If You’re a Little Rough and a Little Lazy Like Me, You May Have Already Learned How to Propagate Venus Flytraps from Leaf Cuttings

Here is what happened.

I have been growing Venus flytraps for quite a while, and recently I bought a few more.

I planted some of the new Venus flytraps together with moss in terrariums. After planting them, I simply left them there.

People who often read my blog already know that I am pretty relaxed about maintaining moss terrariums. Mine do not need much care. I usually mist them two or three times a week.

Recently, I opened one of the terrariums to see how everything was doing. I noticed that the original Venus flytrap had become much smaller, but there were two tiny new plants growing beside it.

When I looked more closely, I realized that both baby Venus flytraps were growing from the place where an old leaf had died.

My first thought was: so an old Venus flytrap leaf can actually grow a new plant.

It reminded me of propagating begonias from leaf cuttings. Begonia leaves are quite tough. Even after new baby plants appear, the old leaf can still stay alive as part of the new plant. But the old Venus flytrap leaf was different. It had already died and turned black.

So I found a book about Venus flytrap propagation and checked.

Sure enough, Venus flytraps can be propagated from leaf cuttings. You cut off a clip together with its leaf, place it on moist sphagnum moss, and keep the air humidity above 70%. After a little more than two weeks, new growth can begin to appear.

For anyone who has never grown a Venus flytrap before, here is a simple explanation of how a healthy plant normally grows.

New clips keep growing from the center. As the new clips appear, the older clips are pushed farther and farther toward the outside. Eventually, the old clips turn yellow, then black, and die.

Those large clips around the outside are going to die eventually whether you do anything or not. I have posted videos more than once showing how I cut off the dead black clips.

Now that I think about it, I feel like I wasted so many opportunities.

I should have cut those old clips off and put them into any moss terrarium to try propagating them. Just thinking about it makes me wonder how many new plants I have missed over the years.

Or maybe I should simply have looked up how to propagate Venus flytraps much earlier!

After thinking about why this accidental propagation worked, I realized that it was probably because I was too rough when I transplanted the plant.

I accidentally broke off one of the leaves. Then I was too lazy to clean it up, so I just left it there. After that, I completely forgot about it.

And somehow, that broken leaf ended up producing new Venus flytraps.

This once again proves one of the reasons I like keeping moss terrariums around.

Whenever I have a leaf or a trimmed piece of plant that I do not really want to throw away, I can simply put it into a moss terrarium.

A moss terrarium is one of the easiest and lowest-maintenance natural propagation trays you can have.

And here is my little baby Venus flytrap.

You can still see the black remains of the old dead leaf underneath it.