Care guides for butterworts (Pinguicula): light, water, soil, winter rest and common problems.
A symptom-by-symptom guide to sick butterworts: how to tell the normal winter rosette from real decline, what a soft or blackening base means, why leaves lose their stickiness, shrink, redden, brown or go crispy, what a white crust on the soil is, which pests attack Pinguicula, and what happens after flowering.
How much light butterworts really need: the right window and how to keep it from overheating, white LED output, distance and hours, why Mexican species need changing day length, outdoor sun for temperate and southeastern US species, the signs of too little and too much light, and what pink and red leaves mean.
A practical guide to multiplying Pinguicula: when and how to take leaf pullings from Mexican butterworts, how to set them up so they neither rot nor shrivel, collecting gemmae from temperate winter buds, separating offsets, and growing butterworts from hand-pollinated or stratified seed.
The right butterwort soil depends on the group: airy, often limed or fully mineral mixes for Mexican Pinguicula, acid peat mixes for temperate and southeastern species. Recipes with ratios from the sources, peat-free options, pot size and type, when and how to repot, and what goes wrong.
Can a butterwort get rid of fungus gnats? How the sticky leaves catch adult gnats, which butterworts work best and where to place them, what they cannot do about the larvae in the soil, how they compare with drying the surface, sand, sticky traps and Bti, and how to keep the butterwort itself healthy.
What butterworts do in winter and how to care for them: the Mexican succulent rosette and how much to water it, temperate hibernacula outdoors or in the refrigerator, the milder winter rest of southeastern US species, waking plants in spring, and winter problems such as rot, hollow buds and fungus gnats.
A beginner’s guide to butterwort care: how the greasy, sticky leaves catch and digest prey, the three main groups of Pinguicula, light, pure water and when to use a tray, soil and pots, temperature and humidity, winter succulent rosettes and hibernacula, feeding, flowers, leaf pullings and gemmae, and common problems such as fungus gnats and rot.