Good evening guys! Normally Saturday evenings we would have an In-Stock upload, but there's a few customers with big orders that I'm still reaching out to this weekend and until those are completely handled I think it's best to skip this upload. I'm almost finished and we should be back on track to do a big Random Rares upload tomorrow. 

I wanted to check in with you all about shipping. I know a lot of you are worried about presales in June since the temps are getting warmer. Please know our greenhouses are climate controlled and I want to assure everyone things are still shipping absolutely gorgeous, some of the best shipments we have ever had. So please don't worry. We received about 200 plants this weekend and I think we had four duds, so things are going rather smooth still. We don't want to compromise plant quality and once we see the temps get too warm and plant quality decline we will be switching to In-Stocks only. 

Shipping from us to you isn't the problem, it's from the farms to us. There's a significantly longer amount of time the plants are in boxes when they are traveling to us. All of our customers are 2-3 days and we're shipping a little differently than last year and so far so good. 

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite imports from this past week. 

First up is a tray of lovelies, these are just random plants I pulled out of the shipment because they kind of created a nice color arrangement. 

The above is a random selection of plants pulled from our racks based on complimentary colors. 

And if you want a full run down of what is shown here:

From Top Left: Piglet, Superbum, Variegata, Subsessilis Peacockii Cristata, Cream Tea, Akaihosi cluster (middle), Sedum Suaveolens, Echeveria Sp. Cristata (still available and soooo pretty in person!), Snow Queen Cluster and Hosikage. 

Up close and personal with a Piglet.

Next I want to brag on a few in specific, I figured showing you guys a few IRL photos from our side might help when we do the Random listings with what you can expect from the plants we're showing. 

First up are these incredible Ice Greens. I use these as a 'canary in the coal mine' Ice Greens are particularly susceptible to rot, so I know when these start to come in bad we only have a few weeks left before we need to switch over to In-Stocks only and these came in so pretty this week. Absolutely chubby little monsters. Nice and firm with no issues. 

Sorry the picture is so bright, the colors on these Echeveria Ice Green rosettes were tricking the camera, they are bright and glowy. 

I fell in love with this Yangjin this week. Mind blowing beauty on this gal. Colors are absolutely amazing. 

Echeveria Yangjin at peak color potential.

I have been telling you guys how much I love the Keys cultivar. They sell out so fast I thought I would grab a photo for you guys this week. 

Echeveria Keys

I'm absolutely in love with Purple Light right now. This is from the crassula family. The white dots are where bloom stalks are starting, this cluster will be in full bloom soon. I think we have one more starter cluster of this cultivar available in Random Rares at the time of this blog post, but it may have sold already. 

Crassula Purple Light.

And my happiest import of the week is this Raon. I was so worried about these due to the chubby nature of this plant, they are among the chubbiest around and they did just fine on this first shipment. She's not particularly stressed, these can go electric, almost Barbie pink. And I did forget to blow out the farina dust from the center, these photos were taken on the fly for this blog post tonight. 

Echeveria Raon, not particularly stressed. Chubby, isn't she?

And I'm a collector too guys, I can't not show you my import for the week. Meet my double Pre Madonna. Isn't she a looker? I just added the black pumice top dressing. 

Echeveria Pre Madonna. This one is mine :)

I want you guys to know I take what I do very seriously. I am human, I am currently the only one running this (I will have help again in the fall) and life happens to me as it does to you. I work an incredible amount of hours every week. I know all of my local Starbucks baristas by name :) So, please give me the benefit of a doubt in the rare event that something goes awry. I want you to be happy, truly. So, please keep in mind that there's a real person on the other side of the screen and I have feelings and my intentions are always good. With a living product things can get slightly off track from time to time depending on Customs and the weather, but I will always work my hardest to do the best I can by you. 

I do want to take this opportunity to gently remind you we have a Help section now that answers 99% of all questions we have and we have a Community forum tab as well-- starting this month I will be awarding a $50 gift card to a Random user in the Community Tab. I want to see more action in there :) The first winner will be announced on June 30th (in the Community Section, of course!) I will continue to do this until October. I answer emails until 5:00 am in the morning sometimes and it's super helpful if you can check these sources first. But, I always love hearing from you if it's personal or if you have an issue.

I do want to remind you that we do not accept cancellations of orders. This is a small business, I buy the plants at the time of the uploads to keep things fresh. It's a policy I am sticking by and I expect you guys go read our policies before making your purchases. I'm not trying to be tough, but this is a small business and I use it to support my family. I have to have these policies in place to protect my livelihood. In the event of us receiving a damaged presale we will absolutely refund your purchase, no worries there. 

And finally I can absolutely appreciate the concerns around the upcoming warmer months. Trust me. This is my passion and way of life, I won't be shipping sad plants over the summer months. We made mistakes our first year that we won't repeat again, but you have to make some mistakes in order to learn from them. I am watching our shipments like a hawk. If you take a look you will see a new addition to our homepage. I will start showing you guys the first five plants we unbox every week so you can keep a watch with me. I will shut down presales the moment I feel the weather is not cooperating with us, but we're not even close yet based on these shipments this week. 

First five out of the boxes this week. Echeveria Blue Metal and Sinocrassula Yunnenesis, aka Black Raspberries. 

Thank you so much for allowing me to do what I'm passionate about. I couldn't do this with the support of you guys and I'm immensely grateful every day. Thank you so very much. 

-Crystal