Q/A #117 - Pinguicula laueana Didn't Like the Hot Window

QUESTION:
Six or seven months ago, I bought 3 different butterworts from you: Pinguicula laueana, Aphrodite, and P. gigantea x laueana. The Aphrodite, and gigantea x laueana are doing great. But the laueana died recently. Shortly after receiving it, it went dormant and formed little succulent leaves. It never broke dormancy. Gradually, all of it’s little leaves dried up and died. I don’t know why. The laueana received the same growing conditions as the other two butterworts. They all got five hours of direct sunlight and several more hours of bright indirect light every day. I also watered from the top whenever the soil began to feel dry. I'm in Southern California.

I’m wondering if laueana can’t handle high temps. The window that I grow my pings in gets very hot, upper 90s to low 100s F. Could that be it?
( Submitted in June 2020.)

RESPONSE BY JEFF DALLAS:
From what you've described, it does sound like it may have been the heat if the window was very hot. Pinguicula species are also a bit more temperamental than hybrids, and some species are more temperamental than others. P. laueana happens to be one of those butterworts. A couple of summers ago we lost a had a pot full of another Pinguicula species that overheated in the sun and perished. But a pot of hybrid butterworts right next to it grew just fine. That's the nature of these plants. Species like very bright but mild temperatures. Hybrids are more forgiving.

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