Being a lover of orchids it is not unusual at all for me to bring home a beautiful specimen from a nursery or garden center. On occasion I will come home with four or five of them at a time. More often, I will go for months without buying any. Wyoming climate is hard on any humidity-loving plant and thus the survival rate in our drafty home is not 100%.
A few months ago, I ran across a gorgeous Beallara Hawaiian Nights orchid that was nearing full bloom, I was powerless to pass it up. I have not been successful in keeping any oncidium type orchid alive to-date, but I’ve also learned a lot with prior purchases that I did not know before – so I was motivated to try again.
Truly, I was captivated by the dazzling blooms and their lovely fragrance. She was impossible to pass up. I was utterly powerless as she hopped into my garden cart.
Fast forwarding here in this story through its blooming stages and to the point where I will remove an orchids post-bloom spike to help it re-direct energy and growth back into the leaves and roots.
It is at this point that I typically re-pot plants when they are in a better stage of growth for it. As I neared this point, I decided one day to take tweezers and remove some clover and moss that was starting to grow around the bulbs to see if I could get the moss to grow in another container dish. With the small bit of moss I pulled up came the tiniest gray snail I had ever seen. It was so small, it was a wonder I even noticed it.
Never having ever had a snail before, I placed it in a critter terrarium I have and quickly searched online for how to keep a snail. Images of similar containers with soils, rocks, and mosses appeared so I went about using what I had at my disposal that day to care for it.
After a fashion, I realized by further reading, it appeared that I had a quick gloss snail (zonitoides arboreus). I had never heard of such a thing. I noticed right away why it was named as such.
These little creatures have beautifully shiny shells and boy they can motor! If you look away from just a few seconds and then look back, they can be well on their way to gone. Well, for a snail.
With this new knowledge in mind, I came up with a name for this little critter: Scooter.
Since this day a few months ago, Scooter has provided curious fun and knowledge. I bought a few different types of moss and added some rocks to the little set up I had going, ensuring I was misting at least two or three times a day to keep things moist.
I admit, I am on the outer fringes of what to do for snails here, but we will see where this mini adventure ends up!
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