cheap/easy live plants!?

[theelectraco]

Tomorrow Im going to Home Depot to get a few things was going to browse their plants to see what they have that I can add to my torts cage. I really have no clue what they sell, so far I was thinking spider plants and dandelion seeds to grow.. How much are spider plants usually? I.wanted a few.. any other common, hardy, cheap plants that anyone.recommends? I am leaning away from any flowers as they will be easily trampled and dont seem very hardy. Obviously they need to be tortoise safe but I am not necessarily looking for ones that are snack favorites among torts.

 

[wellington]

I just got some from Home Depot. A pothos plant, pony tail, aloe Vera. Bostern fern is another they usually carry. They had some ferns, but didn't say what kind, so I didn't chance it. They sometimes will have wondering Jew which is safe and yes, the spider, which my store also didn't have.

 

[theelectraco]

How much are they (about)?

 

[Edna]

I'm a big fan of the pony tail palms they sell. Those things are tough and stand up well to the hard use my torts give them.

 

[theelectraco]

My torts habitat is only 13 inches tall. Ill have to look them up...what do they run?

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Nvm too tall anyways

 

[wellington]

I don't think any of them were over 15.00. The pony tail is small. I think they do get big ones in but the one I bought isn't that big.

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BTW, the pony tail came in a ceramic pot with the little stones glue? on top. I took it out of the pot and knocked all the stones off and repotted it in the pot. You could just plant it in your substrate and eliminate the height of the pot.

 

[theelectraco]

Thanks!

 

[saberfire06]

I'm glad someone started a discussion on this topic because I was able to do the same thing tomorrow, head to homedepot to look for some tort friendly plants!

Many thanks to Wellington for the good list!

 

[Madkins007]

I generally got a bunch of the cheapo stuff they have- the $4 and under small stuff. Repot it into slightly larger tough pots with a good growth mix, and bury it in the cypress. To help maximize leaf cover and still allow a lot of movement space, I also hung leafy stuff from the walls of the habitat (just using stiff wire to wrap around the pot, then hook onto the tops of the walls.)

 

[Tortoise]

Spider plants should be really inexpensive and here we get the plain and varigated types.
My torts have them in enclosures and if they get trampled (red foots do occasionally seem to beat them up) I take plant away to recover. I also plant the new off shoots that the plant produces so we have spares.I would ask around friends/family for a baby offshoot or a few and pin them into soil with a opened out paper clip like a u shape wire to hold baby off -shoot down until it roots.
They are pretty tough once you get them going.

I got a flowering maple once and the torts loved to eat blooms its latin name is abutilon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abutilon

 

[Edna]

Spider plants should be really inexpensive and here we get the plain and varigated types.
My torts have them in enclosures and if they get trampled (red foots do occasionally seem to beat them up) I take plant away to recover. I also plant the new off shoots that the plant produces so we have spares.I would ask around friends/family for a baby offshoot or a few and pin them into soil with a opened out paper clip like a u shape wire to hold baby off -shoot down until it roots.
They are pretty tough once you get them going.

I got a flowering maple once and the torts loved to eat blooms its latin name is abutilon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abutilon

I can't remember the last time I saw a spider plant for sale at a retail store. They sometimes show up at the library book sale fundraiser, but that's not a reliable source.

 

[TortyTom]

Pony tail palms can get big but they are easy to keep small. I "bonsai" all mine to keep them small. Just keep the roots cut back and it won't grow any larger.

 

[melfannin]

We got a few aloe plants from Home Depot a little while back for our Russian enclosure. They were on sale for $1.50 each!! I don't know how much they are normally though lol. The torts loved them though.

 

[Mich]

I love spider plants because they reproduce quickly giving me a constant supply of new baby plants. A large potted one at Home Depot (loaded with little baby plants ready to clip off and pot) was only $10. I also bought violets, potted roses, an aloe plant, a jade plant and some hens-and-chickens. They were all small little 5" pots and I don't think they cost me more then $1.99 each! I also bought a 2' rubber tree for $14 at a nursery which isn't bad considering where it came from. I've seen potted Potho at Home Depot (larger hanging basked type ones) for $10 as well.

 

[decoman11]

I got my plants at home depot and found it hard because most of the plants were labeled foliage so I would not know what plants they were so I did not know if they were poisonous or not I returned three of them, and spider plants are fairly large and are $13.95 at my home depot.

 

[Mich]

I agree Home Depot is horrible at labeling plants and no one working there knows what any of them are either! They all just say "tropical" .. I scoured safe plant lists and went armed with a list of names and pics of ones I knew were safe but in the end I went with easily idenitifed ones like violets, aloe, jade, spider plants etc .. nothing wrong with those! My tort doesn't touch a single one, not even a small potted rose but I hear some are prone to chomping and stomping LOL Off of one large spider plant I already have 6 more growing in pots so they are cheap and replenish themselves! Double win! And if you run out of floor space in your enclosure spiders are great for putting in hanging baskets or pots on the side of the enclosure and have them dangle in

 

[kathyth]

I plant small containers outside and rotate them and continuously change or add plants.
Small rose plants, pansies, sedum, aloe, and those already listed
And ornamental strawberry plants... They are small