The Carnivorous Pitcher Plant - Sarracenia for the Bog Garden

The Carnivorous Pitcher Plant - Sarracenia for the Bog Garden

By Published September 2013 Updated June 2022

Whether it's the common purple pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea, or one of the more rare species like Sarracenia flava or Sarracenia leucophylla, we love pitcher plants. Sarracenias have cool, insect-killing leaves and bizzare, upside-down flowers in rich saturated colors that delight the eye. All of the pitcher plants for sale at Plant Delights have been propagated ethically from nursery stock and not wild collected (which reduces native populations and is unethical ... really cheap Sarracenias are usually wild collected and should be avoided). In the wild, Sarracenias are bog plants and marginal plants that are found in moist meadows and swamps. In the garden, pitcher plants prefer moist soils but do not require a bog to grow well. But if you have a bog and are looking for a bog plant, you should definitely buy pitcher plants.

Many of our Sarracenia for sale at Plant Delights Nursery are from Dr. Larry Mellichamp's and the late Rob Gardner's Sarracenia breeding program at the University of North Carolina Botanic Garden. Their goal was to take the short pitcher plant species that do not flop over in the garden and breed them with the colorful pitcher plant species (that are also tall and floppy) to create short, colorful plants. And they were very successful. They will add a nice splash of color to the garden.

If you are into bog gardening, then don't forget to check out our other bog plants for sale too. There are many great companions for pitcher plants available at Plant Delights such as sabatia, calopogon, hardy hibiscus, drosera and dionaea.

Welcome to Plant Delights Nursery at Juniper Level Botanic Gardens. We are a private research and display botanic garden located near Raleigh, North Carolina (USDA Hardiness Zone 7b). Our retail mail order division allows us to make the best perennials from our trials available to gardeners around the world, some of which were developed here, some from our plant explorations, and others from breeders around the world. Between 1988 and 2010, Plant Delights Nursery introduced over 500 new perennial plants to US horticulture. In 2002, we were honored to be recognized by the American Horticulture Society for our lifetime of work in commercial horticulture. This image gallery is but a sampling of the great perennial plants available for gardeners around the world. We do not carry all plants pictured at any one time, but since our mission is to educate and inspire, we hope these images and the linked articles below will expand your garden horizons and interest. You will find an array of other interesting information and fascinating perennials throughout our website...thank you for taking time to visit.
Back to articles