Bug Bat Pitcher Plant

Sarracenia x ‘Bug Bat‘

Plant Details

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 5b-9b (10?) Find Your Zone

Plant Type: Perennial

Height or Length at Maturity: 12-16″

Width at Maturity: 12-18″
Spacing: 15″ for mass plantings or solid border/edging; 30″ or more for space between plants

Growth Habit / Form: Clumping, Upright

Growth Rate: Moderate

Flower Color: Maroon Red
Flower Type: Single, Nodding

Flower Size: N/A
Flowering Period: Spring

Fragrant Flowers: Yes

Foliage Color: Green and Copper shades with White speckles

Fragrant Foliage: No

Berries: No

Sun Needs: Full Sun, Part Sun

Water Needs: Average, Moist

Soil Type: Clay (amend heavy clay), Loam, Sand, Silt

Soil Drainage: Consistently Moist But Well Drained, not standing water

Soil pH: 4.0 to 5.0

Maintenance / Care: Very Low

Attracts: Visual attention

Resistances: Cold Temperatures (-15F), Deer, Disease, Mildew, Heat, Humidity, Boggy Soil

Description

‘Bug Bat’ is a hardy and vigorous perennial Pitcher Plant featuring very large 16 inch tall pitchers with green bases and upper tubes and hoods (traps) in bronze turning to cinnamon red shades speckled white on the back in the summer sun. The colorful traps attract flies and other flying insects that venture into its tubes and are then trapped when the hood closes. Showy deep red globular nodding flowers rise above the foliage in spring before new pictures fully develop. Bug Bat retains many of its leaves through winter. Excellent around ponds and areas in the garden where the soils stays consistently moist, but not standing in water. Bug Bat will spread to form small colonies outdoors in sunny sites and can also be grown in pots as a houseplant in a well-lit space.

Important Note: Avoid the use of chemical fertilizers on Sarracenia plants.

Landscape & Garden Uses

Growing 16 inches tall and spreading to form a colony up to 18 inches wide, the Bug Bat Pitcher Plant is ideal for use in sunny sites with a consistently moist soil or in containers that can be kept indoors or outdoors. This is an outstanding accent plant around a water garden. Very nice as a solo in containers or to provide texture and color in combination container gardens. Also suitable for terrariums.

Suggested Spacing: 15 inches apart for mass plantings or solid border edging; 30 inches or more apart for space between plants

Note: For our customers who live and garden north of USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6a, where this Pitcher Plant variety is not reliably winter hardy, you’ll be happy to know it can be grown in containers that can be brought indoors during winter and placed back outside when temperatures warm up in spring.

Growing Preferences

Bug Bat Pitcher Plant is very easy to grow in most any consistently moist soil of average fertility full to mostly sun. It does not like standing water. It prefers an acid soil ranging from 4.0 to 5.0 on the pH scale. Virtually maintenance free, we rarely fertilize it. Avoid the use of chemical fertilizers on this plant. A light feeding with an organic all-natural plant food is okay. In areas that experience colder winters the foliage may need to be groomed or cut back before new growth emerges in spring.

Plant Long & Prosper!

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