouse full of carnivores.

Without a doubt the most famous carnivorous plant, the Venus Flytrap is - for many growers - a gateway drug! Charles Darwin famously described the plant as "one of the most wonderful in the world," and few who have witnessed a healthy trap snapping shut on an insect would disagree.

Venus Flytraps attract prey using sweet nectar. Touch a trigger hair twice, or two hairs in quick succession, and an electric charge closes the trap, its interlocking teeth forming a cage. The insect's struggles will seal the trap, at which point digestive enzymes dissolve the victim's soft tissues. The trap reabsorbs this nutritious soup, and - after about a week - reopens, using the carcass to attract new visitors.

The Venus Flytrap's reputation for being difficult to grow is undeserved. Follow this guide and you'll soon be growing huge, healthy specimens of this magnificent plant.

Let's get started!

  1. Where do Venus flytraps come from?
  2. Growing Locations
  3. Winter Dormancy
  4. Flowers and Seeds
  5. Feeding your Flytrap
  6. Buying Venus Flytraps

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2. Growing Locations for Venus Flytraps

Venus Flytraps need direct sunlight for healthy growth. If you’re growing your plant indoors choose a bright sunny windowsill - preferably south-facing if you’re in the US or UK. Insufficient sunlight will cause your flytrap’s leaves to become weak and spindly. Most forms of the Venus Flytrap will tell you they’re receiving sufficient sunlight by turning the insides of their traps red.

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They do not require a terrarium to grow, although they can appreciate the higher humidity of the enclosed environment. They can be happy in terrariums provided you respect their winter dormancy requirements and provide sufficient light. Artificial lighting can work well, particularly high-powered fluorescents such as T5 growlights.

Venus flytraps grow extremely well in conservatories and unheated greenhouses. Temperatures in the Carolinas frequently hit 30°C (86°F) during summer and drop below 0°C in in the winter (32°F), and so Venus Flytraps are perfectly happy in the many temperate climates - including the UK and much of the US - provided they are protected from the elements.

Note that most Venus Flytraps produce different kinds of leaves throughout the growing season. Those produced at the start and end of the growing season (spring and autumn) tend to be lower-growing with heart-shaped petioles, while those produced in summer are held up higher on narrow, elongated petioles.

3. Soil & Water for Venus Flytrap

The traditional compost mixture for Venus Flytraps is sphagnum peat moss mixed with either lime-free horticultural sand or perlite, to a ratio of about 2:1. Hampshire Carnivorous Plants sell an excellent ready-made Venus flytrap soil. In the US, California Carnivores offers an excellent ready-made soil mix. Alternatively, you can buy this compost mix on Amazon worldwide.

An alternative peat-free growing media is pure long fibre sphagnum moss. I’ve had good success growing my own flytraps in pure sphagnum, and while it can be more expensive than a peat-based mix, it’s one of several peat-free solutions you might try. In the UK, I recommend The Sphagnum Shop - don’t forget to use the code TOMS10% to get 10% off your order.

During the growing season, you should stand the pot in about 1 cm of water (about ⅓ inch) and avoid watering from the top. They prefer to grow in soil which is wet, but not completely waterlogged. During winter they require less water, and the soil should be kept just damp.

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Another critical point which is often overlooked: Venus Flytraps need pure water. Like many other carnivorous plants, they evolved to grow in damp, low-nutrient soil, and giving them bottled, filtered, or tap water can result in a build-up of minerals that will eventually kill your Venus Flytrap. You should avoid fertilisers for similar reasons. Your best options are rainwater, distilled or deionised water, or water produced by a reverse osmosis system. I’ve outlined your options in more detail here.

4. Winter Dormancy

Venus Flytraps require a cold winter dormancy between November and February. You need to mimic the conditions of their natural habitat, which means providing a cold resting period. Much like you need to sleep every night, Venus Flytraps need to go dormant over winter!

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If you grow your plants on a windowsill or in a terrarium during the growing season, you will need to move them somewhere colder - sit them next to a window in your garage or shed, for example. Plants growing in unheated greenhouses can remain there over winter.

As the days shorten and the temperature drops, your plant’s leaves will start to turn black and your plant will die back to the rhizome. This is normal, and you can safely trim off any dead growth. The end of the winter dormancy period is a good opportunity to repot - and even divide - your plants if they require it before growth begins in March. A 10 cm (4 inch) pot is sufficient for adult plants.

5. Venus Flytrap Flowers & Seeds

Fully grown Venus Flytraps flower in Spring, but unless you intend to harvest seed, you should cut off the flower stalk once it’s reached about 5 cm tall. Flowering can be exhausting for Venus Flytraps, and most plants will grow more vigorously during summer if prevented from flowering.

I’ve written a detailed guide to Venus flytrap flowers which includes instructions for how to propagate cut flower stems into new plants!

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The Venus Flytrap: A Complete Care Guide (6)

What about seeds?

Growing Venus flytraps from seed takes a lot of patience! It takes many years for seedlings to reach adult size, and for inexperienced growers it can sometimes be challenging to keep them alive. What’s more, eBay and Facebook are awash with fake seeds and scams! If you’d like to give it a try, always buy seed from a reputable specialist nursery.

In the UK, Hampshire Carnivorous Plants offers Venus Flytrap seed kits, as well as seed variety packs containing a mixture of less-challenging species.

California Carnivores sells a wide variety of Venus Flytrap seed packs, and these are available with free shipping throughout the US. You can also get a 10% discount off your order by using the code tomscarnivores.

If you wish to sexually propagate your own Venus Flytrap by collecting and sowing seeds, I recommend reading this article by Flytrapcare.com.

6. Feeding your Venus Flytrap

If grown outside, Venus Flytraps will catch more than enough food for themselves. If you keep your plants indoors then you can feed them with dead or live insects, but you should do so only once you’ve taken care of all their other growing requirements.

In order for Venus Flytraps to properly digest prey, the trigger hairs need to be stimulated after the trap has closed - this is to prevent the plant from wasting energy trying to digest non-edible matter which may have fallen into the trap. After dropping a dead insect into a trap, you can stimulate the trigger hairs with a toothpick, or by gently massaging the sides of the trap with your fingers.

If it’s time to feed your plant, check out my guide to feeding Venus Flytraps, in which I recommend a variety of suitable and easily-available foods.

7. Venus Flytrap Cultivars & Mutations

The single species of Venus Flytrap - Dionaea muscipula - has been bred horticulturally for many years. Growers have created hundreds of varieties, known as cultivars, and many of these are now available for sale.

All Venus Flytraps consist of a small rosette of leaves (called petioles), each of which ends in a trap. The traps of adult plants are typically around 2.5 cm in length, but can reach up to 5cm in some of the giant flytrap varieties.

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Cultivars are generally selected for colour, size, or mutation. The first group, particularly the all-green and all-red forms, are among the most popular. These include Dionaea ‘Justina Davis’, which remains completely green even in full sun, and Dionaea ‘Akai Ryu’ (also known as ‘Red Dragon’), which develops a striking maroon or burgundy colouration over the entire plant. Particularly large varieties include ‘Slack’s Giant’ and ‘South West Giant’, the latter of which originated in the UK.

Finally, there are the mutants. These are typically the result of tissue culture mishaps, and some are deformed to the point of being unable to catch prey. They are seemingly loved and hated in equal measure; while some growers enjoy the novelty, others find them grotesque!

8. Where can I buy a Venus flytrap?

In the UK, you can buy healthy Venus flytraps from Hampshire Carnivorous Plants, the biggest and longest-running carnivorous plant nursery in the country.

Run by Matthew Soper, this nursery also sells compost, seeds, and carnivorous plant collections including ideal companions like Pitcher plants and Sundews. Quick delivery is available throughout the UK.

If you’re in the US, I wholeheartedly recommend California Carnivores. They have a wide range of Venus Flytraps available for delivery throughout the United States, as well as ideal companions like Pitcher plants and Sundews.

You can also get 10% off your order with the code tomscarnivores.

Plants bought from specialist carnivorous plant nurseries will typically be much stronger and more robust than those from hardware / DIY stores. You’ll also get much better advice on successful growing, and you’ll be supporting a small business!

Still want to learn more?

Buy The Savage Garden, by Peter D’Amato. In my opinion, this is the single best book on carnivorous plants you can buy today. Its chapters on Dionaea are brilliantly detailed and great for beginners. Available on Amazon.

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The Venus Flytrap: A Complete Care Guide (2025)

FAQs

How to properly take care of a Venus flytrap? ›

To keep your Venus Flytrap happy, give it lots of light, sit it in a shallow water tray and only feed it live insects. If you grow your plant indoors, a sunny windowsill is best as these plants love light. Water is also important, particularly in summer when the pot can dry out quickly.

