Although not the most attractive flowers in the world, venus flytraps can produce a mass of lovely white flowers in the summer which can produce hundreds of seeds when pollinated. Flytraps have long flowers stalks so that they do not trap pollinators and if outside will be pollinated by bees and hoverflies naturally, many other carnivorous plants also do this!
It is often perceived that if you let a flytrap flower then it will die. This is not true. The venus flytrap puts a lot of energy into producing flowers and therefore can slow the growth on your plant during this time, a strong and healthy flytrap won't have any problems being left to flower if you would like to collect seeds. A weakened flytrap however can die from flowering as it will use up it's last bit of energy in order to produce the flower stalk in a last attempt to reproduce. If your plant is healthy and you would like to get your own seed or even just see them flower then you can let them flower.
Pollinating flytrap flowers is super easy and so is growing them from seed, so it is easy to build up a nice collection of Venus flytraps. It is also important to note that any flytraps grown from seed will be classed as typicals, this includes seeds from cultivars and cultivar hybrids even if the seedlings produce unique traits they should still be referred to as typicals. Cultivars cannot produce more cultivars from seed, to maintain a cultivars traits you need to use asexual reproduction such as divisions, leaf pullings or flower stalk cuttings.
Pollinating process:
Like all flowers you aim is to get the pollen from one flower onto the stigma of another. You will find that flytraps show signs when they are ready to be pollinated as the stigma in the center of the plant will become fussy ready for you to place the pollen onto. Before the stigma is ready a flower will have anthers with pollen on ready to harvest, this is to prevent the same flower being pollinated with it's own pollen.
(Left) Flowers with anthers covered in pollen ready to harvest (Notice how the stigma is barely visible and not fuzzy. (Right) Fuzzy stigma, the flower is ready to pollinate (Note how the anthers have dropped and there is no pollen).
Using a cocktail stick, cotton bud, thin paintbrush or similar, scoop up some of the pollen from one of the flowers and then transfer it to the stigma of another flower with a ready stigma (it will be fuzzy as shown below).
(Left) Collecting pollen from flowers. (Right) Transferring pollen to the stigma of another flower
Once you have pollinated the flowers, leave the flower to finish and close up. Eventually a cluster of pods will form, most of the time you can tell whether you are successful as the pod will be large and firm. However it is always best to wait until they go black to see whether you have any seeds as even smaller pods can have seeds in.
Make sure to wait until the pods go black and start to crack before harvesting the seeds as harvesting the seeds too early will make them unviable. When the seeds are visible after the pod has cracked then they are ready to harvest.
(Left to right) The flowers have finished and the buds remain. Seed pods becoming black and starting to crack showing the seeds inside. Seeds bursting from the pod, ready to harvest.
Once you have harvested your seeds you can sow them straight away, they do not require stratification and are super easy to sow ,check out my blog on how to sow venus flytrap seeds here
Venus flytraps are great plants for either a outside bog garden/container or in an unheated greenhouse. When planted in a cluster or when there is several plants in a pot together they make a beautiful mass of flowers. See below my outdoor bog barrel with a cluster of flowering flytraps and my 2 litre pot in my greenhouse of typically flytraps, formally known as my 'bunny bogs', with several flowering plants.
(Above) My bog barrel with my cluster of flytraps
(Above) My 'bunny bog' typical flytraps in my unheated greenhouse