The “could be anything” list on our host’s participants guide to Six on Saturday is six items long. Perfect, thinks me, I’ll do one of each. But I don’t make plans, I rarely complete projects and I have no features. My favourite tool is up the allotment. I’ll start with a success and end with a failure, sandwich some plants between.
One.
Success. Dahlia seedlings. I grow a few Dahlias, including ‘Orange Cushion’. A couple of years back, having failed to deadhead as I should, I found that it had set quite a bit of seed. I collected some, cleaned them up and sowed them in spring 2016. Earlier this year I planted them out on my allotment where they have been growing and eventually flowering. Some are yet to flower. The majority are red, one is yellow, one orange and there’s one just showing maroonish. It’s easy to assume that open pollinated seedlings will be inferior and not worth growing, but these are surprisingly good. I will be doing more of this, it’s rewarding.
Two.
x Amarine ‘Zwanenburg’. A cross between Amaryllis and Nerine, both of which I grow outdoors, making me wonder why I have this in a pot indoors. The flower stem snaked its way up through the fuchsia (‘Koralle’) and burst into clashy bloom. To me it looks exactly like Nerine, but a bit bigger. Pictures online of it are rather mixed, some very similar, some with broader petals.
Three.
Amaryllis belladonna. I included a different clone of this in my six on 19 August. I’d forgotten I had these in the front garden, the bigger clump of the same sort in the back garden are only an inch or so high, getting much less sun and delayed as a result.
Four.
Camellia sinensis ‘Benibana-cha’. This is the first of my Camellias to flower for the 2017/18 season. It’s a sorry little plant in a glasshouse, being borderline hardy. Strongly aromatic. If you like Camellias, I have another blog all about them.
Five.
Roscoea. A few weeks back I bought a Roscoea seedling from Tale Valley’s stand at a Rosemoor do. It was a fine dark colour and I expected it to be much more expensive than it was. When I remarked that it seemed good value he brushed it off saying they were just seedlings. Yesterday I noticed that the same plant was spilling seeds all over the place. Today I collected as many as I could and sowed them. All I have to do now is get them to germinate, then keep the slugs off them.
Six.
Failure. Should I put this in? Who wants to see it? The O.H. will kill you. You have other failures, why this one?
I never get on top of this midden down the side of the house. You have to have somewhere for the wheelbarrow and the bags of compost, the shredder and the dustbin. Please don’t tell me it should be in the shed, you can’t get in the shed. Perhaps putting it on here will shame me into sorting it out. Then I can post it again as a success.
That’s another six for The Propagator’s Six on Saturday thingy, which is really taking off now. There’ll be a bunch of links to other interesting half dozens, so check it out.
garden ruminations 
Don’t you feel the gardening guilt lifted from your sinful shoulders after your confession? I might let the world see the state of my similarly chaotic corner next to the shed. Shocking mess. I’m going to let my two preferred dahlias run to seed and give them a bash. Did you get flowers same year? Also, when did you sow the seeds.
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Cathartic’s the word. Sowed seeds in spring. Very small the first year because I didn’t pot them on as I should have. Flowered in second year.
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Much obliged, ta.
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I’m jealous now. I wish I had a midden like that. I don’t. One side of the house is full of “growhouses” (essentially unheated plastic things which are polycarbonate glazed rather than green frames with simple plastic covers) and the other is shed/greenhouse/outside dining area so has to be kept tidy, Whatever! If I want a midden I’ll have to sacrifice a border. OK, plants are good too but I’m concentrating on the midden. 😉
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I’m looking to leave an archaeological legacy for the future. Plants are just so ephemeral.
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My reaction is to say that your side passage midden looks just fine – let’s face the fact that we all have to put stuff somewhere. On TV no one ever shows where the bins are, and the old buckets, and half used bags of grit, and trugs, and bits of wood that might come in handy. In my limited space city garden there are NO hidden corners for stuff. It just has to sit there, somewhere. Don’t bother tidying it up, I’d say.
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It’s very kind of you to take my side. That Monty Don, I bet he’s got some shocking bits off camera!
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Gorgeous photos! “A cross between Amaryllis and Nerine”. Wow! I’ll be on the lookout for those.
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