I need help picking real plants

[jarrodmeyer]

I have the safe plant list, and have gone through home depot, lowes, and walmart looking for the plants on the list. However, I have only found african violet, and maidenhair fern. Everyone seems to have ficus trees in their setups, but ficus' are not on the list. I have a Jackson, so i looked up native plants to the highland areas where they are from, but those plants are not available as far as I have seen. The list has Dracaena plants on it. I have seen many of these plants, but they all look different, and I don't want to get a wrong one. It sucks that there aren't pictures on the list, it would be easier. Can someone please also tell me why bonsai trees aren't on the list? The money plant in on it, but not the money tree? why not? what makes it bad? Its from a similar climate and would thrive in a humid terrarium.

 

[qdude46]

Well bonsai isn't an actual plant , it means potted tree or plant in Japanese so I can be a variety of trees but try umbrella trees/plant they should have them somewhere and they look tropical, are very hardy, and can be sturdy I believe they sometimes label th as schefflera plant bush or tree but look up a picture to decide and pothos they sell almost everywhere in pots or for indoor decoration and they almost never die but I hope this helps

 

[jarrodmeyer]

I have seen the umbrella tree now that i google it. Walmart has great ones, they are miss labeled. thanks for the help.

 

[Action Jackson]

Schefflera and ficus trees are great for chameleon cages because of their branches. With a plant bulb ( I use a 6500k flourescent) they grow nicely. I don't get why people use Dracaena and bromilliads in their cage when the chameleon can't really climb on them very well.

 

[tzap13]

you have to!

You have to find a local nursery in your area and you will be like I was yesterday, a kid in a candy store. Not only will they likely have everything you can want and more, they are more knowledgeable than your typical hardware store associate, and you will be supporting local business / economy.

Also, the one I went to was 100% organic no pesticides, as well as having the coolest tiki totems 8)

 

[Hoj]

Im not really good with plants at all but I have good results with pothos and umbrella trees, they are both safe, cheap, easy to care for, and readliy available at most hardware stores and nurseries.

 

[mesh]

safe plants website

http://www.flchams.com/safe_plant_list.asp

or
weeping fig - ficus benjamina
creeping fig - ficus primila
parasol plant - hibiscus
umbrella plant - schefflera arboricolor
devils ivy - pothos

 

[Montium]

With the high water needs of chams you will want to re-pot anything you buy, in most cases. You will need a fast draining media and good light. Either that or buy several plants that you can rotate in and out of the cage to keep them alive. I find the fast draining media easier to deal with after the initial re-potting.

 

[javsto]

I only use umbrella plants, safe to eat like my vieled sometimes does, easy to take care of and usually cost less than $15 during the season, $5 off season if you can find one. Some times they are all green or green with yellow plants and can usually find them in perfect size for an 18x18x36" cage.

 

[NYConstrictors]

We have a ficus in our cage right now(no Cham tho), and it seems to grow great. We only had it for about a week but I swear it grew 3 inches in that time. I'm usually bad with plants so I am happy the ficus is growing.