Dia's Garden Style

Growing pitcher plant / Nepehentes/ Monkey cup needs similar as orchid growing condition and other carnivorous plants. As native tropical plant, pitcher thrives well in warm and humid atmosphere however many of Nephentes will adapt in many different growing condition since they are very versatile. So, this plants can be grown all over the world.

Basic requirement to grow Pitcher Plant, Nephentes, Monkey Cup.


Temperature : Most of pitcher plants thrive well in range temperature 60F-95F, however there are some species survive in cooler temperature.

Light : They love 2-3 hours morning sun or partial shade in the afternoon. avoid direct hot sun exposure. In hot summer, place them in shady place. For young plants, it is better to place them in shady area. When they grow bigger and have more leaves, gradually move them in sunny spot.

Humidity : They require enough humidity to encourage production of their pitcher. They will stop to produce their picther when they do not get enough humidity, about 35% of humidity is fine for them. In the hot and humid weather, place them outside. In the winter give them extra humidity by place them in plastic bag or plastic botol, make sure to give them enough ventilation.

Water : Keep the soil moist, never allow the soil dry. In hot summer water them every 2 days. Do not allow water sit in the saucer. Use distilled or purified water. Add little water in the pitcher to combat from dryness and dying.

Soil : Provide good drainage such as orchid bark, spagnum moss, peat moss and perlite. Do not use potting mix.

Fertilizer : Do not feed with chemical fertilizer. If the pitcher do not trap insect. Get them insects or bugs , let your kid to do it, it will be fun.

However growing condition may vary depend of what's type of pitcher plant you have. Good luck!

It was one fine day on Saturday. In the middle of June, here in Pooler, Georgia, USA, the outside temperature is in range between 90-95 degree with damp and little bit humid. I love this humid and warm weather which I missed since I left my country Indonesia in 2003. I took my daughter to have grocery shop as routine activity in the weekend, but we stopped in local Nursery where I have tried two times but they were always close on Sunday.

Anyway...see what I got! A small hanging basket of Pitcher Plant. Oh my God, I was so glad to find them here in Pooler. It had been a while, I would like to collect this plant, but it was only in my mind, I did not do search to find them out seriously.

Pithcer plants are carnivorous plants. They called Nephentes or Monkey Cup. Pitcher plant or Nephentes is belong to the family Nepenthaceae. The story of Monkey Cup was because monkeys used to drink water in the pitcher. This plants have unique of shape, size, and the color of the tube. In the wild, Pitcher plants were found in the Forest attached at the stem or branch of tree with humid atmosphere and fair amount of sun exposure. They were found in North of Australia, South-East Asia, South of China and Madagaskar. The common North American plants that are also called pitcher plants are of the family Sarraceniaceae.

Indonesia has many variety of species than other country. Pitcher plant called "Kantong Semar" in Indonesia is considered one of rare plants. They are found in almost forest in Sumatera Island. Now days, this plant became rare because they cut the tree for land clearing to build residency or other commercial issue, forest fire or people just simple go to the forest take and sell them without trying to propagate or cultivate. It sound horrible. For those reason, Pitcher Plants are protected by Indonesian Law.


The reason called carnivorous plant is because they eat meat such as bugs or insects that they use as nutrient for their natural growing condition. The leaf form as a rolled leaf like a tube. They use their tube-shaped leaf to attract the bugs, then trap and digest them. When bugs or Insects are trapped in the tube, they barely escape from it. The surface of the tube is often slippery. When they start to digest the insect, they used to close their tube with upper its leaf which function as lid. The insects or bugs are digested by an enzymes called Proteolase. This enzym create nutrient for them. The reason of picthers catch insects as their nutrient because of lacking of nutrient in soils in which they grow. The enzymes in the pitcher dissolve and digest their prey to aid in growth. So, do not fertilize them.

When the plant is still young, the tube is closed, as they are growing they start to open the tube. To attract the bugs or insects, Pitcher plant has beautiful reddish around the tube lips, and spread sweet smell to the insects. However Pitcher has variety of colors ranging from black, red, purple, green.