I could easily go through this one, because there are so many. I put this here, not because of what I did wrong, but because the plants simply didn’t want to adapt, or because other catalysts left them unable to survive. Many unusual instances have occurred, where I found myself dealing with dying and eventually dead plants. Here are a few instances of these failures.
One failure was with a small air plant that I had, and it involved something I tried, with my tank setup. The humidity was perfect. It became green for some time, and was this way for at least a month or more. When it’s green, it’s getting what it needs, because they start off grey (or grey-ish) showing how dry, and in need of water and open air.
I tried one of the various methods of hydrating my plant, but I really didn’t need to. I’ll say this though, I noticed that the middle leaf on the plant was still brown, more like a rust color. That may have been an indication of the water used. This was the case before trying one of the other methods. After some time, I decided to let it dry out in open air, which was something I should have done more often. This is where things went downhill. I figured at the time, there was a loose leaf, and I pulled it off, only to notice some dark browning at the base. This was a sign of rotting. It didn’t end there. It happened with another leaf. Then another, and another, and another, until there was nothing left.
Now, considering how very dry my apartment is on a normal daily basis, it made sense this would happen. So, it may be a long time, before I decide to bring one of those back in again. Now, part of this result I attribute to keeping it in a humid environment for far too long. This may have resulted in the rotting of this, but whatever. Mistakes happen.
Another failure I can’t really attribute this to anything that I did wrong – not yet anyway. I had a couple of lavender plants, and for a while, they did okay. One was by the window sill with bright light, and the other was by another window, with low light. Neither survived after a month or two. Tried propagating them prior to their demise, and that backfired as well. You know it’s not working when you see the fuzzy mold envelope the entire stem; that’s not a good sign.
Were there others? Yes.
I’ve had several venus fly traps, and not all of them lasted very long. I had several and much of the failures came around the time I purchased them. What do I mean? I purchased and received them in January. Most plants, especially carnivorous plants, have a tendency to go dormant, where it appears to almost die, but it’s really not. Once it’s in a much warmer setting, dormancy may not occur.
Once I received my fly traps, and a sundew, I had so many settings. One by a window, with low daylight, and some in the tank setting, where they had lots of humidity and grow lights; this was my red dragon, typical VFT, and the sundew. All had their instances of growing well for some time, but after some time, they just didn’t. The one by the window, was a pinnacle, and it began to shoot up a flower stalk within a few weeks, just as the red dragon. The typical, didn’t really fair that well to push a flower stalk.
Trying to get these to grow further, for some reason was difficult, even in their settings where they grew quite well. The pinnacle, didn’t last, but I cut the flower stalk before things got worse. I may have waited too long to do so, because after that, it was gone within a couple of weeks. The red dragon faired a bit better, but I tried bringing it out sometime after I cut the flower stalk. Believe it or not, it lasted much longer than all of the others. The typical VFT somehow, just didn’t take, and eventually just died. The sundew, this particular one, was the most difficult of the rest, because I had to move it to another smaller terrarium setting where it could be dormant. It didn’t recover, and well, it was pretty much over with.
Long story short, for those in particular, it’s better to buy them in the spring and summer months, but there was one set of sundews that let me know it wouldn’t be easy. I tried again with this particular breed, and it started producing flower stalks right away. It stayed that way through the majority of its overall lifespan. This one I kept in a terrarium to keep the humidity up for it to grow, so that helped, but it also backfired, when I opened the terrarium to give it some air. This is where it began to dry up. I made one mistake prior to repotting them, which was to not separate them, so that aided in the cluster to not grow as well, after the flower stalks were cut.
After some time, that set of sundews were reduced to maybe one. For a cluster of sundews, generally you can separate maybe between eight or ten separate sundews. I realized this for the next time I went to get some more. That’s for another story, not in this section at this time. Anyway, that sundew reduced to one, eventually shriveled up, even after separating, and just didn’t recover. It had enough water, and sunlight, but it just didn’t want to survive.
A few have came and gone, and another I tried to grow, was the string of pearls. It’s a succulent type of plant, and it’s often best to hang them to grow long. For me, it did last for a little over two months. For a while, I had it under low light setting, but bright enough so that it got enough light from the window, but also from a nearby plant light (not a grow light). This was just fine, for a while.
Eventually, I tried another setting, which was my mistake. I put it to hang by the bathroom window, where it got humidity from the shower. If I did this from the beginning, I may have had different and better results. It wasn’t working so I brought it back to its original setting. It was still a bit stagnant, and eventually I saw it becoming a bit fuzzy, with the mold, clearly a bad sign.
A few weeks later, it was gone. All of the pearls dried up. When I saw this, it was time to call it a day.
I have a couple of cacti and I had my issues with at least one of them. Now, for the one that I was successful with, I won’t discuss here. What I will discuss, is the one that I failed with. I tried keeping this in a setting with sand and soil. I made separate layers, and hoped that the sand would be more suitable for it. It wasn’t. I saw the cactus browning, not just the needles, but the cactus with the green flesh turning brown. I think it’s safe to say, it was over for this one.
I had another prior to this, where I never repotted it, and that’s why it didn’t last.
Another, involving more venus fly traps. This involved me putting them in terrariums, but this time, the issue was more about acclimating them back to regular temperatures. Acclimation is a fairly slow process, and for this one, it wasn’t working because it was a bit too fast. Long story short, it died due to shock.
A different one died from shock, after I moved it from the tank setup, and although it was from that to a terrarium, it still didn’t take, and eventually stopped growing. I didn’t really notice until I didn’t see the traps forming, and I went to take a closer look, only to see clear rotting at the base. There goes that.
With the many failures here, many lessons were learned. One thing to understand, is that carnivorous plants aren’t that easy to grow, for long periods. If you keep them in constant conditions, you could have them for several years. I’ve yet to have that result, but I’m working on it. As for the plants that didn’t work out, just know that some plants simply don’t like where they are growing. Once you find out why they won’t work out, you can then decide whether or not you should pursue replacing them, and doing so, with different ways or placement for growth.
Hopefully, there won’t be that many more stories of failures, but only time will tell.