With summer behind us and autumn on its way out it is time to look ahead to the rest of the year and 2023.

We have been working extremely hard to get our frog production back up to a level that allows us not only to expand our wholesale pricelist but more importantly to have the depth of stock necessary to once again resume shipping to not only the EU, but also the UK as well.  It has already been several years since our last shipment to the EU.  If you are interested in receiving a shipment and are either in the EU or the UK, please get in contact with us so that we can begin the discussion.  

We are happy to look into arranging shipments to other regions of the world as well, please don’t hesitate to contact us to see what is possible.

We had two very successful shipments to the United States via Indoor Ecosystems this year.  We hope to do 3 or possibly 4 shipments next year.  Our first US shipment of 2023 will be in March.  We will have pricing and availability ready for the March shipment by Mid December.  For those who have requested pricing already, rest assured you will receive a pricelist as soon as we have one ready.

October saw the arrival of the first WIKIRI shipment into Canada for at least the last 4 years.  WIKIRI sent some astoundingly nice frogs which found homes all across Canada.  We plan to import again from WIKIRI in March 2023 and hopefully again in the fall.  We are waiting on availability and pricing from WIKIRI for the March shipment.  Once we have this it will be sent to those who are waiting for the list and as well, will be announced on Instagram and Facebook.  Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about this.  

We continue to expand our plant inventory.  Our Last US shipment via Indoor Ecosystems will ship this week.  We will resume regular monthly shipments again in February.  Look for expansive updates to the availability list on indoorecosystems.com towards the end of December.

Thanks to everyone who supported us this year, we hope that 2023 will be even more exciting with many new plants to be offered, exciting imports and even some new Peruvian frogs once again later on in the year.  

Thanks and best wishes!

Understory Enterprises Inc.

It is hard to believe that it is already September!  I hope everyone had a great summer!

We are looking forward to a busy Autumn!  Lots of new plants are becoming available on an almost weekly basis and our frog production is steadily increasing!

Coming right up is the Canadian Reptile Breeders Expo on September 17^th and 18^th.  This is always the premier event of the Reptile and Amphibian industry and community in Canada and we are really excited for this year’s show.  We will have on hand an unbelievable selection of terrarium plants as well as an assortment of rare and hard to find houseplants.  We will have an excellent section of captive bred dart frogs available as well.  These expos provide a unique opportunity for our customers to hand select their frogs and plants from a deep and diverse inventory we will have there at the show.  Feeder insects, leaf litter and select other supplies will also be on hand. 

And as always, we will be offering a unique selection of authentic trilobites collected and prepared by Stormbed Paleontological.

Our next US frog shipment to Indoor Ecosystems is scheduled for shipping on October 19th and we are taking orders until October 3^rd.  Some great species are still available including some stunning Ranitomeya reticulata, and the new Ranitomeya fantastica “Jeberos” to name a few.  This will be our last US frog Export through Indoor Ecosystems for this year, with out next one tentatively scheduled for early Spring 2023. 

For Canadian Customers there is still a very limited time to place orders for WIKIRI frogs.  Our shipment from Ecuador is due to arrive early October so orders need to be finalized by Sept. 14^th.

We are continuing to ship plants to the US through Indoor Ecosystems on a monthly basis.  Orders placed by September 30^th at midnight will be in customers hands by mid October.  We handle all the customs, brokerages, phytosanitary and all the logistics involved in getting them to the US.  All the customer has to do is be ready to receive them. 😊  Our selection of unique terrarium plants is growing steadily drawing heavily on Peruvian species.  It is our goal to provide a rich diversity of plants that grow alongside the frogs you love allowing hobbyists the opportunity to construct truly biotope specific terrariums should they choose. 

Our plants are also available for shipping worldwide.  We are now exporting regularly.  Please inquire for pricelists and more information. 

Best,
Mark

We hope everyone is enjoying the summer, sun, some BBQs and good health!

We have finally begun exporting plants. Our unique selection of terrarium plants is now available for shipping worldwide. Monthly facility inspections by the CFIA ensure that we can receive phytosanitary certificates in an expedient fashion. This means that the time from when you place your order until the time you receive your plants should be as little as 2 or 3 weeks. Please contact us for more information and assistance.

For US based Customers we are extremely happy to expand our partnership with Indoor Ecosystems. Available now for direct ordering on indoorecosystems.com is our unique collection of plants propagated here in Canada by Understory Enterprises. Plants will be exported/imported in ~monthly batches via Atlanta, Georgia and will ship directly to your door! Selection will be updated on a regular basis, with new offerings added each month to keep things interesting.

We have assembled a unique and diverse offering of small tropical plants that thrive in dart frog vivaria. Drawing heavily on our imported stock from Peru, many of these plants are the exact species found in the dendrobatid biotopes of Peru, as well as Ecuador, and Colombia. Going forward we hope that these plants will bring an unprecedented level of authenticity and opportunity for those looking to create truly biotope/species-specific vivaria. For example:

Philodendron pierrelianum “Darkside” – This is a rare species from the lowland rainforests of Eastern Loreto, Peru. It grows epiphytically low in the understory. This small species with dark foliage grows quite slowly lending it well to terrarium use. It also grows quite nicely as a mounted specimen. Moderate to low light will help it maintain the rich, dark coloration of the foliage. For dart frog enthusiasts looking to create biotope specific vivaria this plant is found growing alongside Ranitomeya reticulata, amazonica and quite possibly uakarii. The ranges of Ameerega hahneli and bilinguis likely overlap as well.

