Author: Luca Parolin
Reading Time: 10 min
The carnivorous plant specialist featured in GARDENIA
In the April 2026 issue of Gardenia, one of Italy’s longest‑running and most respected magazines dedicated to plant culture, a full feature is devoted to our story.
Our CEO, Valerio Guidolin, was interviewed and retraced the path that began in 2009, when, still a biotechnology student at the University of Padua, he developed a passion for carnivorous plants and started his first collection.
In 2017, after graduating and combining his scientific training with his growing passion for carnivorous plants, he founded a micropropagation laboratory, supported by Padua’s business incubator, specializing in the in‑vitro multiplication of carnivorous species. At the beginning, the startup also worked with external growers, micropropagating tiny sterile explants of mother plants for large‑scale crops like hops and radicchio. It soon redirected its efforts exclusively toward carnivorous plants, a shift that would ultimately establish Diflora as a global leader in the field.
A major focus of Valerio’s research has been Dionaea muscipula, a monospecific species native to a narrow area between North and South Carolina. While its genetic variability is minimal in the wild, human selection has greatly increased it, as confirmed by molecular marker studies.
Several hybrids developed at Diflora have been officially registered as new cultivars in the ICPS (International Carnivorous Plant Society) Official Registry, which validates their names, distinctive genetic traceability, and clearly defined phenotypic traits.
Today, the company has grown into a team of six highly specialized professionals working on hybridization and in‑vitro cultivation. While Dionaea muscipula remains the original passion, the team is now expanding its work to additional genera including Drosera, Nepenthes, Pinguicula, Sarracenia, Cephalotus follicularis, and Darlingtonia californica.
In the lab, Giuseppe and Stefano, our breeding specialists, continuously develop new hybrids, delighting collectors across Europe, the United States, Canada, South America, South Africa, Korea, India, Japan, and beyond.
All Diflora plants are supplied with both phytosanitary certification and CITES documentation.
Looking ahead, our challenge is to further reduce production costs by optimizing cultivation and logistics, while expanding the use of clean energy and sustainable materials. We remain fully committed to our mission: breeding and selecting new plants that stand out for their unique and original traits, such as our ‘Black Mamba’, ‘Fuego Radioactivo’, and the latest addition, “Regina di Cuori”, to name just a few.
Let’s open the magazine
We are pleased to share here an excerpt from the magazine.
