I thought to do a six consisting of three watering cans, a hose, a hose nozzle and water butt. It just isn’t a situation to make light of though, so I’ll stick with plants, some of the survivors.
One.
Dahlia ‘Karma Choc’ is a plant I find all but impossible to photograph satisfactorily. It must register differently on a camera sensor compared to my eyes. I have been watering it, as one of the plants to be kept going for as long as we are opening to the paying public. Some of my other dahlias are really struggling, the flowers more than the plants.
Two.
A couple of years ago I bought a tall Canna from Desert to Jungle; they were at Tregrehan plant fair. I think it is what they are selling as ‘Henlade hybrid’. It’s tall, over 2m, and it’s doing rather well. Fred sent me seed of C. tuerckheimii and I had occasion to look it up earlier today; it strikes me that ‘Henlade hybrid’ and tuerckheimii might be quite similar. The seed germinated, I have small plants that have some catching up to do.
Three.
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides. Bit of a surprise that this is standing up to the conditions so well. It’s at the edge of a gravel path, perhaps it has a generous root run beneath it.
Four.
Chionochloa rubra, red tussock grass, is really getting going in its new location. There was no moving the previous plant, which was too close to the path, a seedling was grown and planted elsewhere. It is flowering exceptionally freely this year, which makes me a little nervous.
Five.
I cut a cabbage yesterday, a red cabbage called Kalibos. A red cabbage is a thing of beauty. Sliced through the middle or just a few leaves, I’m always fascinated by them, what a fabulous colour.
Six.
Given to me years ago, Phyla nodiflora was planted out in a couple of places and largely forgotten about. This year it has forced itself back to my attention by making a prodigious amount of growth and flowering pretty well too. I looked it up, it comes from somewhere warm, I’ve already forgotten where, but as a very low ground cover in poor dry soil, it looks like a winner. I’d lost the name, eventually found the label a couple of feet away from where it had been planted, so it’s a wanderer.
And that’s yer lot. I need to go water some plants. Don’t go out without a hat.
I’m guessing The Propagator won’t be running far this weekend, unless it’s at night. Who knows? He sits at the centre of this SoS spiders web.
garden ruminations 
Ceratostigma is already in flower here (Bavaria) too but is showing its autumn colours. An amazingly tough little plant as it is in a spot that has received no water and everything around it is wilting. You are right about the cabbage, quite beautiful. The Chionochloa really caught my eye. I love grasses, but assume this one would not like our cold winters.
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My Ceratostigma has never produced autumn colour but a lot of things rarely do in Cornwall because of the climate. Maybe this will be the year it does. The Chionochloa grows over a lot of New Zealand and over a wide altitudinal range so there may be hardier provenances of it. Finding one is likely impossible though.
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I’m just trying to not get too despondent. Wilted or crispy is very much the reality here so seeing survivors in other gardens is cheering. Strangely the red cabbage is the most cheering!
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It is demoralising when you’ve put in a lot of work and have high expectations of good results and it then comes to little or nothing. If the cabbage was cheering then I’m glad I included it. I thought it was just me who took pleasure in such things, far from it, apparently.
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You still have plenty of colour in your garden. As you say, there’s no point highlighting all the death and destruction as a result of the heat. Interesting Six-on-Saturday again, still showing many plants I haven’t seen before.
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So many flowers are tiny, or don’t open, or don’t last a day. It seems to be the thing the plants give up on first, which isn’t in their survival interests.
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Gorgeous dahlia! Yes, I wonder what the trick is for photographing dark flowers in sun like that. I was trying to photo a very pretty dark purple frilly kale and just couldn’t do it justice. If you find out, hope you will share. Hope all of you in the heat and drought hang in there, and that your gardens will get some welcome rain soon! (Send us some too–still in drought here in CA as well.)
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We had thunder and dark skies for half the day but not a drop of rain, all passed us by. I will make it my mission get a decent, or at least reasonably accurate, picture of the Dahlia.
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Oh dear… so sorry the rain missed you. Hoping it returns soon.
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We’ve had a bit today, around 6mm. I am grateful but more would be better.
