I started growing CP after buying a venus flytrap for my daughters. While it was a lot of fun for them, it didn't last long, and I decided to find out what we had done wrong (other than little fingers constantly poking it). While doing a bit of research, I found the Los Angeles Carnivorous Plant Society, a truly great bunch of people with a lot of information on a wide assortment of plants. The International Carnivorous Plant Society is also a great source of information, and has a quarterly journal that is well-worth getting! You can also find a list of books I found particularly helpful in nurturing CP.
While many CP have a reputation for being a bit difficult to grow, this really isn't the case, although the Los Angeles area doesn't help things much. The problems I had to work through were:
1. The extremely hard water of the Los Angeles area. Many CP cannot stand long-term (or even medium-term for that matter) exposure to local tap water. These species need to be supplied with distilled (RO) or rain water instead.
2. Low levels of humidity. Los Angeles is after all essentially a pretty arid area outside of a few winter rains, and much of the year the air is very dry. Since most CP depend on at least a modestly moist environment, I've had to rely on terrariums to correct this for many species. A few do well on our patio with adequate water, and those I'll talk about later.
3. Little seasonality. Our local climate often does not cooperate with temperate CP needs. It either does not get cool enough at night, or is too warm in the winter. Of course the San Fernando Valley also gets frinking hot in the summer too! Many neat CP have a dormancy period, and while it is easy to ignore in sunny California, don't succumb to this!
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...
The best CP I've found for windowsill/patio conditions are Mexican Pinguicula (Butterworts) and hardier species of Nepenthes (lowland tropical pitcher plants).
Pinguicula
With Pings you need to respect their dormancy requirements, if any, and I water mine with distilled (RO) water rather than what comes from the tap. Many are easy to propagate, and they do a great job of keeping the gnat population under control.
The Butterwort species I've had good luck with are:
Pinguicula esseriana
Pinguicula gigantea
Pinguicula gypsicola
Pinguicula moranensis (many variants)
Assorted Pinguicula hybrids
These seem to enjoy my local conditions, and grow well. Again, the key to these plants is letting them have their dormancies and avoiding over-watering.
Nepenthes
The more rugged Nepenthes can be kept in bright/dappled shade with lots of well-drained tap water. Direct mid-day sun during the summer is just too much for them (me too). I hang most of mine, and have an automatic sprinkler that sprays them down twice daily in the summer. I do keep them on the patio year-round, but have lost some on occasion to unexpected winter frosts.
The nepenthes that have done well for me are:
Nepenthes ampullaria
Nepenthes bicalcarata
Nepenthes gracillis
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes truncata
Nepenthes ventricosa
assorted hybrids of the above
"Gubler's" hybrids
Nepenthes are fun and easy to propagate via cuttings. True highland species don't seem to do well for me -- it just gets too hot here.
Other Carnivorous Plants
Sarracenia: These pitcher plants seem allergic in the long-term to the tap water here. They are really neat plants, and I do keep a couple of Sarracenia pupurea at my work using distilled water.
Will have more on Orchids and California Native Plants real soon!