Flycatchers are fatal attraction at Chelsea Flower Show

For Chelsea pensioners Simon de Buisseret and Barrie Davey the show is in their own back yardTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Jack Malvern
The Times

They will keep flies out of your wine glass, wasps out of your beehive and pests out of your kitchen. Or, if you are Monty Don, they will make your greenhouse look pretty.

Carnivorous plants have eaten their way into the Chelsea Flower Show with a record four stalls as the public respond to marketing that describe them as the ultimate biological insecticide.

Stallholders include Hampshire Carnivorous Plants, which is celebrating its 20th year at the show with the largest display of sarracenia pitcher plants ever seen at Chelsea.

Peter and Helleentje Walker, of Wack’s Wicked Plants in North Yorkshire, won a place at the show for the first time after describing their plants as “wine glass protectors”, a “wasp trough of terror” and a mixed arrangement called “the little pot of horrors”.

[post_ads]Several sellers credited the BBC show Gardeners’ World for a surge in demand after Don presented a segment on carnivorous plants two weeks ago. Yesterday he said that his sarracenias and Venus flytraps were catching flies in his greenhouse, but he did not keep them for practical purposes. “I have them because they look good,” he said.

Mr Walker, 56, and his wife, 53, began selling carnivorous plants seven years ago at “horror festivals and goth festivals” where they appealed to customers’ interested in the macabre.

They found a more mainstream market among people seeking a different form of pest control. “If your house is inundated by flies you just put these on your windowsill,” Mrs Walker said. “It’s a well-kept secret that they’re hardy. People say that they’re experimenting with them in their gardens down south, but we grow them in Yorkshire.”

Matthew Soper’s killer plants were a hitTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

They have had inquiries from a professional flower grower who wanted to use pitcher plants to keep insects away from his auriculas. Another customer planted them near beehives in an attempt to stop wasps attacking her bees. Mr Walker said that wasps were often caught in the wells of the plants where they were slowly digested, because they were attracted to the nectar.

Honey bees are less likely to become trapped because they visit the flowers, which are not the dangerous part. “Bumblebees are a bit more docile and we sometimes find them there, so we drop a bit of string in to help them out,” he said.

Mr Walker recommended the thread-leaved sundew, which traps insects in filaments covered in sticky droplets, as the antidote to flies in wine glasses. He keeps four carnivorous plants on his kitchen windowsill to catch flies. “If the bugs don’t get caught during the day then I close the door and lock them in and by the morning they’re gone. It saves on using spray or barbecuing them on those electric tennis racquets.”

The Queen was taken by more traditional bloomsTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Matthew Soper, 52, the owner of Hampshire Carnivorous Plants, is hoping for his 20th consecutive gold medal. His display includes a 15-year-old Sarracenia x moorei. “Monty Don bought some from us a few years ago,” Mr Soper said. “He really likes them. He has them in his greenhouse and they were on Gardeners’ World. That has helped.”

He said that the public were slowly realising that many varieties, including those from North America, were suited to temperate climates. “We’ve been growing all these varieties outside for three years and none of them has died.”

Mr Cooper said that Princess Beatrice, who attended the show yesterday as part of a visit led by the Queen, was fond of carnivorous plants and had inspected his stand in previous years.

Nigel Hewitt-Cooper, who has brought his Hewitt-Cooper Carnivorous Plants stand to the show for 15 years, has observed a steady growth in demand as gardeners become more experimental. “Carnivorous plants are a lot simpler than you’d think,” he said.

Team GB’s rhythmic gymnasts performed at the David Harber and Savills show gardenMARK THOMAS/REX FEATURES

Dennis Balsdon, 72, chairman of the Carnivorous Plant Society, said that tropical varieties were also becoming more popular. “They are much cheaper than they used to be,” he said. He cited Heliamphora nutans, a type of pitcher plant that grows on the mountain in Venezuela that inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel The Lost World.

He said that the most popular variety was the Venus flytrap, which was first sent to Britain in the 18th century by Arthur Dobbs, the governor of North Carolina.

“They were known as tippity twitchets, which people believed was a native American term,” Mr Balsdon said. “But it’s actually a rather bawdy 18th-century word for a certain part of a lady’s anatomy.”
Four favourites that will fool the insects
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•     Venus flytrap: First observed by Arthur Dobbs, governor of North Carolina, who described them as having a mechanism “like an iron spring fox-trap”. They attract flies with nectar and pink colouring on the inside of the trap, which springs shut when filaments are disturbed. The more a fly wriggles, the tighter it grips. Must be watered with rain water, be exposed to strong sun in summer and be kept cool but not too wet in winter.

•     Sarracenia: Pitcher plants from North America that will survive a frost. Insects tempted by the colour and nectar secreted around the mouth of the pitcher risk falling inside, where they either become wedged or drown in a well of rainwater. They have similar requirements to fly traps, and must be planted in soil that is not too rich.

•     Sundew: Evolved independently in three climates — tropical, temperate and Australian. Insects who mistake the sticky droplets on their filaments for dew become trapped. In some varieties the filaments are stimulated by the struggling insect’s movements to close around it. Can be kept on a windowsill or in a greenhouse.

•     Cobra lily: It has a translucent hood that fools insects entering its mouth into thinking that there is a way out. Can be grown in a greenhouse or outside but suffer in stagnant water.

One visitor turned up in a camouflage jacketTOBY MELVILLE/REUTERS

Rob Chapman puts the finishing touches to his display of violasTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Three models wearing bridal designs by Alan Hannah sport peony headdressesTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Giant globes of flowers make a colourful backdrop for selfiesTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Emily Smith puts the finishing touches to her "Floral wedding throne" for the Young Florist of the Year displayTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Carnivorous plants in "Wack's wicked plants" standTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

A traditional brass band plays in the "Welcome to Yorkshire" show garden during a photocallTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Stan Griffin and Vicki Newman show off their cacti display and themed clothingTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

More than 150,000 people attend the Chelsea Flower Show each yearTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE