Sundews (Drosera) are carnivorous plants covered in fine tentacles, each tipped with a glistening drop of sticky “dew” that traps and slowly digests small insects. Unlike the Venus flytrap, which snaps shut, or a pitcher plant, which drowns prey in a fluid-filled tube, a sundew’s leaves curl slowly around trapped insects over hours. The core care rules, though, are shared across all three: pure water only, poor soil, and no fertilizer.

Water

This is the single most important rule for any sundew, and it’s non-negotiable. Use only distilled water, reverse osmosis (RO) water, or collected rainwater — never tap water. Sundews evolved in nutrient-poor bogs and have no tolerance for the dissolved minerals and salts in most tap water, which build up in the soil and kill the roots over time, often showing up as blackened leaf tips or a general decline that’s easy to mistake for something else. See best water for houseplants and how long can you store rainwater for plants if you need to build up a reliable water source.

Keep the soil constantly moist to wet — sundews are bog plants and don’t want to dry out between waterings the way a typical houseplant does. The standard method is tray watering: sit the pot in a shallow tray with a half-inch to an inch of pure water at all times, and let the soil wick moisture up from below.

Light

Sundews need very bright light — full, direct sun for at least several hours a day is ideal outdoors or in a bright greenhouse-style setup, and a strong grow light positioned close to the foliage indoors. Light intensity directly drives how much dew the plant produces; a sundew kept too dim will look sparse and dry rather than glistening, and will struggle to catch or digest prey.

Soil and pot

Use a nutrient-poor, moisture-retentive mix — a standard blend is roughly equal parts peat moss (or sphagnum peat) and coarse sand or perlite. Never use regular potting soil or add fertilizer to the mix; the minerals and nutrients in ordinary soil are toxic to carnivorous plant roots, which are adapted to extract nutrients from prey rather than soil. Plastic pots work better than terracotta here since they don’t wick water away as quickly, which matters for keeping the constantly-moist conditions this plant needs.

Feeding

Sundews catch their own food if kept outdoors or near an open window where insects can reach them, and for most growers that’s enough. Indoors with no insect access, you can feed occasional prey by hand — freeze-dried bloodworms rehydrated with pure water, or small live insects, dropped onto a leaf’s dew. Feed sparingly, no more than once every week or two per leaf; overfeeding can cause a leaf to blacken and die. Never feed a sundew standard plant fertilizer — its roots and leaves aren’t built to process it, and it will damage or kill the plant rather than help it grow.

Humidity

Most sundew species tolerate normal room humidity reasonably well, especially compared to more demanding carnivorous plants, though a terrarium or a humid windowsill setup will produce noticeably glossier, more productive dew. See how to build a terrarium if you want to set up an enclosed, humid environment.

Toxicity

Sundews are not considered toxic to cats, dogs, or people. The sticky dew is harmless if touched or even tasted, though it’s not something pets typically bother with.

Common problems

Dry, crispy leaves with little or no dew usually mean too little humidity or light, or a soil mix that’s been allowed to dry out — check the water tray first.

Blackened or dying leaves after feeding point to overfeeding a single leaf, or feeding a prey item too large for it to process. Older leaves also naturally blacken and die back as the plant produces new growth; this is normal as long as new leaves are forming at the center.

Stunted or reddish, stressed-looking growth despite correct watering is a common sign of tap water use — check your water source and flush the soil with pure water if you’ve recently switched.

No dew at all on an otherwise healthy-looking plant almost always traces back to insufficient light. Moving it somewhere brighter is usually enough to bring the dew back within a couple of weeks.