The green house flower child revived...

[Lady]

I almost literally grew up in a green house. My grandparents grew bedding plants commercially on their farm and I spent many summers working there. I also helped my mom with house plants and blubs, begging plants, herbs, vegetables and roses, as well as trees, shrubs and lawn care. For the last several years I have gone without so much as a lucky bamboo, until I planted my first Vivarium. Now my next project is a mini greenhouse for my desk. I plan on planting mostly frog safe plants that might be transplanted into a vivarium at some point with the exception of possibly a Venus Flytrap. I will be dealing with some plants I have dealt with before and some I am unfamiliar with. The idea is to learn about the plants for future use and just for enjoyment. When I have a picture of the container garden I will post it, but this will be a few weeks in the making even though I have the aquarium I am converting to the use already. Petco was having a dollar a gallon sale and a standard 10 gallon should give me enough room without overloading the shelf.

Wish me luck...

~Lady

[Tongue Flicker]

good luck lady!

[canadian frog]

good luck lady, im going to try my hand at orchids, have an orchid show coming to my city in a couple weeks, venders from as far away as Ecuador cant wait, will be buying some minis for my frog tanks, will post some pics when I get them.

[deranged chipmunk]

Enjoy! building terrariums is a blast! i just bought a 1 gallon latch top jar on sunday that i am going to build a terrarium in. and i'm in the process of designing an orchidarium.

[deranged chipmunk]

good luck lady, im going to try my hand at orchids, have an orchid show coming to my city in a couple weeks, venders from as far away as Ecuador cant wait, will be buying some minis for my frog tanks, will post some pics when I get them.

Ecuagenera will have some fine products at the show. they are who i got my last orchid order from and i plan on placing a large order with them in the spring.

[Lady]

I have the plants ordered along with ABG. I decided against the Venus flytrap because it needs conflict with the other plants I want. So the whole thing will be frog safe, though I do not plan to use it for frogs, just transplant sprouts from the plants to future Vivariums. I have a good flower growing lamp for it and it's coming together.

I'm glad I have a good place to share this experience with people who understand.

Love and blessings to you all.

[deranged chipmunk]

Curious why you think a VFT isn't frog safe? Or how it conflicts rather.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[Lady]

Curious why you think a VFT isn't frog safe? Or how it conflicts rather.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

It's not so much that a flytrap would not be frog safe as a frog hopping on it all the time would kill the Venus Flytrap. It also requires nutriant pour soil and a winter dormancy period. The other plants I want are more tropical and require nutrient rich soil. This means the Flytrap would be better of in a terrarium that met it's specific needs.

[deranged chipmunk]

Excellent answer. most people completely bypass the dormancy requirement. And I would have agreed with that up until last winter when I had a long discussion with the curator at my local botanical garden's fern room, where they house the carnivores. She explained to me that they used to pull them and place them in their cold room, but since she took over, they stopped and the VFT's started thriving. I can verify that thrive since I saw them with my own eyes, but haven't tested the concept yet. So I still recommend they get a dormancy, until I test it out, which will probably never happen since I find VFT to be a very droll plants compared to other carnivores I keep.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[Lady]

We had one or two flytraps when I was kid, but we never gave them a dormancy. I just figured that was why they all died, but it could have been the wrong soil, or maybe my sister tried to feed them processed meat when I was not looking.

[Lady]

My shipment from Josh's Frogs arraived today and here is the Fairy Garden Terrarium as it now is. There are a few tweaks I want to make, and admittedly the glass is pretty foggy but now you have a clue of my vision. It really adds to the positive energy in my home. Living things just do that.

My daughter saw it and I told her it was a Fairy Garden so she said, "Now all you need are some Fairies to put in it." Then I explained it's only called that because it is small, which only made her smile.

I love my girl. She is a good student in school and is on the student council. The first thing she asked when she found out we got a blue frog was "Is it poisonous?" You have to pay attention to know to ask that question when you are 11.

[Lady]

ok so I have made a couple of tweaks the major one being that the first light bulb was a 120 watt greenhouse buld. This actually started to scorch the plants within the first day. So I switched to a full spectrum compact florecent that gives of 90 watts of light for 26 watts of power. The glass coil is inside a diffuser so it's still very bright but not as harshly bright and far less hot. We put a thermometer sticker on the outside of the tank. With the old bulb it got so hot it would not register. Now it stays within registrable range, though it still stays above 80F when the light is on. the plants are really looking better after a day with the new bulb. I will have to take a picture tomorrow after the timer kicks the light back on.

[Lady]

Here is the new shot of the terrarium that I promised.