Six on Saturday – 22/10/2022

Categories six on saturday, , , 68 Comments on Six on Saturday – 22/10/2022

Just another week? Well no, everything has changed, yet nothing has changed. I post my post, same as I always do, but the comments section assumes a level of significance it hasn’t had before. I hope everything is set up as it should be, if it isn’t I hope it doesn’t prevent you from letting me know so that I can put it right. A smooth and seamless change of administration is what we’re after.

It is not my intention to change anything regarding the way that Six on Saturday works or the “rules” that the Propagator set out. I’m open to suggestions but the format seems to work pretty well as it is so for now I intend to leave well alone. If you’re new here please read The Propagator’s participant guide, which I will copy and paste to this blog at some point.

And so to business. It’s autumn, the season of falling apart. It’s when you get to regret not supporting the Dahlias properly or picking the apples before they fell. I like the fact that I can stop trying to keep it all even slightly tidy, there’s no point and I couldn’t if I tried. I’ve cut down and shredded a few bits, it’s blowing a hoolie just now so there will no doubt soon be a lot more. The trick is selective vision, walk around and see the flowers that are hanging on, the autumn tints, the evergreens coming to the fore; while being blind to the decay and chaos. I’m very good at it, I’ve had a lifetime’s practice.

One.
Plectranthus argentatus. For much of the summer this plant was the most demanding of water in the entire garden. I must have carried hundreds of litres of water to it. We planted three good sized plants into a large glazed pot back in the spring and now it’s huge. Cuttings have been taken, young plants potted up for next year. The big plant will get recycled as mulch.

Two.
I drag myself out of bed in the morning and draw the curtains to look out at the garden. At the far end, partly obscured by my bamboo, is this Dahlia, blazing like a fire beacon on the dullest of days. Dahlia ‘Cheyenne’, with a bit of help from D. ‘Red Velvet’. Fabulous. It doesn’t catch the morning sun, I have to wait for late afternoon to get that shot.

Three.
Both the houses that back onto our garden have had new people move in to replace old ‘uns who died in the last couple of years. We are just starting to see the fruits of some of the rip out and start again planting that they have been doing, appearing above the fence. Ours being the south side of the fence we will probably get a better display than they do. There’s one from each garden here but they’re beside each other at the boundary, I could have done a panorama shot of the pair. I don’t know which honeysuckle it is but I’m guessing the Buddleja is B. x weyeriana ‘Sungold’.

Four.
Begonia luxurians was the first houseplant type begonia I planted into the garden and this, that same original plant, has been lifted and brought in for the last two (or is it three?) winters. It has run out of steam and hasn’t looked especially good at any point this summer, so it will be retired and humanely euthanized, to be replaced with one or more of its vegetative progeny next spring.

Five.
Impatiens stenantha is now so well established it’s hard to believe it was only planted in spring of this year. There was a shoot of something different growing in with it which turned out, not unexpectedly, to be another Impatiens, namely Impatiens arguta ‘Alba’. Now, that is a plant that, courtesy of Jill Heavens, I already own, so I don’t need, but it is slightly different, so now I have two. You wouldn’t be so monstrous as to make me choose between them, would you? It’s a bit more vigorous than the yellow flowered I. stenantha, so I think I’ll remove it and get it going elsewhere. It’s nice when you get a good grouping going but they’re never quite equals so a bit of tweaking is usually needed.

Six.
I bought a couple of IBC’s to increase my water storage. I have cleared the space where I want to put them. There’s just the little matter of moving them the 25 metres from where they are to where I want them. Starting with the gateway, which is 90cm wide, 10cm less than the tanks.

  • where they are now
  • where they’re going (hopefully)

That you’ve got this far I’ll take as a win. Please flag up any problems you had along the way. I just need to get to grips with Twitter (before Elon takes over and trashes it) and then I can relax.

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Published by Jim Stephens

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

68 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – 22/10/2022”

  1. Pingback: six on Saturday, 29 October 2022 – After Eden
  2. Pingback: Balmy October – The Nostalgic Gardener

    1. You’d gone in the spam folder with some very unsavoury company. I found a few comments from last week too, all now approved. I don’t know why WordPress picked on you, everything else flagged as spam, was spam.

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  4. I’ve had no luck with commenting via your email but going via the “reader” always works. I will try again next week. Meanwhile, those dahlias are beautiful but I’m not sure about golden buddleia, I expect it to be purple, but that’s just my preference.

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    1. The x weyeriana Buddleias are a funny little bunch, hybrids between B. globosa which is bright yellow and B. davidii which is purple. ‘Sungold’ was I think, the first of them and quite close to B. globosa, but the RHS is now listing around 17. Hard to believe they’re distinct, but ‘Bicolor’, from pictures, looks like it could be very nice or pretty dreadful. I’d like to see it in the flesh.

