TROPICAL PLANTS, TREES AND TINY BEASTS

I recently bought these baby tropicals: Alocasias, Colocasias,
a guava tree in the front row, far left and in the back row,
far left is a Monstera Deliciosa, this blog's namesake
(see it in the photo next to me at the top of the blog)

I also recently bought this black bamboo on eBay but it arrived
a bit dry and despite giving it lots of water, is not looking
too good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The two trees
are fishtail palm and bamboo palm which I bought at
the Huntington Library Spring plant sale.

I grew these avocado trees from pits. It took a surprisingly
long time for them to sprout. (3 months +). I have several
more pits in water which are starting to sprout. Never mind
that I don't have room for trees in my small yard but I'll
worry about that when they start getting big.

I got some mantis egg cases at the Natural History Museum
annual Bug Fair. They are supposed to hatch when the
temperature is cooler, like in the '50s, but the adorable
baby beasts started creeping out during a warm late
afternoon recently. The war on pests has begun!