Six on Saturday – 25/2/2023

Categories six on saturday, , 63 Comments on Six on Saturday – 25/2/2023

I rushed around on Thursday to get a few pictures, frost having been forecast that night. I’ve been out all day today (Friday) do haven’t had a look to see if any damage was done. It’s a two steps forward, one step back time of year. Hopefully for most of you out there it’s two forward and none back. You know the score, six things happening in your garden on a Saturday, get a picture to prove it then post them on a blog, or Twitter or anywhere you please really, then stick a link in my comments section so the rest of the world can find them. Should you need it, please refer to the hugely popular participants guide. Onward and upwards.

One.
Camellia ‘Bob Hope’. A couple of blooms from the same bush taken at the same time illustrates on of the tricky things about Camellias. They are variable. There is nothing remotely unusual about getting two blooms on the same bush that most people would be convinced were of completely different varieties. Generally in warmer climates/conditions the anthers/stigma/ovaries are much more likely to develop normally; in cooler climates the anthers commonly turn into petaloids or petals and the ovaries won’t produce seed. Many pictures of Bob Hope show a flower with a big bunch of stamens fronting a flower with a couple of rows of petals.

Two.
Most, if not all of my Crocus tomasinianus are ‘Ruby Giant’ or ‘Barr’s Purple’. I seem to think that in past years they’ve flowered at much the same time but this year the darker ones are a couple of weeks behind. I’ve been looking at another couple of areas where I would like more and I hope I have it right in thinking the darker one is ‘Ruby Giant’, since that’s the one I want to have, though both are lovely and seem to be thriving.


Three.
Camellia ‘Koto-no-kaori’ opened a couple of blooms in mid January and was seized on at the time for a six. It’s still well short of being in full bloom and it is the weather will have the last say as to when and if that happens. Looking plenty good enough to include again though. Shame you can’t smell it.

Four.
I’d better get my only Daffs in now, the ever reliable ‘Tete-a-tete’. Yellow is a great colour at this time of year when the light is so dull and blue tinged. Perhaps I should plant yellow crocus?


Five.
I might have enthused about it before, but Hakonechloa is a real favourite with me for a number of reasons. One of those is that here we are at the end of February and it is still looking good. Except that it is one cultivar only that is still looking good, ‘Albostriata’. I have an earlier clump which I knew as ‘Mediovariegata’, they are almost certainly the same and ‘Albostriata’ is likely to be the correct moniker. Very soon now I will cut it down, the liklihood is that new shoots are already emerging so I need to be careful not to slice them off. In a month it will be well on its way back to greenery with yellowery stripes. It changes colour depending whether it is wet or dry; stands out more when wet.


Six.
Geranium ‘Fay Anna’ is a pretty enough thing when it’s flowering, small pink flowers over a very long period, but it has this second string to its bow which is the more appreciated for coming now when there isn’t so much colour around. The picture was taken on a dull day and the plant is poked away in a fairly shady corner, so it looked fairly dull until I tweaked it a bit, but I hope I’m giving you an accurate impression. I turned it up a bit for the header, call it artistic licence.

The colour is coming back into the garden, it’s no longer a single slug nibbled primrose here and a single slightly frost damaged fuchsia there. Are we going to get another serious cold spell? Who knows, though I hope not. The mornings and evenings are getting markedly lighter too. The pace quickens, I like it.

Published by Jim Stephens

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

63 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – 25/2/2023”

  1. Pingback: Six-on-Saturday: February Week 4 – The Three Hairs
  2. Pingback: Six on Saturday: Just Standing and Staring – Our Forest Garden
  3. Pingback: Six on Saturday: Sudden Spring – Our Forest Garden

  4. I love the Geranium plant Jim. I used to be entirely focused on flower blooms, but the more I see and learn about gardens, the more I’ve come to appreciate leaf shapes and colours. That and the grass Hakonechloa look wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

    After running around yesterday looking for a suitable 6, I completely forgot to comment! Hope you don’t mind the late addition. https://onemorethyme.co.uk/six-on-saturday-25-february-2023/

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  5. I can’t get over the wonderful colours of the Geranium leaves! I think they are fabulous. I also like the deep colour of the Crocus. It is so good to see that Spring is in sight in the Northern Hemisphere. This week I review the vegetable garden, and this year it has been quite productive. We had an End of Summer Harvest swap this morning (Sunday) and our minds are buzzing with all the information from other like minded fellow swappers. So apologies for the late ink to my post for this week, but here it is: https://hairbellsandmaples.com/2023/02/25/six-on-saturday-w8-2023-vegetables-in-february/

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  6. Fabulous ❤ Your camellia Bob Hope looks great no matter the flower form! I used to have roses do the same thing, a particular old rose with striped blooms, had about five distinctively different coloured blooms on the same bush on the same day. It makes it hard to identify old roses lost to commerce for this very reason. People often comment if you present a picture that looks different from theirs.

    Here are my six – https://rosegardenconversation.wordpress.com/2023/02/26/trees-of-my-acquaintance/

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  7. Yes, I think you should plant yellow crocuses! I used to have a bunch, but found that after one or two days of being open, bunnies would come along and chomp them off. So I stopped planting crocuses here. Your camellias are beautiful. My daffodils are up, but I won’t see flowers here until at least the end of March. I do have tete-a-tetes out in the garage, almost ready to bring into the house and force into early bloom. Here is my entry for the week: https://cosmosandcleome.wordpress.com/2023/02/25/six-on-saturday-late-february/

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      4. Absolutely love ferns but choosing a favourite isn’t easy, they all have a period in the year when they’re at their best. I’ve done five blog posts on them, select the category for ferns and they come up. I have several more than I’ve covered in the blogs, mostly young ones that haven’t got going yet. I’m especially fond of the very delicate looking forms, Adiantums, Araiostegia and Paesia, but they all have something about them that appeals to me. The only fern I don’t like is Bracken, which is pretty much of a menace even where it is growing naturally.

