Cactus Blog

A new luscious Opuntia pad coming soon to a Berkeley cactus garden near you. Plus! Nice Yucca elephantipes behind.

Achillea “Red Velvet”

North America; Cultivated variety
Herbaceous Perennial

Sun: Full Sun
Water: Low
Size: Low, blooms to 3 feet

Green gray foliage. Flowers summer thru fall. Often used for cut or dried flowers. Attracts butterflies and birds. Hardy to below 0F.

Achillea “Moonshine”

Cultivated variety, including a California Native species
Herbaceous Perennial

Sun: Full Sun
Water: Low to Moderate
Size: Fern-like foliage to 36″

Yellow bloom sprays in Spring through Summer that fade as they age. Often used for cut or dried flowers. Attracts butterflies and birds. Hardy to below 0F.

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.

4th Street, Berkeley
Delospermas in bloom

OK, so this isn’t just any Succulent garden in Berkeley, it’s the front bed in front of the store. Our address? It’s on Fourth Street. So there. Prove me wrong!

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.

Horned Lizards are generally from Texas.

In the background is an Ocotillo.

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

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

(more…)

Today we see our feared and ferocious Dimetrodon is in the Crassula garden.

With Crassula muscosa.

Ron and Doris are growing a stapeliad outside, and successfully, too! Semi-hardy in the Bay Area, it’s planted under the protection of a larger cactus.

Caralluma piaranthoides

These are some of the prettiest of the carrion flowers, and not too smelly especially when they are successfully blooming outside in the garden. You might find some beetles come find these flowers, but everyone loves them some beetles. And more blooms coming!

And here’s a bonus Echinopsis fruit from their garden. If those seeds drop….

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.

One is a Spurge, the other a Butterfly Milkweed. Together they make a lovely bouquet.

Ashby Avenue

Some really nice specimens in this garden. Well tended, too.

Too many different species for me to go about naming them for you, so you’re on your own.

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.