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  7. Pingback: October 22, 2022 Six on Saturday – Gardening in the Prairie

  8. Hi everyone! I really enjoyed your post Jim and I love your approach to embracing the decline into autumn. Those dahlias are beautiful, I think those might have been the variety I was actually looking for when I ended up with ‘Show ‘n’ Tell’, which is beautiful but a martyr to red spider mite… anyway, thanks so much for hosting. Here are my six: https://notesfromtheundergardener.wordpress.com/2022/10/22/six-on-saturday-22nd-october-2022/

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  10. Haha, it will be a job and a half moving your water thingies! 😁 I had never come across these used for water storage until another blogger introduced me to hers recently – what a great example of repurposing. Not enough space for one here because the garden is too full of plants, but we do have lots of water butts instead, some linked together. For some reason, I couldn’t add a link to your blog today (nor a seed company I wanted to link to), but I shall try again later. Thanks so much for hosting, and for your thoroughness in replying to all contributors. My post is here: https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2022/10/22/six-on-saturday-half-of-them-pink/

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    1. IBC’s are good for water storage in that they are cheap per litre of storage and being square, take up the least possible space. I didn’t have space either but have cleared a corner of trays and pots that I don’t need and will give away. Forced housekeeping, the only sort I do.

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      1. I think I may have that one..though it will not grow unless heavily irrigated. Interesting thought on the impatiens, I have never seen so many, they may be more common in the Pacific Northwest, the climate is more suited to them I think,

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  12. Oh!…Good for you..I recently saw where someone had taken two of those ICB’s and made an outdoor shower. It looked like a wonderful idea. ps I have no idea what ICB stands for but I do have one that we used to water our pasture hens …years ago.

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  16. Thanks for taking over hosting this meme Jim, I am sure it will continue safely in your capable hands and you always have something unusual to share. The honeysuckle is a gorgeous colour, but is it scented? And does the buddleia attract the butterflies? So often they don’t seem to these days. Good luck with the tanks. Hire a crane? Friendly farmer to the rescue? 🤔

    Six on Saturday | October Colours #4

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    1. It’s a bit of a climb to get to the honeysuckle so I haven’t smelled it. A big part of the problem with buddleias attracting butterflies is that there very few to attract, plus it’s getting late in the year. I have a hired helper coming on tuesday, hopefully between us we will prevail with the tanks.

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  17. Pingback: Six on Saturday | October Colours #4 – Cornwall in Colours
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  24. Thanks for taking over Jim. Those are serious water tanks, will look forward to seeing the resultant move! Like your plectranthus, must try it again, I forgot to take cuttings one year and lost it!

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  26. Not having done a six last week, I was proper flummoxed for a while, but I’ve found out where SOS has gone, thank goodness. With regard to the mention of your new neighbours, the houses on each side of us are for sale and I’m living in hope that the new owners will at least plant some trees.
    I expect you’ll simply hoist those tanks on your broad shoulders and lift them over the gate.😉
    Here are my six: https://janesmudgeegarden.com/irises-sos-october-22-2022/

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    1. The first thing people seem to do here when they move into a new house is to cut down the trees. There’ll be a few occasional sixers who are similarly flummoxed, hopefully they’ll find their way back.

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  27. Hi Jim. Just a quick comment. I follow you but received no notification of the SoS post, so looked you up manually. It may be a WordPress glitch – not sure.

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    1. The begonia needs to be kept growing, cuttings one year, potted through 1, 3 and 7.5L pots in successive years they do well. Then a couple of years in the garden, digging up, stuffed into a 10L pot, not fed and watered as much as it needs, and the wheels fall off somewhat.

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    1. I’d have been happy with woody stems on the begonia if it would have produced a decent crop of leaves from them. The cane begonias are a bit like the sort of shrubs that produce new stems from the ground each year so you take out the old ones. If they’re growing poorly there are no new stems.

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  30. Great start Jim. That dahlia is a beauty, bet it looks fabulous when the low sun hits it. I’ve also got an impatiens in my six, they sulked but now are better than ever, although my omieana is definitely in the wrong place and will be part of the shuffle later. Looking forward to the video of the water tank move. 🙂 Here are mine, hope you enjoy them https://offtheedgegardening.com/2022/10/22/six-on-saturday-long-live-the-king/

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    1. I’m just hoping no one is watching when I do the tank move, I’m certainly not going to video it. Impatiens omeiana seems quite hard to please compared to the other Impatiens I have.

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    1. The Canna is the same ‘Henlade Seedling’, of unknown parentage, I mentioned a few weeks back. Its last flower is fading away now. ‘Peaches and Cream’ doesn’t seem to be available here, it could be ‘Serotina’.

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  34. Now they are some serious water storage tanks. I’ve been pondering squeezing in another slim water butt behind the blue shed. I’m just not sure how easy it will be squeezing past two of the things to prune a Philadelphus if I do (I made something of an obstacle course for my wife and her bike when I fitted two near our side gate). Dahlia ‘Cheyenne’ is a stunner https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2022/10/22/six-on-saturday-22-october-2022/

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  37. Pingback: Six on Saturday 22-10-22 – Fred, a French Gardener2

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