Creating an Arboreal Snake Habitat a.k.a. Python Den!

Never a dull moment around the ole museum!
Last week we donated our very shy Cuban Knight Anole (pictured below) to Moody Gardens, in hopes that it is a male and will mate with Moody's female Anoles.
He was not thrilled by the move and decided to give me a little something to remember him by (a lovely little scar on my thumb).
Today I began cleaning out his exhibit and preparing it for it's new inhabitants, two juvenile green tree pythons. (unfortunately I hear they're a bit bitey as well) However, I don't intend to handle them much.

So what goes into building a python den?
Well these pythons are arboreal, meaning they spend the majority of their lives coiled up on branches in the trees, so I first need to make sure I have plenty of branches for them to coil up on.
(branches: check)
Now it's time to spruce it up a bit! You could use fake plants, but as a horticulturist that goes against everything I stand for.
Side note: When choosing plants for a habitat like this one the thicker the leaf the better. These plants will get very little direct sun light and may get a little stressed so The thicker the leaf the long it will take those stresses to show up. As an ex-bromeliad grower, bromeliads are a personal favorite of mine, but other plants labeled as low light or houseplants will work as well!
(plants: check)

This is as far as I have gotten today, I will update tomorrow with proper lighting, temp., and diet requirements as I get them installed.

Happy Herpatology?

The Butterflies Are Back in Town!

I know we didn't get much rain, but the little bit of rain we got a couple of weeks ago seems to have helped increase the number of butterflies in my garden!

If you hadn't noticed Texas butterfly populations have really been suffering this year; mostly because of the drought. But after or recent couple of inches of rain I have been seeing a steady increase in winged traffic in my garden! In fact, I currently have more monarch and pipevine swallowtail caterpillars than I know what to do with. The caterpillars have effectively finished off my Asclepia and my Aristilochia, but luckily for the caterpillars I work at a butterfly center and have access to more food for them.

All I can say is that it has been a hot, dry, and lonely summer in my garden and it's good to have (welcome) visitors once again!

Happy Butterfly Gardening!

Me, A Bee Keeper?

This is me tending to the bees at the Cockrell Butterfly Center

If you would have told me two years ago that I'd be an amateur bee keeper, and loving it, I would have called you crazy. However, as the horticulturist for the Cockrell Butterfly Center I got a chance to tend to the observation hive in the center, and never the one to pass up a new experience I accepted the challenge. 

Even in full bee keeper attire (hat, veil, suit, and gloves) I was considerably nervous the first time I helped to open the hive. It needed to be opened to clean off the excess comb that the bees had started to build on to the observational plexi glass.  I knew that the bees could not sting me through the suit, but still a swarm of anything is something to be respected, especially a swarm of "stinging things" (or so I thought of them then). 

After the initial nervousness from the sound of thousands of buzzing wings wore off I began to watch them more closely, and observe their behavior, individually and as a group, and I gained a new found admiration for these "industrious little creature" (as I see them now).  

Since that first encounter I have opened the hive several times, corralled two swarming colonies, and even tied for third place in a Houston area honey competition; and every time I open the hive I discover a  fascinating new fact about them. 

Zac's Fascinating Facts About The Honey Bee (COMING SOON)  


Happy Gardening! and Bee Keeping!

Quick And Easy Way to Green Up Your Fence / Wall

Do you have an unsightly wall or fence that detracts from the overall beauty of your yard or do you just want to grow herbs on your cramped apartment balcony?

If so this cheap and easy hanging planter may be the perfect fix. 

Pictured above is my first attempt at a wall planter and I'm pleased to say it ended up being a lot easier than I had originally anticipated. 

Supplies needed to build a wall planter:

• Landscaping Fabric / Weed Barrier (cut a piece twice as long as the wall you need covered)
• Stakes / Bamboo 
• Curtain Grommets (added in hindsight as an easier way to hang the planter)
• Sewing Machine
• Rod
• Rope or 2 Large Hooks (what ever you prefer to hang up the planter)

First, cut a piece of weed barrier, make it twice as long as the desire length of the finished planter.  Then start from the bottom of the fabric and begin folding the fabric up to make the pockets. Each time you fold to make a new pocket tuck in a thin piece of bamboo to add support for that pocket. Add fabric or safety pins as you go so the planter will keep it's shape until you can start sewing it. 

Now you're ready to take it to the sewing machine. Start by sewing down the sides and securing the bamboo stakes. (I also added a few vertical stitches to break the planter up into a total of 12 pockets) 

When you have it sewn up to your liking I suggest adding as many as 4-6 large curtain grommets along the top of the planter to support the weight once the soil and plants are added. 

Run a rod through the grommets and secure your planter on the desired fence or wall with hooks or rope. 

Now that you have your fabric planter hanging it is time to add your soil to the pockets ( This is the point where I held my breath hoping my stitching would hold).

And finally the fun part, getting to add your plants. I use mine for a collection of herbs and small vegetables, but in a shadier area it would be a great planter for ivy or other trailing or flowering plants. In fact, the options are limitless, for this cheap and functional little fabric planter. 

Happy Gardening!  

Molting Tarantula

I noticed when I got home yesterday that our Chilean Rose Hair tarantula, Athena, was lying upside down in a hammock like web she has made over the last couple of days.  I went to take a closer look and this is what I saw.

I walked in just as she was finishing molting. Spiders molt because like all other arthropods, they must shed their old smaller skin in order to get larger. Unlike humans skin the tarantulas exoskeleton can't just stretch as they get bigger they have to undergo ecdysis, or molt. 

If you look closely you can make out her fangs!

Once she was completely finished  I took the molt out of the cage and this is what it looks like:

Although this has little to do with gardening, it has plenty to do with nature, and was too amazing to not share. 

Happy Gardening!

Sap Feeding Butterflies

As I strolled down a path at the edge of the woods my eye was caught several times by the fluttering of many little camouflaged wings at the base of some of the big mulberry trees. When I finally went into the woods for a closer look I notice that each of the trees had large scars exuding sap that stained the trunk of the tree brown, and swarming around these scars were 40-50 butterflies at each tree.

At first glance I knew the butterflies to be some sort of emperor, but later identified them as Tawny Emperors (Asterocampa clyton).  Tawny Emperors belong to the family Nymphalidae, also known as brush-footed butterflies because most species in this family have a small or reduced pair of front legs. They are average sized butterflies with the upper side of their wings being brightly colored and the underside having a very dull color to help them blend in to the side of a tree as they are drinking it's sap.

Yes, sap! Unlike our traditional image of butterflies flying from flower to flower to get their diet of sugary nectar, these along with countless other species of butterfly prefer plant sap, and the fouler smelling carrion, and dung. In fact these butterflies will very rarely if ever go to a flower to drink nectar.

If you have a hackberry tree in or near your yard, I'm sure you have seen these little guys before, because hackberry is the sole host plant for their caterpillars. But, say you don't want to plant a scraggily hackberry tree in your yard, or start scaring up your trees for sap; what can you do to attract large groups of these fluttering beauties to your yard? Simply adding a few fruit stations in your garden would be a step in the right direction.

How to set up a fruit station:

• First you should gather any overripe or rotten fruit you have lying around the house, I'm sure everyone has at least one overripe banana! 
• Cut or peel away any dried or moldy parts and just leave the really juicy stuff.
• Pile it up on a plate and put that plate in a nice shady area somewhere in your garden.                     (I have built chain hangers to hang the fruit plates from under some of my big shade trees)

Good Luck attracting more butterflies, and as always Happy Gardening!!!