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      5. Jim, I will look up your posts. Thank you for pointing me in that direction. I’ve belonged to the Hardy Fern Foundation for a few years now and am always delighted to view programs presented by UK (and other European) fern experts. You have such beautiful selections available there that we can never access here in the US. Our selection is woefully limited, other than a few mail order sources and the HFF annual sale. My favorite depends on when you inquire. I also love the Adiantums and I’m trying the pink form to see whether it is hardy in our spot here. In summer, I’m partial to any Athyrium. But the little soft shield fern performs best for us over winter out of the several evergreen ferns we grow. I agree with you that they each have their time of year to shine. Right now, as the fiddleheads start to appear is pure delight. Have a great week! e

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  11. I cut my Hak mac down this week, but it was still looking pretty good, usually by now it is a soggy mess. I do like Geranium ‘Fay Anna’ the leaves are so pretty. I might have to seek that one out. Hardy geraniums do well here, about the only thing that the S&S leave alone! And only 4 more weeks until BST – without wishing my life away, I can’t wait! Though things are stirring in the garden so my SOS may well make a come back next week.

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      1. Thank you, Jim! I was born and raised in Mexico City, but I have lived in Canada for almost thirty years. I hope you get to try cooking with dahlias, I found it very interesting.

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      3. Yeah, although dahlias are not as productive per plant as potatoes, so unless grown in large quantities, they are more of an interesting project to try as a novelty.

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  17. Lovely spring colors coming up at your place, Jim! I like the Faye Anna – very fresh looking. Do the leaves hold that color all season? For me it is still a waiting game, but as Jim points out, the days are lengthening and I have heard cardinals singing the spring territorial song. I saw three sand hill cranes on campus yesterday – always a pleasure, but I was driving so I could not capture it for you, They were wading along the edge of a small pond, eating whatever they eat.

    https://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com/2023/02/25/february-25-2023-six-on-saturday/

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  20. Foliage of G. Fay Anna is gorgeous, with leaves like that, who needs flowers! Like your first Camellia too such a lovely flower and Narcissus Tete a Tete brightens up a February day nicely.
    My six are here……./www.leadupthegardenpath.com/

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  27. Good morning Jim and many thanks for Six wonderful plants this week, with some interesting descriptions. The geranium is surely one for my list, and I take your observation on the Hakonechloa is interesting, I have the one which starts to shed its stems much earlier. I believed mine were Albostriata but as I have had them for years, and when very few were around, it may have been misnamed then. Here are my six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2023/02/six-on-saturday-25-february-2023.html

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    1. I lost the name of the first Hak mac I had, made a barely educated guess at ‘Mediovariegata’. The ‘Albostriata’ was a much later aquisition and is probably the same but even after several years I’m not absolutely certain.

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  28. Mine Six are weirder than yours. I would say that they are more interesting, but that is a bit too boastful, even by my standards. Besides, you will not understand why some of them are so interesting. I must explain that the weirdness that I would find to be so interesting involves an aberration of weather here that is not so interesting elsewhere.
    Your ‘Bob Hope’ camellia is nice. We grew only a few of that cultivar, and it did not bloom so well for us, although clients told us that they bloom better as they grow within their landscapes. Are yellow Dutch crocus common? I remember mixed Dutch crocus with all the variations of blue and white, but I do not remember seeing yellow until after 2000 or so. Do you mean another yellow crocus?

    Six on Saturday: SNOW?!

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    1. Weird sounds good. ‘Bob Hope’ is a slow starter here, growth wise. Mine has always flowered well though. I haven’t started looking at yellow crocus yet, most of the bulb catalogues won’t list them until later in the year. A soft yellow species type perhaps or smaller numbers of a really rich golden yellow perhaps.

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      1. From my own experience the yellow ones don’t seem to bulk up as well as the purple ones, I have no idea of the type as they were here when I moved in. As for white ones! Maybe a couple come back each year and they are the ones that tend to get nibbled.

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      2. Now I’ve a few whites that have persisted for many years, not increased any, but held their own. You think you can learn from other people’s experience, especially when they’re close by, but gardens are all different. Different variety, or growing conditions? Further from slug hiding places? Who knows?

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      3. Well, that would make sense as to why ‘Bob Hope’ did not impress us, but was popular with clients. I doubt it was popular with Bob Hope though, since he lived in Palm Springs. Most species of Camellia ‘supposedly’ appreciate the warmth there, and some seem to be happy in sheltered situations, but I am not convinced that they like the aridity.

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  31. Pingback: Six on Saturday 25 February 2023 – Alpenfalten

  32. I was expecting a frost this morning but there is nothing to see out there, although I haven’t ventured out yet to do the soil prod test. It is very difficult not to get over-excited at this time of year, for me anyway. As always your camellia are lovely and I enjoyed the botany lesson. Your little geranium is a beauty and your clump of crocus standing to attention impressive, you have them well trained. Here are mine, hope you enjoy them https://offtheedgegardening.com/2023/02/25/six-on-saturday-it-is-what-it-is/

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