1. Is it safe to order a venus flytrap from a reputable carnivorous nursery online, using heat pads to ship it in the winter? 2. Will venus flytraps that I purchase now be in their dormancy period? If so, are they hardier or more fragile as far a shipping and planting goes? FYI: I am planting a small terrarium that i described in a previous post with a single venus flytrap plant as a sort of trial of how I do. Then I have a larger terrarium that I want to grow other carnivorous plants in later. Thanks!
It is perfectly safe to order a VFT at this time of year, depending on where you live and the temperature. Even if the nursery uses heat packs, I wouldn't trust them in severe cold weather. Any reputable nursery should have their temperate plants dormant now. There shouldn't be any difference in ordering in the dormant period or the growing period, except that you won't want much root disturbance in the dormant period. Have them shipped potted to prevent this. If they are shipped bare-root, there could be some root disturbance. You might not see any growth for a little while, but they will do fine in the spring. Best to contact the nursery and see how they do things. Side note: many VFTs are sold in big-box stores, etc. year-round as growing plants. These are clones that have been grown through the year, and started at different times of the year, so as to always have growing plants to sell. The dormancy is a little trickier with these.
