Ah, the uncertain days of autumn. Things that look good on Thursday are trashed by Saturday; things that look like they will open in time don’t. The weather forecast is for rain all day and it’s been dry for hours. Right, what we’ve got is:
One.
Geranium procurrens. This appeared from nowhere about two years ago. It spreads astonishingly rapidly, sending out stems flat to the ground and 4-5 ft in all directions in a single season. It also seeds. The flowers start to appear from July or August, never very freely, though it is in shade. I would have got rid of it but OH presses the flowers. It’s one parent of ‘Ann Folkard’, which has been on my wanted list for a while.
Two
Mina lobata. One of those plants I’ve seen and liked in other gardens since forever and finally got round to growing from seed this year. They haven’t excelled, but I’ll give them another go next year.
Three.
Elephant Hawk Moth. If you grow Fuchsias, you’ll probably have had Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillars. I think their native food is willowherb, which is the same family as Fuchsia. A single caterpillar doesn’t do too much damage; I’m not sure I’d want a (collective noun for caterpillars) of them. (I just googled it, it’s “army”, which is appropriate sometimes, not others)
Four.
Fuchsia glazioviana. Talking of Fuchsias, F. glazioviana is a species with a lot of charm. Seems perfectly hardy. It sets viable seed and I grew some seedlings a couple of years back. All more or less came true, some had quite nice purplish foliage, which might have been hunger. They’re still kicking about in too small pots.
Five.
Miscanthus sinensis ‘Ferne Osten’. Something about this variety must have caught my eye though I don’t remember what it was. It has very nice purplish flower spikes that get about 3 feet tall, but it flops terribly. It has managed some very nice autumn tones to the leaves some years, but Cornwall is notoriously bad for autumn colour. It’s in a list of top ten grasses for autumn on the RHS website, and it has an AGM too. They give it a height of 1.5m, and there’s me thinking it flopped because I was treating it too well.
Six.
Anemone hupehensis var. japonica ‘Bressingham Glow’. I’ve had this a couple of years and so far it has repeated what it was doing in the pot when I bought it. Which is all you want really.
Another six for another week. Off now to check out ThePropagator’s six and links to other people’s sixes. That’s here. Always interesting.
garden ruminations 
Great Six Jim. I grew Spanish flag a few years running. First year it was fabulous , then I couldn’t grow it for toffee. I gave up. Might give it another go next year! Most of my helenium this year are divisions, although from seed originally,and some of this year’s plants are from seed collected from the same parent as the divisions.
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Amazing caterpillar close-up and very interesting that it’s “army of caterpillars”. Who knew?
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I love the look of that grass and it looks like the one I planted today – so worried to hear that it flops. I’ll keep an eye on it. Lovely to be part of this Six theme.
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Fine six, Jim. I hate floppy grasses – you either have them almost flat on the ground or propped up which restricts their movement and spoils the effect you want grasses to give. Must add that Anemone to my Anemone bed. Much deeper pink than those I have growing now. I’ve never seen a hawk moth caterpillar other than pinned to a display panel. I wouldn’t mind if one or two decided to nibble my fuchsias. Not sure about an army though.
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I have another Miscanthus, ‘Septemberrot’, which is robust and upright, and colours up quite well, but the effect is somewhat coarse. There are so many plants that just fall a bit short of what you’d hoped for.
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