Six on Saturday – 26/11/2022

Categories six on saturday, , 53 Comments on Six on Saturday – 26/11/2022

The wine it was drunk, the ship it was sunk,
The shot it was dead, all the sorrows were drowned.
The birds they were clouds, the brides and the shrouds
And as we drew south the mist it came down.

Late November. Sandy Denny.

Ah, they don’t make ’em like that any more. A fragment of the soundtrack of my yoof. It being late November, it’s only right that finding six things should be getting harder. It is, but only because nothing much has changed, the downward spiral has been the slowest ever. There will be repetition; I will try for a different slant on the same subject. It’d be great if you joined in, six things happening in your garden, or a garden, or somewhere garden-like, then a link in the comments below. Clear as mud? Check the participant’s guide.

One.
Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea ‘Transparent’. Repeated from a couple of weeks ago. For around ten or fifteen minutes just before 10am this catches the low winter sun, then it’s in shadow for the rest of the day. That’s assuming that the sun is out at the required time, which it hasn’t been lately. Friday morning it was and the trick then was to find the right angle and get a sharp shot. Then you download the pictures and see some ghastly background or realise the image stabilisation was off and it’s too late to do it again.

Two.
There was a rather predictable article in the paper this morning about how we were experiencing a second spring because of the high temperatures. I’m not really seeing it myself, though I do have a couple of flowers on Dicentra formosa, getting very ahead of itself. Very much the exception though, fortunately. One primrose flower too.

Three.
If memory serves, there are a couple of species of these Schlumbergera cacti commonly grown and someone once explained the difference, which I quickly forgot. Since all of ours are flowering now, they are presumably all the same species. They’re looking good on their north facing windowsill, from the outside looking in.

Four.
Euphorbia characias ‘Silver Swan’. We planted two variegated Euphorbias in this bed earlier this year, the soil is poor and it gets summer sun; they’ve both done well. Through the winter they will be shaded by the house, perhaps a sterner test. For now though, this one is standing out with its silvery foliage. I have a feeling that flowers may add nothing at all.

Five.
I lifted and potted a couple more Begonias during the week, these are B. palmata ‘Tie Dye’ and B. U614. Both have survived winters outside before but they didn’t enjoy the experience and will get going earlier and stronger next year for getting a bit of tlc through the colder months. I have also left plants of both out in the ground and will protect them when it’s very cold. The comparison will be interesting.

Six.
Wandering round with my camera, looking for things to photograph, I almost missed this. In truth I almost certainly walked right past it several times before it finally caught my eye. Bomarea caldasii, starting to die off but with more flowers now than it’s had all summer, and the trusses getting bigger. Again the dilemma is whether to leave it in the ground or lift it and bring it inside. It’ll probably stay out, I’ve another I will bring in. I cut the flower and did a stacked image. Not the ideal flower truss for a vase, hanging vertically down.

For now I’m sticking with Twitter, somewhat against my better judgement. I opened an Instagram account but haven’t posted anything on it yet. Where to go for those wanting to participate if Twitter crashes and burns or becomes a place people like me don’t want to be. Any thoughts? See you next week.

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Published by Jim Stephens

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

53 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – 26/11/2022”

  1. I love the grass. I hope my Sporobolis heteropepsis does well and grows into a healthy clump. It should photograph well if one catches it when the lighting is favorable.My schlumbergia is recovering from some abuse, and has not put any buds on yet this year.

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  2. I spent a happy hour reading everyone’s posts, then realised I’d been away so,long that I was reading SOS from a previous week! Here’s my six for this week, I think I’ve linked to an old post of yours instead of this week’s, Jim, I’ll edit my post shortly! How hopeless of me, that’ll teach me not to stay away so long! Anyway, here’s my six: https://notesfromtheundergardener.wordpress.com/

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    1. There are actually two flowerheads on the Bomarea, there’s one almost top left. Couple more out of shot too. That even one person has admitted to following up a song link could encourage me to include more.

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  4. Pingback: Six on Saturday: Partial Nudity | Rambling in the Garden

      3. Utterly baffling. Your short link puts you in my spam with some very dodgy customers, mostly it seems, offering vehicle repairs of one sort or another in California. WordPress has a faultless record of excluding them all while letting through all the good guys. Except you. Have you had a previous life as a dodgy second hand car dealer? What on earth is it picking up on?

