GARDENING : GROWING YOUR OWN LITTLE SHOP, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS ...

Byline: Joshua Siskin

Imagine developing a passion in childhood that stays with you throughout life. Talk to artists, musicians and professional athletes, and they typically reveal that their adult occupations are simply extensions of their juvenile preoccupations.

With gardeners, this is not usually the case. Indeed, most of us get our first exposure to horticulture at an early age when the teacher brings a few beans to school and plants them in a cup. But while the germination of those seeds may become an enduring memory, we probably do not delve into gardening in a serious way until middle age. By that time, our ambition to conquer the world will probably have waned somewhat, but we can still sally forth, armed with shovel and spading fork, in a valiant attempt to subjugate a patch of bare ground in the back yard.

Peter D'Amato has been passionate about carnivorous plants for over 30 years, ever since childhood, when he discovered insect-eating sundews (Drosera) growing in the swampy pine barrens of southern New Jersey. Now living in Northern California, where other sundews grow wild, D'Amato has the largest collection of CPs (carnivorous plants) in the world. His recently published ``The Savage Garden'' (Ten Speed Press, 1998) is the first comprehensive book written on the care of carnivorous plants.

If you ever brought a Venus' flytrap home from the nursery only to see it blacken and die a short time later, you are not alone; nearly every curious gardener, including the writer of this column, has killed a Venus' flytrap at one time or another. According to D'Amato, we kill these plants on account of the water we give them.

Most CPs live in acidic swamps or bogs that are low in mineral content. The hard water that comes out of our taps is so mineralized that it is simply lethal to CPs. Bottled water, to which salt is frequently added for flavoring, is usually no better. Unless ``purified'' or ``no sodium added'' is written on the label, your bottled water will be too salty for CPs.

The safest water to give CPs is either rainwater or distilled water, which is available at some supermarkets. You can also purchase a reverse osmosis unit that purifies domestic water before it comes out of the tap.

Unless your back yard is literally a swamp, the only realistic way of growing carnivorous plants is in containers. Many CPs are cold-hardy, and some grow as far north as Canada. This means that they will do fine as patio or balcony plants. One caveat: CPs that are cold-hardy go dormant during the winter, will probably die back to the ground at this time and should not be fertilized or forced into growth until warm weather returns in the spring.

Most carnivorous plants will grow well in a soil mix that is half sand and half peat moss. CP containers should be placed in deep dishes or trays that hold at least 1 or 2 inches of water. This water level must be kept constant to maintain swamplike conditions.

In our climate, an eastern or morning sun exposure is best while growing CPs outdoors. When growing them indoors, place CPs directly on the windowsill, since they require excellent light, but keep them protected from intense sun.

If you place your carnivorous plant on a patio, balcony or windowsill, it will trap houseflies and ants that wander its way. You can also feed it sow bugs, ladybugs and spiders. If your house is insect-free, you can purchase crickets for your CPs at a pet shop, which may also carry dried insects for those who are disinclined to feed their plants live prey. Feeding need not be a daily concern. A Venus' flytrap that is given several houseflies once a month should grow just fine. Individual traps, which are modified leaves, will consume one to three meals before they die and need to be snipped off.

You can supplement the feeding of your plant with foliar fertilization once or twice a month; just make sure the fertilizer is formulated for acid-loving plants and that you dilute the recommended dosage by one-half or one-fourth.

It is possible to grow carnivorous plants outside in the garden. To do so, you must place your CP in a container without drainage holes that contains half sand and half peat moss. D'Amato suggests the deep vases used by florists for holding cut flowers.

It happens that the headquarters of the International Carnivorous Plant Society are right here in Southern California. For information about joining or receiving the society's newsletter, write the organization in care of the Fullerton Arboretum, P.O. Box 6850, California State University, Fullerton, Calif. 92834.