all the plants and the stumps are fake. we tried real plants, but they were messy. I got the ones in the front in a six pack at petco for like 2 bucks; they came with a coupon for buy one get one free of any freshwater fish, so i bought the two parrots, they were 10 dollars each, so the 2 dollar plant saved me 10 bucks...haha...i win, they lose....