Six on Saturday – 11/6/2022

Categories six on saturday, 27 Comments on Six on Saturday – 11/6/2022

If ever a week slipped by without me noticing, it was the one just gone. Yesterday was pretty typical, Sue and I had agreed to be Stewards in the Flower Marquee at the the Royal Cornwall Show, 1-3pm. We knew the traffic would be terrible, and it was, so we set off around 10, which doesn’t leave much time to do more than watering before we go, with much the same when we got back. A day used up for two hours of frankly pretty pointless standing about. What a deeply diminished event is that flower tent, so many past regulars just not there.

Never mind, it’s all happening here. We should be putting finishing touches to the garden for opening on the 24th but don’t seem to have reached the half way touches, let alone the finishing ones. What will be will be. I need to get back out there, must get a wriggle on.

One.
A couple of pictures of the front, inadvertently but accurately giving a good sense of the local ambience. That’s a little hangover of last weeks Jubilee celebrations adorning the scaffolding. Poison neat in one picture, the opposite in the other. The Echium is now about 12 feet tall.

Two.
Dahlia ‘Karma Choc’ was one of three dahlias I lifted about three weeks ago because the slugs we stopping them from ever getting going; repeatedly browsing them off at soil level. In my tunnel they’ve grown away some, though still way behind the plants left in the ground and not favoured by the slugs. Hopefully my nightly forays have reduced the mollusc numbers a bit.

Three.
Last week I put in a Lampranthus buried among geraniums; this week it’s the Geranium’s turn. Acquired as G. incanum, I recently bought something very different under the same name, so perhaps it isn’t. It has finely cut silvery leaves and flowers pretty well and has even self sown once or twice.

Four.
Begonia ‘Garden Angel Blush’ is one of several borderline hardy Begonias that I lift and overwinter under cover in order to get something happening much earlier than it does if they’re left in the ground and protected. There’s a metallic sheen to the new growth on this one that the camera doesn’t capture and it’s growing much better than in previous years, looking to be a garden highlight for 2022.

Five.
Our Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpureum’ has been an ongoing cause of great angst for several years, seemingly under assault by honey fungus and dying back by rather more than it made new growth. This year I cut out a branch that had all but died last year and there has been no further loss. It leafed out normally and we didn’t get the usual northerly gale that has trashed it so frequently in the past. It is set fair to end the year bigger than it started, even if it is a bit lopsided now. Pleasingly too, the small birds have got used to the ‘cage’ around their feeder but the collared doves can’t get through.

Six.
And so, as ever, to the last one and the point where decisions are made about what gets left out. Is it Papaver atlanticum? I seem to have come across different names for things that look the same. When we first had it it had single flowers, now they all seem to be double. That’s not a complaint. It mostly self sows right at the edge of paths, throws up lots of flowers which only last a couple of days, but over an extended period. I should dead head it, it accumulates masses of spent flower stems which obstruct the paths otherwise.

Enough already. There’s a fair day outside the window and much to do with it. The whole world knows that for more SoS posts you must go to The Propagator, but the rules say I must tell you anyway, and rules is rules. Have a good week, folks.

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Published by Jim Stephens

Gardener, no-dig allotmenteer, camellia enthusiast. I love colour, it cheers me up. Retired nurseryman.

27 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – 11/6/2022”

    1. If I didn’t have to go through it to get out into the world, I’d forget the front garden too. Way too overlooked, I spend as little time there as possible. That you used to grow that poppy under that name provides corroboration; I’ll go with that until proven otherwise.

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  4. Those Echium are rad. They used to be naturalized on the coast of San Mateo County, as perhaps farther north, although they are uncommon now. They grew in the ditches next to Highway 1, and got so tall that they could almost reach the edge of the road when they blew over in a storm.

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      1. In our chaparral climate, we would plug them in after the rain starts in autumn. By the time the weather gets dry again, they have dispersed their roots. Shrubby species of Echium are sometimes planted on roadsides because they are more appealing than wild grasses, and do not need to be cut down.

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      3. Goodness; Brent and I planted hundreds of trees in the medians of San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angels without permits or even a plan, and law enforcement only hassles him for being of African descent.

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      4. A high viz jacket and in the middle of a busy day is probably best, everyone assumes you’re legit, although perhaps as you imply, if you’re of African descent, evreyone assumes you’re not legit.

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      5. He can seem legit while doing manual labor. He gets hassled for driving a nice car though.
        While we were still in school, Brent’s father with his friend and colleague were forced to lay down on the sidewalk of Willshire Boulevard while Police officers rummaged through his Seville. Brent’s father’s friend was Johnnie Cochrane, who later worked for O. J. Simpson. Brent’s father was a Los Angeles County Judge. When the Police officers realized who he was, they suddenly tried to be nice, which is not easy at that point. It did not go well for the Beverly Hills Police Department.

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  8. What a neat and tidy front garden you have. The driveway looks good even after all the problems you had. At first glance, I thought that begonia was a heuchera, but the leaves are clearly more “silvery”.

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