the ultimate (?) plant thread

[UncleChester]

So I have a plant question, how does someone with very minimal knowledge of plants and no knowledge about individual plant species choose the right plants for an enclosure?

Being cheap, this is the approach I took:

1.) Go to places that sell house plants.
2.) Take notes of anything that looks interesting, include name if available. Or take pictures. Or ask the people selling the plant what it is.
2.5) Use picture to try to find an ID, post here if you like
3.) Go home, google "name of plant + frog vivarium" or something along those lines to see if the plant is safe in a frog tank.
4.) If yes, find out it's growing conditions and go to step 5.) otherwise go back to 1.)
5.) If it will work in your vivarium, go back and buy plant and proceed to step 6.) otherwise go back to 1.)
6.) x number if plants is not enough. You want at least x+1 plants, so return to step 1.)

Eventually, if you keep reading posts in the vivarium section, you will start coveting Bill's tanks and if you know where he lives you will head over with pruners and a small shovel. Or you'll enter the world of online plant shopping which my wallet wants no part of.

[DFM]

Thank you brian, this is exactly the nudge in the right direction that I needed. As my wallet can barely keep up with the basic care of having 6 frogs and 2 tanks I think i will leave the online plant trading and shopping to the experienced ones for now.

[fish4all]

Remember when it comes to plants that a lot of them will produce more or can be propagated with ease. A couple plants can become 50 in as little as 6 months in the right conditions. I can't afford to buy a lot of plants. I started with 3 Peperomia and I now have 27 after giving away 9 of them. It is time to do some more trimming and start some more. It helps that I really like to grow plants and start new ones. There really aren't too many that I have found that are not fairly easy to propagate or they will produce more in a few months.

[deranged chipmunk]

I forgot, an excellent source of info is a garden center that has a terrarium section. They are getting more popular. Talk to the people who work there. They are a wealth of info. Try not to base your knowledge from folks at home depot or lowes. Not that they don't have any knowledge, just that they normally have no knowledge as it pertains to our hobby. There are some bright folk working the garden sections of those places, but tell them you want to put the plants in a tank with 90% humidity and you'll get funny looks....lol

[deranged chipmunk]

Being cheap, this is the approach I took:

1.) Go to places that sell house plants.
2.) Take notes of anything that looks interesting, include name if available. Or take pictures. Or ask the people selling the plant what it is.
2.5) Use picture to try to find an ID, post here if you like
3.) Go home, google "name of plant + frog vivarium" or something along those lines to see if the plant is safe in a frog tank.
4.) If yes, find out it's growing conditions and go to step 5.) otherwise go back to 1.)
5.) If it will work in your vivarium, go back and buy plant and proceed to step 6.) otherwise go back to 1.)
6.) x number if plants is not enough. You want at least x+1 plants, so return to step 1.)

Eventually, if you keep reading posts in the vivarium section, you will start coveting Bill's tanks and if you know where he lives you will head over with pruners and a small shovel. Or you'll enter the world of online plant shopping which my wallet wants no part of.

Like he'd be the first to come to my house with pruners....lol

A simple rule of thumb i always tell people is that "most" plants at big box stores that are labeled "tropical" will do well in a viv. I will admit, i went through a bit of trial and error. I still do. Great beginner plants are fittonias, peperomias, some dracaenas, bromeliads, calathea, and my favorites, ferns. You can never go wrong with a nice fern.