Our next frog export to the US will take place in late October. We are in the process of taking inventory so that we will have an availability list ready in the next few days. If you have already contacted us about this, we will get the list out to you asap. If you are interested in our captive bred dart frog offerings don’t hesitate to get in touch, we will have a nice selection of frogs available for October. Some for the first time in several years. As always all of Export/Import requirements for these frogs are handled by ourselves and Indoor Ecosystems. All the customer has to do is be home to receive the package 😊

We are working hard to expand again our breeding colonies and our output and hope to be able to make export of frogs available to other countries soon.

Thanks as always for your support!

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Best,
Mark

Hope everyone is doing well as we rapidly approach the Holiday Season.

We have a couple of new shows that we will be attending that we would like to highlight. The first is the Niagara Botanical Convention on Saturday, November 20. Details are here on their website.

This is our first time vending at a plant specific show so we are really looking forward to it. We hope to attend many more plant shows in the future.

Following the Niagara Botanical Convention, we will be back at the Ontario Reptile Expo on Sunday December 5th. We will have on hand, as usual, a wide selection of tropical plants, exclusively captive bred dart frogs, Amazon Leaf litter, and feeder Insects. As usual we will be sharing table space with Stormbed Paleontological and will be showcasing a variety of authentic trilobites and other paleozoic fossils, all found and prepared by us.

Our final show of 2021 is a unique endeavor undertaken by the team at Hidden Path. They have put together a unique monthly market called Ghostwood. It is shaping up to be an eclectic monthly marketplace for hobbyists and artists spanning the spectrum from plants to articulated skeletons and all the oddities in between. Taking place monthly at 805 Dovercourt Road, Toronto from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. We will be on hand with some of our ever-growing selection of tropical plants and of course our sister company Stormbed Paleontological will be displaying a wide variety of paleozoic fossils. Be sure to check out and support this event. This could grow into a really special monthly market and show case of many curiosities and artwork.

We are continually sourcing new plants, with a focus on Peruvian species, to offer the terrarium plant and house plant market. We can ship plants safely all winter long across Canada, only stopping for a few weeks surrounding Christmas just to avoid the potential of packages getting delayed during the holiday rush. Our plant availability is changing daily; don’t hesitate to contact us for a current price and availability list. As a promotion we are offering free shipping (domestic) on all plant orders over $500(this does not include any insulated box, heat and Phase 22 gel packs that might be needed) until the end of January.

Our dart frog selection continues to grow. As with plants, we can offer safe shipping all winter (weather permitting). We have over 20 years experience in shipping frogs all over the world in all weather conditions. Don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss shipping or receive a shipping quote.
We are happy to finally be able to announce that beginning late April 2022 we will once again be shipping US orders. Working as usual with our good friends at Indoor Ecosystems we can facilitate cross border logistics so that American hobbyists can receive frogs from our facility in Canada legally and hassle free. We handle all the CITES, USF&W clearance, customs clearance and brokerage, and shipping to you. All you have to do is be home to receive them! A price and availability list for the first shipment of 2022 will be available December 7th. In the mean time don’t hesitate to reach out to us if there is something in particular you are looking for.

Thanks as always for your support and patronage!

Mark

Anybody still subscribe to this newsletter?

Needless to say, it has been an extremely long time since we have sent out an Understory Update.

Lots of changes have taken place; the biggest ones all have to do with plants.  Over the past couple of years, we have retooled a lot of our infrastructure and resources towards the production of a large selection of terrarium and houseplants.  Our focus is geared towards smaller aroids and epiphytes which are generally well suited to growing in tropical terraria, and also alongside dart frogs.  That being said we do also grow a selection of large species which are generally better suited for the house plant crowd, or very large terraria.  We have been regularly importing many new and interesting species so that we may offer the most diverse selection possible.  Generally, what we import is used for stock and what we sell is grown right here in South Western Ontario.  We are currently shipping plants weekly across Canada.  

 We are in the process of setting everything in place so that we can export the plants we grow worldwide.  It is a more cumbersome process than we realized, but we will get there.  Come early 2022 we should be able to process export orders quite expediently.

The depth of diversity in the small, often undescribed species of Philodendrons is truly astonishing.  Throughout the neotropics grow potentially thousands of species yet to be formally described by science, many of which can be grown comfortably in 2 to 4 inch pots.  The potential for aroid enthusiasts is nearly limitless.  What they lack in size these miniatures make up in colour, texture and growing habits; when grown properly their growth often tends to be slow and compact.  

One of our favourites is one we recently released,  Philodendron pierrelianum “DarkSide”.  This small plant with deep green glossy foliage and red petioles is a real gem native to the lowland rainforests of North Eastern Peru.      

Another similar Philodendron we are happy to offer is this curious species we call Philodendron “green spear” This species is native to the hot and humid White Sand Forests of the Iquitos region in Peru.  This is a slow grower with thick dark green spear shaped leaves of about 2 – 4 cm in length.  

And one more for good measure is this elfin philodendron “Dwarf Borja Ridge”.  This one has been circulating in the terrarium hobby for years, but that takes nothing away from it.  

Email us for a pricelist, as we have many more unique plants available.

Frogs, Frogs, Frogs,

We cut back drastically on our frog production at the start of the COVID -19 Pandemic that wreaked havoc on global logistic networks.  Uncertainty in flight schedules made the reliability of exporting frogs next to impossible to many regions and so we reduced our production as well as our collection.  

Earlier this year we brought our good friend Mike on board to specifically focus on reorganizing and revitalizing our breeding groups.  The frogs are now breeding well again and many species we had in the past are now available or will be available in the near future.  We have received many inquiries from American hobbyists about when American shipments will resume, and we are happy to announce that US shipments will resume in the Spring 2022.  We will begin taking orders in late December, so watch for that announcement in the not too distant future.  

Thanks to everyone who has supported us: we would not be here without you.  

Stayed tuned!

Mark