Thursday, November 15, 2007

My plants don't know winter is coming....Tortoises Hibernate


As I took these photos last weekend and I was marveling that many of the flowers were still in full bloom. One of the blueberry bushes still had some flowers and a couple of fruit and the colour of the leaves on another bush were beautiful. Well I know this has to end soon as it's getting much colder and last night we had a frost so I'm now expecting everything to die off. Looking back to last year the first heavy frost came eleven days earlier, so no wonder the plants are confused this year!



Tortoises:
A week ago they were still enjoying the late sunshine but they had stopped eating ...

Luckily (before the frost) I decided to hibernate the them on Monday so they are tucked up safe until the spring.

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November 15th 2006: Emerald Isle

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24 Comments:

At 15/11/07 09:56, Blogger Dea said...

Your plants look gorgeous Chris! I want to know more about the Tortoises - how do YOU actually hibernate them? I'm intrigued! My 3 year old still talks about your tortoises, since I showed her your video of them laying eggs! ;-)

 
At 15/11/07 10:04, Blogger Beccy said...

They now have posh boxes to hibernate in? I remember when they slept in a cardboard box!

 
At 15/11/07 10:26, Blogger Kahless said...

Your plants do look good.

And I must get outside myself and fleece my fern tree.

 
At 15/11/07 10:40, Blogger ChrisB said...

deborah I don't strictly do as advised and they seem to have survived. They should not be hibernated for for too long about 12 weeks, mine probably go a bit longer.
I have put them into a plastic container for the past 3 yrs and before that i always used a cardboard box. I also now use shredded paper instead of hay or staw. We keep them in the garage but I do worry that this might be a bit warm as I have a freezer in there which gives off heat.
here is a link to some info if your are interested. link

 
At 15/11/07 10:43, Blogger ChrisB said...

Beccy I decided it was easier to clean plastic but not sure it was the wisest move as cardboard is good insulation.

kahless I probably won't be doing a lot more in the garden now until the spring!

 
At 15/11/07 12:55, Blogger Alix said...

Looks very wintry there, it is raining here but still warmish - no coats needed yet.

 
At 15/11/07 13:22, Blogger FH said...

Isn't this weather scary Chris? It feels like Spring here, still warm but at last trees are showing color which I love.
I wish I was a Tortoise!!!:D

 
At 15/11/07 13:53, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've seen your pics of the tortoises before, but I always thought they weren't real! I've never known anyone who kept them. I just find that terribly interesting and my hubby and son would flip to keep their own tortoises.

 
At 15/11/07 14:19, Blogger thefoodsnob said...

Wow, beautiful plants! So nice that you still have some color this time of year.
I had no idea that tortoises
hibernate!

Lisa

 
At 15/11/07 14:39, Blogger Steffi said...

You have still very beautiful plants in your garden!Here is it very frosty at nights and I must put my plants in the house.

 
At 15/11/07 16:18, Blogger Rachel (Crazy-Is) said...

I had no clue that tortoises hibernated! You learn something new everyday!

 
At 15/11/07 16:52, Blogger Jen S. said...

Oh, I wish my tortoises hibernated. Instead they live in the basement all winter, wide awake. Sigh!

 
At 15/11/07 17:34, Blogger Beckie said...

That is so cool - just put them in a plastic tub for winter. Too bad I can't do that for myself. :)

 
At 15/11/07 17:52, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I didn't know that the Tortoises actually would hibernate. What if you kept them inside in the warm house - would they still, or would the warmth keep them from it?


I still have some plants blooming too outside. It surprises me, but we haven't had a good frost yet.

 
At 15/11/07 19:07, Blogger ChrisB said...

jen We keep debating whether to keep them awake but they are used to hibernating so we have just gone with it. I'm worried about the one who who for the past 3 yrs has woken up with mouth rot. It costs me a fortune in vet bills so in many ways it would be better to keep her awake and feeding.

karmyn no they would not hibernate if kept warm and plenty of light and as you can see from my above comment I have been wondering about doing that by buying a vivarium where we can control the temperature.

 
At 15/11/07 19:59, Blogger katy said...

had a tortoise when i was a kid, but beleive it or not it ran away, think i told you this before! oh well i am tired.
lovely colourful plants

 
At 15/11/07 20:49, Blogger Sam said...

maybe put the plastic boxes inside the cardboard box? Are you sure they can breathe through the plastic? If indeed they need to?

 
At 15/11/07 21:23, Blogger ChrisB said...

sam we have drilled holes so air can circulate.

 
At 16/11/07 03:59, Blogger frannie said...

I had no idea that they hibernate!! you just put them in a box and they stay there until spring???

do a whole post on this! it would be great info!

 
At 16/11/07 08:18, Blogger Pamela said...

You may have blogged about hibernating them before.... but I'd like to know more about this.
If you have blogged about it will you post your "link"... if you haven't then I'm all ears.

PS I had some flowers blooming too.
My purple bell flowers for instance.

 
At 16/11/07 09:28, Blogger ChrisB said...

Pamela I think I have referred to in the past but not sure I went into any details. I will have a look at my past posts and see what I wrote. I may not get this done before I go away next week.

 
At 16/11/07 14:57, Blogger Anvilcloud said...

I had no idea about the tortoises.

 
At 17/11/07 04:06, Blogger Unknown said...

I didn't know tortoises hibernate. Interesting stuff I learn from blogs. :)

 
At 18/11/07 02:46, Blogger ~ej said...

your flowers are lovely, i love the bright pinks!!
and i never realised you had to hibernate tortoises, i love learning things like this. i'll be looking at the link in a minute!!! :-)

 

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