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      7. No dodgy dealings that I know of Jim! I think my short link worked for the first couple of weeks, then last week I couldn’t see it when I came back later to blog hop. So I thought that it was my fault and I didn’t post it in the morning before I went out in a rush. Most puzzling. The short link always worked previously.

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  9. I think you must have the optimal climate for gardening. The very thought of leaving a begonia outside during November makes me tremble. Brrr. I only do gardening and dogs on Twitter, so I haven’t seen much of a change to my ‘safe place’, but insta would work I think. No six from me, between cold weather and Thanksgiving, well, you know…

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    1. The grass is always greener, Shangri-La from where I’m sat wouldn’t have frosts at all, would rain mostly at night, and regularly through the year. And it wouldn’t have wind, I mean, what is wind good for? I’ve dipped one small toe into Instagram’s murky waters, which is a start.

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  11. Pingback: 🌺Last Weekend In November. #SixOnSaturday #GardeningTwitter #Flowers #Plants | Rosie Amber

  12. Lovely grass with the sun on it. And that shot of the bomaria does it lots of favours! My garden photos pale into insignificance in comparison. I am also persevering with Twitter. I couldn’t bear to lose the crowd of clever, funny, knowledgeable, mostly sane people I interact with on there. I have an account on mastodon too, but have only posted once or twice because I can’t handle it and people seem to want almost everything I post behind a content warning. I am on Instagram though, and post regularly there https://www.instagram.com
    But as this is the gardening share, here are my 6 on Saturday https://theoptimisticgardener.wordpress.com/2022/11/26/week-20th-november/

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  13. Each season brings its challenges and I am with you on the “should I bring it in, protect in situ, leave to the fates?” dilemmas at the moment. Made even more tricky by the crazy weather. No six from me today, I am supposed to be doing something else but procrastinating. As a side, I am sad to hear that Tony Schilling has died.

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  14. I have a schlumbergera truncata – Thanksgiving cactus – kindly identified by Lisa in the comments of my post from August 2021 – https://mytinywelshgarden.home.blog/2021/08/28/six-on-saturday-28-august-2021/ – if the ‘branches’ are flattish and end in ‘claws’ it’s a truncata. You have a splendid selection, mine still only has a few flowers whereas it is usually full at this time of year, but as Tony Tomeo says – it flowers when it wants to so I wonder if temperature affects it (we’re not having our central heating on as much as usual; if it was warmer for longer, perhaps it would produce more).

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  15. Pingback: Six on Saturday: 26 November 2022 – My Tiny Welsh Garden

  17. The Bomerea gets quite the makeover in your studio shot, as Noelle says. It’s amazing what you can achieve with your camera. I’m quite tempted by the Euphorbia with its silvery leaves and unlike Tony wouldn’t be put off by the self seeding as I love the wonder of seeing plants just springing up randomly. I know this is just because I (still) have lots of bare patches in my borders.

    Here’s my six for this week
    https://www.hortusbaileyana.co.uk/2022/11/back-from-florida.html

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  19. So many topics that run parallel to my thoughts: I’ve just discovered this stacking thing on my phone and was wondering how to use it. Thank you for such a great demonstration. Yes to the twitter/Instagram dilemma. Every day brings less relevant content on my twitter account. Yes to the winding down of the year. Yes to the odd primrose flower. And yes to the wonderful photo of the molinia caerulea, my newly planted grasses have several years to go before they become that impressive.

    Here’s my link https://wp.me/p97pee-19Z

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  21. Euphorbia characias ‘Silver Swan’ can really get away. It is surprisingly true to type. Most of the seedlings are variegated! Seedlings that are not variegated are even more prolific and more aggressive though, and eventually crowd out the variegated sort. It does well here, but because it does a bit too well, I would be hesitant to grow it again. Schlumbergera . . . . ? I do not even try to identify them anymore. They bloom whenever they want to.
    Anyway, these are my six:https://tonytomeo.com/2022/11/26/six-on-saturday-new-photinia/

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