I went plant shopping

[hallenhe]

My first stop was the Greater Lansing Orchid Show, held every year the last weekend of February. I bought three orchids, two of which I put in the pygmy terrarium, which orchids seem to love. The tall, orange flowering entity is one of the new ones, and there's a low-lying one with tiny yellow-orange flowers in the foreground. Other orchids, from previous years' shows, may also be seen.

King of the Cork Bark, Garbanzo surveys his territory:

I selfishly bought one plant that isn't for chameleons; this one is hanging in the front window (I took it down for the photo).

Flush in the spirit of plant buying, I then went to the local big nursery, Van Atta's, where I bought rather a nice Ficus and Schefflera, each in the five foot range. If you look closely, you may just see Thaxter hiding in the Ficus.

That's enough plants for this week.

 

[chams1]

Shame on you for purchasing anything just for yourself. I love the orchids! There was an orchid show here a couple of weeks ago the next door over from our reptile show so naturally, I didn't get to go.

I like the bigger ones. As any true cham person knows, a home is not a home without a jungle in it.

 

[Vegas Chad]

That is one heck of a umbrella plant!

 

[justjumpit621]

Is that white substance insecticide? You did wash the plants thoroughly before putting them with your chams right?

 

[Texas Panther Man]

White subatance looks like dust or water spots not insectizide. I barely found Thaxter he looks just like a big leaf on the ficus. The orchids are beutiful. Do they hold up well in the pygmy enclosures? Also do you use any plant light along w/uvb bulb to keep them growing? I love orchids just not sure that i can keep them alive.

 

[boj3434]

Great looking plants and that is one nice umbrella plant.

 

[hallenhe]

Is that white substance insecticide? You did wash the plants thoroughly before putting them with your chams right?

White substance is hard water; plants have been washed.

 

[ColorCham427]

I LOVE UMBRELLA PLANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just picked up a couple orchids, although they're going to be for my Orchid mantids.

 

[hallenhe]

The orchids are beutiful. Do they hold up well in the pygmy enclosures? Also do you use any plant light along w/uvb bulb to keep them growing? I love orchids just not sure that i can keep them alive.

I've found the orchids to hold up very well in the pygmy enclosures; the older ones have been in there since I set the tank up, in January of 2009, and are growing and thriving. I do not use any light beyond the Reptisun 5.0, which I found to be a little much for the ferns I had also tried to grow in there. The combination of the light and moisture seems to work very well for them, and the pygmies have done them no damage.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Do they do ok with just the misting or do you water them also? I'm just worried about spending 20 bux and killing one. lol

 

[atsutane]

i am an orchid expert! at least id like to think so with phal orchids... i have 6 orchids right now and they are all starting to flower... pix shortly...


as for watering depends on the soil and what they are doing... when flowering they need more water so keep that in mind

when planted in a bark or bark like soil you can get away with light to moderate watering daily... good rule of thumb is to water when they are dry and bark will dry out faster than other soils

when in spagh moss you can water lightly to moderately every 3 days... i keep my orchids much like i keep my cham enclosure, they have a plant blub on them and get misted every day in the morning and then whenever i feel like it when im over looking at my cham or i see the spagh is dry


you want the moss to be slightly damp... not wet, and if the top of the soil is drying out, give it all a good misting and put it in a window that has moderate indirect light for best results from what i see... the more sun in the winter the better... and all orchids love humidity though most (especially phals) can tolerate lower humidity