I see our intrepid Bearded Dragon toy has discovered the Aloe Ferox in the garden.

Our latest in high tech naturalistic lizard toys for the garden is…

Bearded Dragon in the Garden, among the Thymus praecox (Red Thyme).

How accurate is this physical representation of the classic dragon? Here, look at these to compare.

They do a good job with these reptiles.

The San Pedros are some of the last cacti to bloom every year at the nursery. The show has just begun!

Echinopsis pachanoi

And then there were bees.

The bee has landed.

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Today we see one of the flying carnivorous dinosaurs has landed on a Senecio anteuphorbium, so you know it has good taste, perching on this succulent while searching for small prey below.

I seem to have a thing for toys at the store. We seem to have more toys at the store every day. Dinosaurs seem to be a good fit for the store since you can put them in your pots around the garden and they’re cute! Even though the dinosaurs we have at the store are all carnivorous dinosaurs. I wonder if the carnivorous plants would do well with a carnivorous dinosaur in the pot?

Nah.

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It’s our latest Safari toys – Carnivorous Dinsoaurs, and you know we’ll be putting them around in the garden, so watch your fingers and toes.

Obama is in the garden with a caruncled hybrid Echeveria.

Opuntia subulata, AKA Austrocylindropuntia subulata, in bloom.

I wonder if the fruit is delicious? I’ve never tasted it .

We carry an Obama Toy so that you may find interesting plants to place the toy up against, thus playing with the scale. Terrariums work great. Here we see the process in action as we place an Obama Toy in the greenhouse and we see that the Obama Toy works particularly well up against a member of the dogbane family, Apocynaceae.

Pachypodium bicolor is a very expensive plant. Good job, Obama Toy!

Now that’s a nice Lotus.

I see the butterfly has come out of it’s chrysalis, thus completing it’s pupa stage and entering the imago stage – i.e. – it’s a BUTTERFLY!

We found this little guy in its larval stage (i.e. it was a caterpillar) on the Asclepias, the butterfly milkweeds. So you knew it was right at home. Then Rikki jarred it up and… Pupae!

It took awhile, but finally the butterfly emerged during the day, and left the next morning (yesterday).

I see today that President Obama is hanging out in the garden in front of a San Pedro bloom. I’m guessing he’s not inhaling.

It’s the continuation of our Obama in the Garden series from this past spring. What happened was that we sold out of all of our Obama figures, so that was that.

Until today!

Yes, that means that we have Obama figures back in stock. And for those of you who were wondering – No! They do not have any Romney figures available and you know we’re in Berkeley right? Liberal Berkeley? Oh yeah, now it makes sense.

So now we’ve hit the true test of our ability to run a retail plant nursery. We are now making our own cactus products. Or product – in this case soap. Cactus Soap!

That’s Olive Oil soap – no glycerin or other fillers – from locally sourced organic certified olives. Plus real prickly pear fruit, and three different scents: Peppermint with Mint Leaves; Grapefruit, Lemongrass with Oatmeal; and Clove and Apricot Kernel, in a thick 5.3oz bar.

See the thing is, there are lots of fancy glycerin soaps out there, but it’s tough to find a top quality pure soap, hand or facial. So we made it ourselves.

Now someone else can post on their blog all about the silly cactus soap they found at the Cactus Jungle. Hah!

(For reference, see my now-ironic posts about cactus soap and cactus costume (on a hedgehog!) and Cactus Glasses and Cactus Candy).

I suck!

A mom brought in some girls with party hats and took a few pictures with cactus as the background. Here’s my picture of their pictures in the making.

Keith at the Store

Mostly succulents, but not limited.

And now for a small one.

Tiny!

Not only do we have lots of mixed color Monkeyflowers, but we also have mixed Yarrows.

This red is probably Achillea “Paprika”.

These are all in the California Native section of the nursery although that’s an iffy designation for these hybrids and cultivars, but close enough.

Monkeyflowers are some very productive N. California Native bloomers, as you can see right here.

8th Street, Berkeley. I’m guessing Mimulus “Eleanor” though possibly it’s M. “Jelly Bean Gold”

As you can see we also have a lot of very nice blooming Monkeyflowers at the nursery right now too.

That’s just perfect for the Bay Area. Who doesn’t want to walk out with some Monkeyflowers under their arms as they walk down 4th Street to get themselves a nice mocha at Peets.

We now carry handmade ceramics, made right around the corner here in the industrial neighborhoods of Berkeley, from Jennifer Fisher.

Here we see that we’ve potted up one for you already.

And this is a very small wall pocket with a little bit o’ the string of pearls.

Tillandsias, too?

These are awesome succulent ceramic pots, handmade and local. You can’t do better than that.

Our latest team member, Joseph.

He’s learning how to water the bamboo today. Tomorrow? The veggies too.

It’s the original cactus friend, Bastardino, from Tokidoki. He was the first cactus toy we carried at the store, and now he’s back.

Spikey little thing. He’s tough. Yay!

Orchid week continues with a Phalaenopsis with lots of extra painted-on colors.

Today’s orchid is a Maxillaria. They come from South America.

I wonder if that’s true? Maybe I should look that up before I type it out on the blog, or rather maybe I should look it up after I type it up. Then I would have time to change it if I should so desire.

Hah! Never gonna happen.

Rikki and Hap have been very busy getting orchid arrangements together for Mother’s Day gifts.

This one has a Miltonia. And since we’re a real nursery and not a florist, all the plants along with the orchid are fully rooted in soil!