How hard is it to keep a Venus flytrap alive? ›

Venus fly traps are surprisingly low-maintenance houseplants. Because they're so good at trapping pests, they make excellent kitchen companions, and they love bright, humid spaces like a sunny bathroom windowsill. Ahead, we walk through how to care for a Venus fly trap, including sunlight, water, and soil requirements.

How to care for Venus flytrap pdf? ›

Sunlight & dormancy- In addition to needing only pure water and nutrient poor soil, Venus Flytraps love lots of sunlight (or strong artificial light), and need a yearly rest period (a winter dormancy) during which they die back, look terrible for a while, grow only very little and very slowly, and should not be watered ...

Can I feed my Venus flytrap dead bugs? ›

No, you cannot feed a Venus flytrap dead bugs. Dead bugs will likely be rejected because they fail to stimulate the small hairs inside the lobes that lock the trap and release digestive enzymes. The trap may not close completely or will simply reopen in a day or two with the dead prey intact.

Should I cut off dying Venus flytrap? ›

You can can either keep the dead leaf on the plant or trim it off. It is more of a matter of personal aesthetics than anything else. Left alone, dead leaves slowly decompose naturally.

Why does my Venus flytrap look like its dying? ›

Stress from poor growing conditions

If your growing conditions aren't ideal, your plant's traps may turn black every time they're fed, or even if they haven't been fed at all. Traps turning yellow before turning black - especially ones which haven't been fed - is a common symptom of poor growing conditions.

Should I let my Venus flytrap flower? ›

Short answer: probably not. Cutting off the flower stem as soon as you spot it will encourage your plant to put its energy into vegetative growth (i.e. more big traps). But that's not to say you should never let your plant flower.

Can you keep a Venus flytrap as a houseplant? ›

They will thrive in full sun, meaning at least six hours of direct light. You can grow them indoors on a very, very sunny windowsill or in a terrarium under grow lights but they generally do best outdoors. Also, if you grow them indoors be sure to provide them with a winter dormancy.

How many times can a Venus flytrap eat before it dies? ›

The traps of a Venus Flytrap are designed to open and close a limited number of times (approximately 7-10 in optimal conditions). After this, the trap usually dies off. So you can see that triggering the traps all the time will eventually cause all the leaves to die; and then you have a dead plant.

What not to do with a Venus fly trap? ›

You should not fertilize the soil of your Venus flytrap. The soil of its natural habitat is low in nutrients and fertilizers will slowly kill your plant. Because of this low nutrient environment, the Venus flytrap has adapted to an unusual feeding strategy.

What is the best thing to feed a Venus fly trap? ›

If you want to feed your plants, you must find bugs. Bugs, bugs, bugs. I recommend caterpillars, flies, spiders, crickets, slugs, and very small children. I do not recommend ants (the leaves are often damaged afterwards), moths (too much fuzz), butterflies (too cute), or beetles (too much sturdy exoskeleton).

Why does my Venus flytrap turn black after eating? ›

Another reason that the trap might turn black is if the prey that it caught didn't completely fit inside the trap. If this is the case, the trap will try to seal unsuccessfully. Then when it releases its digestive enzymes, the trap will start turning black because the enzymes seep out onto the trap surface.

How to trigger a Venus flytrap? ›

On the inside of the leaf surface, there are tiny hairs. When touched, these hairs trigger the leaves to rapidly snap shut on the unsuspecting prey and the interlocking teeth lining the leaf seal the trap shut. Once trapped, the leaves close tighter to squash the prey and enzymes are released that digest it.

How often should I water my Venus flytrap? ›

How often to water your Venus Flytrap. Venus Flytrap needs 0.8 cups of water every 7 days when it doesn't get direct sunlight and is potted in a 5.0" pot. Use our water calculator to personalize watering recommendations to your environment or download Greg for more advanced recommendations for all of your plants.

Will my Venus flytrap survive without bugs? ›

Although flytraps are carnivorous, they can go for long periods (a month or two) without eating insects. If you grow them outdoors, they'll get enough to eat naturally. If you're growing Venus flytraps indoors, you'll have to feed them small bugs such as flies and beetles periodically.

What helps a Venus flytrap survive? ›

The flytrap requires nutrient-free soil that provides good drainage and aeration. Use a standard soil mixture of 1 part peat moss and 1 part perlite. Never use potting soil, compost or fertilizer. These ingredients will kill your plant.

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