My Little Shop of Horrors

I have several other hobbies that I enjoy aside from writing: I love to travel, I'm a foodie, and I'm a serious gamer.  As if I weren't busy enough, I recently jumped into the strange but fun-filled world of carnivorous plants (CPs for short).  I remember watching a National Geographic special when I was just a kid, maybe 8 or 9 years old, about animals and plants that live in bogs.  The show featured venus flytraps as an example of how some plants adapted to the nutrient deficient soil found in this ecosystem.  I became entranced as I watched the footage of a VFT snapping shut and capturing an unsuspecting fly.

That summer, I spotted VFTs for sale at Lowe's, and I managed to persuade my parents to buy me one.  I had a great time feeding it ants and watching the traps send the insects to their doom.  There's just something incredibly cool about watching a plant eat an animal.  Most people think of plants in the traditional sense: slow, helpless, and perhaps even boring.  CPs shatter those perceptions.  I was hooked.

Sadly, Mr. Fang (as I called my VFT) eventually died after a few months and the ant problem in my parents' house never truly went away.  Now, nearly two decades later, I've finally jumped back into the hobby.  This time, armed with the knowledge gleaned from Peter D'Amoto's incredible book, The Savage Garden, I've become a proud owner of three healthy, fun carnivorous plants that I've had since June: a tropical pitcher plant, a Mexican butterwort, and a cape sundew.  And none of them have died! It's a minor miracle.  I've been growing my plants on a sunny windowsill during the summer (my apartment has no private outdoor space), and now with winter here, I've placed them into a terrarium to maintain some humidity and provide plenty of light.  Of course, nothing beats real sunlight, but the plants seem to be doing incredibly well under the florescent bulbs I purchased.  I don't get many bugs in my apartment (thank god or I would have to buy an iguana), so my plants get fed freeze-dried bloodworms.  These can be found in almost any pet store, as they are a favorite food for beta fish.

Here's a closer look at my strange collection of plants:

My Mexican butterwort.  It produces small sticky drops of dew that captures gnats and fruit flies.  Prey gets digested right on the surface of the leaves (you can see a bloodworm getting eaten in this pic).

My cape sundew.  It creates large drops of dew at the end of these feathery, red "tentacles" that attract flies and ants.  The leaves fold over and digest the struggling prey.  Look closely, and you'll notice a couple of leaves folded in half, filled with tasty bloodworms.

My tropical pitcher plant.  The little pitchers it produces lures flies, wasps, and other critters with the sweet scent of nectar.  The inside is slippery, though, and the unsuspecting insects end up falling to the bottom where digestive juices drown them and feed the plant.

I know, I know, this is supposed to be a blog about writing.  So how are my strange plants related to that? Well, I think Peter D'Amoto is proof that writing can be combined with any of your other passions.  His guide to growing CPs is one of the most comprehensive works written on the subject, and it's already in its seventh edition.  Just goes to show: you don't have to write a traditional novel to be a successful writer.  Just write about what you love.

On the off chance that you're interested in owning your own "Savage Garden," I highly recommend reading D'Amoto's book first.  Then check out California Carnivores to see what they have for sale.  It's a great company that Peter runs himself, and the plants I bought from there are doing really well.  Even if you're not going to buy anything, it's fun browsing through the different kinds of plants they offer.