Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora blooming

Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora "Red Tube," another Sarr that should do well year round outdoors in Florida. This coloration is one of the rarer S. flava's in nature, found only in the Florida Panhandle according to Barry Rice's FAQ. I got this one with a small start to the bud already coming out of dormancy, so I won't claim credit, but here's the flower.

Two pitchers are beginning to grow, in about a month these will be looking good.

For size comparison, the whole window box. That's one tall flowerstalk. The venus flytrap is blooming already too (2nd pot in from the left.)

Anoles. Anoles, geckos, and frogs everywhere! I keep taking pictures of them because they keep showing up when I'm trying to take pictures. So prepare yourselves, there will be more.

Hello!

A few things living among the plants

What I've found to be the most bothersome about moving 1000 miles away from everything I've ever known is the fact that I don't know the names of anything here. It's constantly irritating not to know. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is Hyla squirella, or Florida's "Squirrel Tree Frog."

Frog in with the Nepenthes

I'm trying with every opportunity to look things up so I can identify them for next time. I used to know at least nicknames for most plants, animals, etc. I knew what plants not to touch and what insects and snakes to watch out for.

Now, I see something almost every day and wonder what the heck it is. Yesterday, it was Phereoeca uterella, the "Household Casebearer". I know this now because a creepy shell looking thing with what appeared to be a worm inside it moved it's way out of an orchid basket I was watering and onto the deck. It was creepy, until I looked it up online and found out it was a just a moth in it's larval stage. Now, not creepy at all. What can I say, I'm a big moth fan and I'd be lying if I didn't sit there and watch it crawl(?) across the basket for about 10 minutes with a "WTF" look on my face the entire time.

This appears to be Hemidactylus turcicus, or the "Mediterranean House Gecko." Sorry for the poor lighting, but they're nocturnal and they scatter if you get too close.

Gecko!

Slowly learning over here, there's frogs and lizards I've never seen before popping up everywhere now that the weather has warmed up. It's amazing what you might see when you take the time to look around every once in a while. I was on call for work last night until 1am, so I had some time at night to just hang out. It's not worth going too far in case you get that call, so I tried to spend the time at home a little better than sitting on the internet all night.

Off Topic: A Sudden Influx of Green Tree Frogs

All of a sudden, tiny Green Tree Frogs are everywhere. Well, I'm sure they were there before, but now I can't water my plants without something green flying out at me.

They're living in the orchids, and in those plastic water dishes that I keep under the bog living carnivorous plants, and in between the banana plants leaves. I screwed up a lot of tiny frog days today just trying to water.

I couldn't get a picture of it but there was also an armadillo rooting through the complex last night that we spent a good amount of time watching from the deck. I'm used to seeing all the anoles, but lately it's been like living on a different planet with everything covered in frogs. Maybe all the recent rain has washed away enough of the pesticides that's sprayed around the buildings here, so now all the fauna is coming back.

Here's to trying to rescue them from the cats!

Tillandsia butzii bloom and a cool spider moves onto the deck

This Tillandsia finally bloomed, one flower at a time unfortunately. Maybe once it gets larger it'll be more exciting when it blooms?

Kind of boring, sorry. I'm growing Tillandsia more for the foliage than the bloom anyway. So while we're  waiting on some more things in bud to flower, there's this spider living out there on the deck now. It's a Gasteracantha cancriformis, or "Spiny Orb Weaver," native to the Southeast US.

Gasteracantha cancriformis from the back

The underside

Not venomous to humans or animals, she can stay as long as she wants. I'm hoping she'll help keep the creepers off the orchids to her left.

Off Topic: Some More Spider Friends

Took these pictures towards the end of fall. I'm not sure what type of spider this is, but you have to admit it is pretty:

Then we had another Orb Weaver, caught her hiding during the day, then it was real hard to try and get a picture of her later once she was on the move trying to build her web for the night:

While I was out there I took some picture of some other insects. It's amazing how much you can see if you just take the time to really look around you.

Is it a cricket?

I have no idea

And another.......BONUS SLUG:

That's probably the last of the cool spiders for the year. The influx of cellar spiders into the apartment as the temperature outside drops will be all I see for months to come.

Off Topic: Our New Spider Friend

Warning: Seriously, do not scroll down if you have arachnophobia. 
Large pictures of a spider below......  /X( ;::; )X\    

For days we've been watching this spider make it's web right outside the bedroom window. She's definitely an orb weaver, we're thinking it's Araneus diadematus. We get a lot of cool orb weavers here but we actually got some good pictures of this one.

Every night she makes a new web and it's perfect. It's fascinating to watch, really. Apparently they eat it during the day so we get to watch her re-build it every night. I'm sure the light from the streetlights and the bedroom lamps attracts the insects, which is why the spider built her web there. The web gets messed up pretty fast from things flying into it, so I'm sure she's happy with her new spot.

Feel free to click to enlarge any of the below pictures!

She's awesome. Thanks spiders for catching all the insects that would normally sneak in through the cracks in the screen and window, (it's an older building,) and bother us. Not that I have anything against any insect, I catch and release them outside, I don't kill anything. I am glad when nature does the work for me though, spiders and bats like this little more woodsy section of the neighborhood. Both animals get a bad rap, but they really do keep the insect population to manageable levels, without them it would be a total bug-pocalypse.

Hi friend!

There's also a basement in this building, filled with everything from tiny cellar spiders to huge wolf spiders. I like spiders, I don't mind one or two in the apartment, but the basement is referred to as "Spider Town," around here. I make up nicknames for things, called it that once, and it stuck. The landlord also once sprayed for them so there's lots of web-y spider skeletons covered in some sort of white pesticide powder. Talk about creepy. I'm not a huge fan of Spider Town, but I'll make an expedition there if there's any reader interest in this sort of thing.