fake or real trees

[edward82]

can anyone tell me were i can find ficus trees or bushes alive or fake dont matter...ive been looking and most fake ones on internet are like crazy 140 to 300 dollers.. i got a new reptibreeze cage and i need a nice tree in their not sure what to do ...if anyone has any info were i can find one reasonable priceing please let me know please thanks

 

[carol5208]

well I live in Florida and every home depot and lowes has the real ones. I don't know about where you live though.

 

[StreetMoggy]

Find a green house that has a gardening, and tropical section. They should have better quality than chain stores like walmart, or home depot.

 

[KingJulian]

We have a nice tall umbrella plant for our panther. In his 4 foot tall cage, it reaches the top. It was like 10 bucks from a local nursery, but I've seen them at Home Depot. They aren't the fullest plant, but we put vines in the cage to create lots of branches for climbing.

 

[Brandonmh]

I got a small one of each ficus, pothos and schefflera at walmart. Now they are pretty small, since I was going to plant all in one pot then decided against it. I was going to put pothos and schefflera together and train the pothos to climb the branches in the cage but would take waaay too long. Growing all three now. Schefflera is in the reptibreeze and ficus and pothos are downstairs hanging from hooks in windows. They were like $3 each, but small. A local greenhouse had some about a foot tall, for around $7 ish to $20 for a hawaiian schefflera, I think they had bigger ones as well.

 

[pssh]

I buy mine from plant nurseries or home depot. I can get a really full, bushy 3-4 foot tall umbrella plants or ficus for less than $20 or some nice bushy/vine-y pothos for less than $10. Definitely check out home improvement stores and nurseries.

 

[edward82]

ok so im guessing home depot would be the best choice from what i recieved i live in indiana ..we have home depots but as far as a nersery im not sure ...thank you all for the help...thanks

 

[Olimpia]

Find a green house that has a gardening, and tropical section. They should have better quality than chain stores like walmart, or home depot.

Ditto, find yourself a local nursery/green house. They usually have better, bigger, and healthier plants than Home Depot or Lowe's and for a more reasonable price.

 

[Brandonmh]

Do you all change your potting soil regularly for live plants? I read in a book, well that one at least, the author (Connie Dorval) suggested fake since the soil can harbor bacterial growth if not changed periodically. The other books I read from advanced vivarium systems said live plants.

 

[Olimpia]

Personally, I will replant or add a thick layer of organic soil to my plants so the chameleons can't come into contact with those perlite balls or any sticks of fertilizer the nursery might add into the soil. But after that the only thing I might do is keep topping off the soil every few months, since it gets compacted, some drains out of the bottom over time, and I use it as a refresher for the plant. Since I don't fertilize the plants in my cages it's a way to renew their food supply.

If you never let your cage dry out then yes, your soil will start to get disgusting and the plants will start to die. That's why you want to not mist so much that your cage is sopping wet all the time without a chance to dry out (this will be bad for the chameleon as well, not just the plant). If you do allow everything to dry between misting sessions you shouldn't have a problem with mold, fungi, or gnats.

 

[absolutbill]

If you have trouble finding them live, I just picked up a 6' fake ficus from Michael's (craft store). It was on sale so I got it for $30. I prefer live trees/plants for my enclosures, but this is for a part-time free range, and it'll be moved around so I didn't want to worry about it losing leaves, or remembering to water it, etc.

 

[Jessilynn]

Go to LLL reptile on line and they have 6 inch potted live ficus for $9.99

 

[ChamMan15]

little bit of both try using branches from your yard other threads will tell you how to prepare them