Cultivation Sarracenia are considered easy to grow and are widely propagated and cultivated by gardeners and carnivorous plant enthusiasts. Several hybrids between the very hardy S. purpurea and showy varieties like S. leucophylla are becoming common in garden centres in North America and Europe. Sarracenia require constantly moist-wet, nutrient free acidic soil. This is most often achieved with a potting mix consisting of peat moss mixed with sand or perlite. As their roots are sensitive to nutrients and minerals, only pure water, such as distilled, rain, or RO water, can be used to water them. Sarracenia prefer sunny conditions during their growing season but require a dormancy period, with decreased light and temperatures, of a few months in the winter. Propagation A 2-year-old S. alata seedling, with 1st yr. (small) and 2nd yr. (larger) pitchersSarracenia do not self-pollinate and therefore require hand pollination or access to natural pollinators such as bees. Sarracenia pollen remains potent for several weeks when refrigerated, and so is stored by cultivators and used to pollinate later-flowering species. Given that all Sarracenia hybrids are fertile and will hybridize further, this characteristic allows cultivators to produce a limitless number of variants through hybridization. A Sarracenia rhizome with several growing points, ready for divisionThe copious seeds produced store well if kept dry. In climates or seasons that cannot provide the cold, damp period of stratification required by the seeds for germination, growers mimic this condition by placing the seeds in a refrigerator for 4-8 weeks. The seeds are sown on the surface of their substrate and germinate when transferred to warmer, bright conditions. Sarracenia seedlings all look alike for the first two or three years; the plants reach maturity after four or five years. Mature Sarracenia are commonly propagated by division. Their rhizomes extend and produce new crowns of pitchers over the course of a few growing seasons, and cultivators divide and separate the rhizomes during the plant's winter dormancy or early in the growing season. This technique is also used to separate sections of rhizomes which have no pitchers: when re-potted, the section usually generates a new crown of pitchers. A further technique is employed to encourage new crowns to appear which does not involve division of the rhizome: small notches up to 5 mm deep are cut into the top of the rhizome, whereupon a new crown frequently develops at the site of the notch.