Before you choose plants you'll need to answer one question: Real or artificial? Really, this is completely up to you. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages, but neither is really better than the other. If you don't have much experience with plants, you'll be much better off buying artificials. After using them for a while you may want to decide to try your luck with real ones. Here's the Pros and Cons of real and artificial plants.
Real Plants:
Pros: Obviously the enclosure will look more natural if real plants are used. Using real plants can also promote good health in Green Anoles. They oxygenate the environment. With real plants, your enclosure will never stay the same. As the plants grow, the environment in the enclosure continuously changes. Therefore, you may find it more interesting to use real plants.
Cons: One con is pretty obvious: the care issue. When using real plants, not only do you have to take care of the Anoles, but also you need to water the plants, clean the leaves, keep them trimmed so they don't overtake the enclosure, and make sure the environmental requirements are contantly correct for them. Unless you love gardening, over time this chore can become tiring and you may become discouraged.
Artificial Plants:
Pros: Obviously these plants are easy to take care of. They don't need to be watered. They don't need to be trimmed. You don't have to worry about the environmental requirements for each plant. They're also easier to clean, and the cage itself is easier to clean because you don't have to worry about being so gentle as you would if you had real plants.
Cons: The only problem with artificial plants is the fact that sometimes you can tell they're fake. People that want their terrarium to look as natural as possible might not like the sometimes "plastic" look these plants posess.
Choosing the Proper Real Plants:
The plants you chose are very important. They tie all the different parts of the terrarium together. When choosing plants remember, Green Anoles live in a tropical environment, therefore, dont decorate your terrarium with cacti and desert plants. Instead, choose plants that are from a tropical environment, and can tolerate tropical conditions.
Also, if you are a beginner with planting terrariums, I suggest you buy hardy plants, that can tolerate a little abuse, and allow you some room to mess up. Make sure you know the requirements for each plant before you buy it. Listed below are some of the more popular and easy to care for plants. You'll see their common name first, followed by other names they may be known as in parenthesis. Ease of care is rated on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest. Also listed are light, temperature, and humidity requirements, followed by any extra important notes on the plant.
Philodendrons are among the most popular, tolerant, and durable of all house plants.
Ease of care: 7
Light Requirements: Medium light. Too little light may cause the plant to take on a stringy appearance.
Temperature Range: 75-85 degrees. You shouldn't keep this plant on the basking side of the cage. Place it somewhere between the cool and warm side.
Humidity: The humidity range required for Green Anoles should also promote lush growth with this plant.
Ferns:
Some reccomended fern species are Humata tyermanii, Nephrolepis cordifolia, staghorn fern, and many of the "Seliganella" species. Beware of some ferns, as many of them can get very big very fast. Also, be careful when choosing, many ferns like cooler conditions than can be provided in a Green Anole enclosure.
Ease of care: 5
Note: Again, check the individual requirements for each species of fern available until you find one whose requirements match those of the inside of an Anole enclosure.
Bromeliads (bro-MEE-lee-odds) or "air plants" attatch themsleves to branches and rocks, rather than growning from soil. Some popular species are: Tillandsia abdita, Tillandsia bulbosa, Tillandsia intermedia, and Tillandsia streptophylla.
Ease of Care: 4-6
Requirements: Check the requirements for the species available in your area.
Note: Some of these plants are fragile and expensive. Others may die at the slightest mistake on your part. Make sure you purchase some of the more hardy species of Bromeliads.
Orchids (pronounced OR-kids) are good looking plants and are commonly used as a specimen (centerpiece) plant in many terrariums. Ludisia discolor is also a beautiful, and hardy orchid for the terrarium.
Ease of care: 1-5
Requirements: Although many orchid species are very picky in terms of temperature, light, and humidity requirements, there are some that are more on the hardier end of things.
Note: Remember to buy a hardier species of Orchids. Many Orchids (usually the rare expensive ones) will die at the snap of a finger. Check the individual requirements of each.
Many people like to use a combination of real and artificial plants. This is absolutely fine. You could buy real plants that are hardy and eay-to-care for, and then buy some fake orchids or other quick-to-die plants and combine them all into one terrarium. Doing this can also help to conceal the "fakeness" of the artificial plants, because if one plant is noticeably real, most people will automatically assume that all the plants in the terrarium are real.
