Book Review: Gardening with Carnivores

Gardening with Carnivores

Gardening with Carnivores: Sarracenia Pitcher Plants in Cultivation & in the Wild by Nick Romanowski is an interesting little book from 2002. Mr. Romanowski is (or was) involved in the Australian cut-flower market and wrote this book to be largely targeted towards those interested in supplying Sarracenia to the Australian or United States cut-flower or sales market. It is a must-have for someone interested in entering that market, but a curiosity for the rest of us.

The first half the book describes species and details how to create a home bog-garden. The second half is more geared towards explaining what a nurseryman looks for in plants for sale and the cut-flower market. It's an interesting read, but not really useful for the home-grower. Other books, such as The Savage Garden do a good job to detailing species and how to create a home bog-garden.

If you want to know what makes a good, well-selling plant, it turns out that pitchers that stay alive for a long-time, are colorful or otherwise "showy" like flowers, and fast growth are all desirable characteristics. Hence, the hybrids that turn up at local garden centers around the world. In terms of cut-flowers, it was interesting to learn that the average price for the U.S. market in 2002 was $1 a pitcher on the wholesale market.

Overall, an interesting book, but not a must read. I would recommend purchasing if you are interesting in selling Sarracenia or growing Sarracenia for sale.