I do NOT love these babies (yet?)

We've got lots of babies this spring... baby plants, that is. I've got a new windowsill herb garden, Alfie has a couple of tomato plants out back, and the kids have pansies, lavender, tomatoes, wildflowers and herbs. Oh, and these little darlings.


We got these Venus flytrap seedlings at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show about 6 weeks ago. I thought they were disgusting. The kids fell in love.

At the time, they were just tiny shoots, like a small leaf poking out of the ground. I thought they'd die for sure. For the first 3 weeks we didn't even water them with distilled water like we were supposed to (apparently they are very sensitive to the chlorine and other minerals in regular tap water). I kept "forgetting" to buy the water. But in spite of it all, they survived, and continue to thrive.

I have to admit, I now find them quite fascinating. They're not quite big enough to swallow flies yet, but their traps are growing quite nicely, and you can already see the little hairs on them. And who would have guessed that they have heart-shaped leaves?

Now they get lots of sunshine, water (yes, distilled water at last) and love. And if they do end up swallowing up all the flies and mosquitoes around the house, even I will fall in love with them.

For more images of love, click here.