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Newbie from Arkansas

I stumbled across this site a few weeks ago and have been reading the forums ever since. Finally thought I'd join and quit lurking. I'm new to houseplants and ornamentals in general (about a year of dedicated experience), but I've been an avid gardener for the past decade, with a focus on year-round harvests and hydroponics for the past 3. I'm disabled, and growing things is what I do to keep my sanity and get a little bit of exercise.

I like creating microclimates, and some of the terrarium builds you guys are doing are incredible. And I've learned more about lighting on this forum than I even knew was possible...and I already knew a lot on the topic to begin with. But the plants. OMG, the plants. I never should've scrolled through the plant of the month thread. Now I'm in love.

Initially I was just interested in a few CPs to fill a spiderweb themed cloche and birdcage that I got on Halloween clearance. I find weird things aesthetically pleasing, and I needed a way to work then into my year round decor. I love plants, so some VFTs seemed like a natural choice. Now that I know I have options, the project has become much more interesting.

I look forward to getting to know all of you, seeing your projects and plants, and learning a lot about growing CPs as a hobby.
 
Welcome to TF!

VFTs are temperate plants and require a winter dormancy. If you don't plan on that for this piece then try looking into some more tropical species. Certain Nepenthes, certain Drosera, and maybe mexican pinguicula should all be fairly easy to start with.

Make sure to post pics! This sounds interesting.
 
Welcome! Just a word of warning - The kind, generous folks here are really good at getting you interested in not only carnivorous plants, but other awesome oddities & collections such as voodoo lilies, ant plants, exotic (and temperate!) orchids, and other plants + hobbies you never knew existed. I know this first hand. Forewarned is forearmed.
 
Welcome! Just a word of warning - The kind, generous folks here are really good at getting you interested in not only carnivorous plants, but other awesome oddities & collections such as voodoo lilies, ant plants, exotic (and temperate!) orchids, and other plants + hobbies you never knew existed. I know this first hand. Forewarned is forearmed.

Sure, blame all us. Look at you listing names of some haha!
 
Welcome! Just a word of warning - The kind, generous folks here are really good at getting you interested in not only carnivorous plants, but other awesome oddities & collections such as voodoo lilies, ant plants, exotic (and temperate!) orchids, and other plants + hobbies you never knew existed. I know this first hand. Forewarned is forearmed.

Lol...I'm definitely in the right place, then. We "oddities" have to stick together. I have a habit of "rescuing" clearance plants from Lowe's, and I rescued some bargain bin Phal orchids a while back thinking they would all die. And they should have, given that I treated them only slightly better than the water wand wielding garden center associates. But they didn't, and they now have new roots and foliage and *fingers crossed* one is even sending up a flower stalk. And one made a keiki, which I'm convinced is a sign from the Universe that I need mounted orchids EVERYWHERE. Really, it's a sickness. Epiphytitis. I'll probably catch a case of sarraceniamegaly and maybe some hypernepenthes. Expensive to treat, but not lethal. It could be worse :)
 
Welcome to TF!

VFTs are temperate plants and require a winter dormancy. If you don't plan on that for this piece then try looking into some more tropical species. Certain Nepenthes, certain Drosera, and maybe mexican pinguicula should all be fairly easy to start with.

Make sure to post pics! This sounds interesting.

Thanks for the tips. I grabbed a "death cube" VFT from the box store earlier today...the display was alarmingly close to a pallet of "not for sale until 6 pm" merchandise, and I felt kind of bad for the plants. It doesn't seem dormant yet...should I wait for it to do that on its own, or should I coax it into a nap since it's inside and the temp is maintained at well over 50•F during the day?

Also, about the pics...recommendations on a hosting site, anyone? I'm new at that.
 
You can try coaxing it into dormancy if you want. I have skipped it before when buying these death cube plants this close to winter though without any issue. If you reduce the photoperiod or keep in in a window for a natural photoperiod and give it somewhat cool temps it will probably go into its own light dormancy indoors. You'll notice the leaves grow more compact and low to the media when the plant is dormant.

Photo hosting, I'm familiar with tinypic, which doesn't require an account, as well as photobucket, which does. I like photobucket better, it saves your media for future use and the free account comes with a good amount of storage space once you download the mobile app. I believe Flickr is another big one, never used it though.
 
I'll second what Greg said. I also recently purchased a death cube VFT and my plan is to let it skip dormancy this season, beef it up with food (it looked sickly from neglect), and hopefully it will pull through without any ill effects.

For the photo hosting I use flickr and I really like it.
 
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