WHO IS NAUGHTY NICK?
Hi!
I'm Nick, the guy who grows carnivorous plants you see on this page.
This is the part where I say I've loved carnivorous plants since I was a young lad, and that I have grown them my whole life, and so on. But that simply isn't true. I was never really into plants as a kid, and helping out in the garden was always more of a chore than a genuine interest. I suppose that when you grow up in Malaysia i.e. one of the most biodiverse countries on the planet, you take these plants for granted.
It was only when I came to Edmonton that I started appreciating plants for more than their practical aspects. Working at the Muttart Conservatory and providing tours to fellow Edmontonians really put the ecological importance of plants into perspective for me, and what eventually inspired me to start keeping houseplants at home.
My interest in carnivorous plants in particular started from my absolute failure to keep a Venus fly trap alive. This was even after hours of research into keeping the thing alive. Turns out, not everything you read on the Internet is accurate, including Venus fly trap care. Even then, the advice that was accurate was not very detailed. How bright is "direct sunlight?" How tall is a tall pot? I wanted to know more.
Of course, that meant buying another carnivorous plant, which meant more failure and more experimentation. And from there, it was a combination of me being stubborn and thriving on the thrill of discovery that led me to owning as large a collection as I do today.
I've probably lost more carnivorous plants than most people have owned, to an unusual and prolonged variety of tortures. Over time, however, I started to see success. My plants started to look less like the ones you see on help forums and more like the ones I saw on Instagram. And eventually, I became confident enough in my growing ability to start selling some of them.
From this, I can distill a word of advice to newer members of the hobby, if you will indulge me. I can promise you that if I, someone with no formal horticultural experience who not too long ago was murdering spider plants with ignorant glee, can grow the plants you see on this website, you most definitely can as well. You can do it!