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Canna tuerckheimii is a species that I had been considering as a backdrop for other cultivars of Canna with showier flowers, but I figured that if I want something bigger than the Canna musifolia that are already here, I would procure some sort of Musa instead. It is interesting to know that, if it resembles ‘Henlade hybrid’, it stands more vertically, with vertical floral trusses. The problem with any of the Musa is that their foliage flares outward. I can find almost no reliable information about Canna tuerckheimii, and the only pictures that I find of the bloom show that it blooms sparsely, and that the bloom may not even stand upright. Canna musifolia bloom is rather scrawny, but the foliage is nice. The cultivar that has been here longer than anyone can remember, and might have been installed in 1968, has ‘somewhat’ bronzed foliage and peachy orange bloom. The foliage is neither dark bronze, nor green, but sort of in between. I would like to grow some with green foliage, and red flowers, or perhaps yellow flowers. I collected hundreds of seed from a specimen that blooms red, and a few from a specimen that blooms yellow.
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I’ve been trying to find out more about ‘Henlade hybrid’ and I see the RHS has an entry for Henlade hybrids, while Desert to Jungle says it has smallish orange, pink or red flowers. Sounds like mixed seedlings rather than a clone, I’ll try to find out more. If I just picked an unnamed seedling then it looks like I struck lucky.
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I experience the same confusion with the unnamed Canna musifolia. I really do not know what ours is, or even if it is a Canna musifolia. It seems to be the most common sort of the species, with scrawny pastel orange bloom and somewhat bronzed foliage. Some sources describe it as a species. Others describe it as a cultivar. Those with green foliage and scrawny red or yellow bloom seem to be the same . . . species (?). Because I prefer the green foliage, I got (a large volume of) seed from the specimen that blooms red, and a few seed from the specimen that blooms yellow. I sort of hope that some of their progeny resembles their respective parent, although something different would be nice also. I have not yet met a Canna that I do not like.
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I got a reply about my tall red canna. Origins unknown but has been growing in the nurseryman’s garden for 20 years. He says it is one of the hardiest cannas he knows and from seed there is some slight variation in flower colour. You’re welcome to seed if it produces any.
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Oh my! Thank you, but I already have too many canna. There are nine or ten cultivars here. (Two may be the same.) Also, I have seed from several cultivars. I believe that most are true to type varieties, although some degree of variation is possible. A few of the seed came from fancy hybrids, which should be sterile. I do not know what to expect from them. The description of yours sounds about how I would describe any that I would grow from seed. I really do not know much about them, even if I grew them myself.
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Dahlia ‘Karma Choc’ is a lovely rich colour, a bit like that of the Chocolate Cosmos. On the other hand that cabbage is falsely named, it is most definitely purple not red!
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It’s a bit sad when a cabbage looks better than 90% of my flowers. The water from the cabbage when it’s cooked changes colour at different pH.
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I didn’t know that! I usually stir fry red cabbage with a dash of soy sauce.
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I had forgotten about Phyla nodosa, it is a lovely little plant. Also love Karma Chocolate, even though you say the colour isn’t true. I can imagine. Must be an added pressure that you are opening to the public. I am dividing my plants up into “things that will survive but look a bit rubbish” and “things that will cop it”, oh and tomatoes.
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I’m very pleased to have had two positive responses from people who know and/or grow Phyla. It appears better known than I thought, which is good. I’m a bit concerned that you don’t have a category for “things that will survive with a look of ‘what’s all the fuss’ on their smug little faces”, or is that the tomato category?
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What a lovely coloured cabbage, a thing of beauty indeed. I too have Phyla nodiflora which I admired in Beth Chatto’s garden, and which was afterwards one the purchases from their nursery. It is looking really good in your garden.
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One clump of Phyla is intermingled with Persicaria sinuata (as was runcinata Needhams form). Makes a nice combination.
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The red tussock grass has such a lovely form, and is loaded with flowers/seed heads……mmm. I’d also feel nervous, but I’m sure you plants I’ll be alight. It must like the warmer weather. I agree with you about the red cabbage. It is a spectacular colour. I don’t think I have come across such a tall canna. It has lovely dense foliage.
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The canna Fred sent me seed of supposedly can get to 5m, that is going to be a sight to behold. I must collect seed of the tussock grass, though almost none has germinated in the past.
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5m is huge!! I am trying to grow some arrowroot this year. I got a couple of pieces from crop swap, and hopefully they will be as easy to grow as the ornamental cannas!
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My cannas tureckheimii were 1.80m when I left. I will see when I’m back because without water there is no hope that they will survive the heat….Stunning cabbage colour !!
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I’ve been watering the cannas twice a day and they’re much smaller than yours. I hope yours have survived.
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You have some things in great condition. My eye here is drawn to yet to plants in total collapse from the heat.
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My eye is drawn to the collapsed plants too but I’m not taking pictures of them. Lower temperatures and shorter days offer some respite, even if we don’t get much rain.
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