Reptile & Amphibian Forums

yesterday we drove around and hit all th home depots and walmarts locally looking for nice full ficus around 24" tall. we found NOTHING!! today i was coming home from a job interview and past a nursery. i turned around to take a look. i was greeted at the front desk by a nice lady that asked if i was buying wholesale or "just for yourself". i told her i was looking for ficus plants for chameleons.she said then add 10% to the price marked. after some friendly talk she sent me back to their "shaded plant" area. i looked around and right away i found 2 very nice veragated ficus. of course the next thing i look at is the price, which was $12 for each! i picked up those 2. and contnued on. i walked around making my way to the middle of the area and i find an area of veragated and green leaf ficus probably 100ft long and wide.and all marked $12!! AND all nice, leafy full and between 16"-36" tall. i picked up 6 more! i had to stop at 8 plants cause i had my wife's car and not my truck! tomarrow i'm going back to pick up a 6' ficus tree for $40!

oh yeah and i got the job too!

dennis

LOL
I can see your wife now "Well, that's great dear, but where are we gonna put all the d@mn plants? The chameleon and crix are taking up all the room we had left!" lol jk Amazing how it starts with one little lizard, and then slowly takes over the entire house, isn't it? It's fun though

i was wondering if $12 is good price from where you are?

Our homedepot sells the ficus bushes for $8 but only in the spring and early summer so i would check places around that time.

chams like the buches becuase they can climb on the many branches to to the bottom and not have just the one stem/trunk

the ficus i have seen in the past at the home depost out here(southern california)are $12 for the small 12" ones and $25 for one that is 16-18" tall and not too leafy.

dennis

I live in San Diego and there's plenty of good wholesale nurseries around. If you go to these, you can find some REALLY good deals on trees for your chameleon. Just to name a couple, I've found some good deals at Evergreen Nursery and way down in the south bay, El Sembrador has some good deals on ficus (Two ficus trees planted in one 2 gallon pot, about 16" tall for $10. Split the trees and you have 2 ficus for $10!).
I've also found some good prices on plants at the local swap meets. Kobey's has some really good quality stuff, and cheap prices!
Don't forget that if you go this route, you have to repot your trees, make them more cham friendly. Plus, assume that pesticides were used on your tree, so you may want to wipe down each leaf with a damp cloth.
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

The ones at home depot for $8 are much smaller than those described, they are in a ten inch pot and probably only 1.5-2 feet tall, so $12 for a larger ficus is a great price, I wish I could get a bigger ficus fo that price!

Ouch! The plant don't seem like much, but they sure do add up. The variegated ficus is my favorite, another good ficus is the Midnight ficus, nice thick dark leafs and seems to be more resistant to dropping its leafs.
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John W. Lucas

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Are ficus the best for Chameleons? I heard they can cause problems with the sap?

There is a very small chance of that happening, but the chameleon would have to break a branch and then rub its eye on it. Overall they are very safe, the chance of anything bad happeneing is very small.