This marigold is called “Bolero”. We have them in the Organic Veggie Start section of the nursery so that you can plant them in among your vegatables. They’re beneficial! (as well as pretty). Wow! That’s a long list of benefits!

Sure, it’s a ladybug. Even if the spots are faint. But can you name the plant it’s on just from the portion of the leaf you can see?

Bonus Liverwort picture! For a happy weekend! Enjoy!

4th Street, Berkeley
So many Euphorbias, but I would guess this is a E. characias hybrid.

9th Street, Berkeley
Non-succulent edition.

Oxalis “Coppertones” in a lovely brick planter. Oh, Berkeley, you are so lovely.

Unknown shrub: Pretty flower.

Hap lays it out for a customer on our new clean beautiful new sidewalk.

Agave “Blue Glow” and Echinocactus grusonii

I hope the residue from the blue tape comes off….

Walking to the bank and I see a Kangaroo paws in full bloom near the lighting store on 4th Street.

Any idea on the cultivar? It looks like Anigozanthos “Bush Tango” to me.

Our first crop of Scarlet Runner Beans – a few beans shelled by Keith.

Such pretty colors! I wonder if they’re delicious?

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This is actually our own front bed with a Sunflower in late bloom, along with some Opuntia and Crassula (Prickly Pear and Jade).

Lise sends along a picture of her cactus garden in bloom. It’s hard to tell from the small photo, but it appears she has both Cereus peruvianus and Echinopsis pachanoi.

They both have the same giant white flowers, but the Cereus is a night bloomer, with the blooms only lasting the one night, and is pollinated by flies. Whereas the Echinopsis is a San Pedro cactus and the bees love those during the warm daylight hours.

There’s an artichoke in our neighborhood that’s growing into a tree. They’ve been pruning it up and now it has a trunk and everything. The flower heads are small since this plant has been in the ground for a number of years. I wouldn’t try to eat them.

10th Street, Berkeley

My Solanum quitoense is fruiting. Very delicious juicing fruit, but the hairy outside of the fruit is difficult. Is it worth it?

Yes!

Now I’ve gone too far. Someone take away my filters.

Back to plants! Ian took this photo of a bamboo install this morning.

Hap took Mike and Ian and it looks like they got very busy. Whew! Glad that wasn’t me. I know they were glad it wasn’t raining as scheduled.

I wonder what program on his phone Ian used to get that photo. Shall we guess?

It looks like the radish seeds have sprouted cotyledons already. That didn’t take long.

Oh, five days.

Since this is a picture of my own backyard vegetable garden I’ve obscured any potential personal details, like showing you the mess back there. No showing the mess!

Our first marigolds of the year are called Bolaro.

Remember to always plant marigolds with your organic vegetable garden. They attract beneficial insects, and bloom all summer long.

The garden’s owner was cropped out of the picture because he/she asked me to.

I think this one was also on 8th Street in Berkeley, or thereabouts. I could do another contest to name it, couldn’t I? But this one isn’t very difficult. Just do a search for variegated leucadendron and this is the first one to pop up.

By the way, I now use duckduckgo as my primary search engine, so I no longer get to joke about the googling. Now I get to joke about the ducklings.

Anyway, Leucadendron ‘Jester’ (Leucadendron salignum x L. laureolum) it is!

We don’t carry the variegated Leucadendrons at the nursery because Hap doesn’t like them, so you’ll have to go walk the streets of Berkeley finding them in people’s yards to get your variegated leucadendron fix.

The butterflies may not be out in force this time of year, but the Butterfly Milkweeds are.



Asclepias “Silky Gold”