Six on Saturday – 15/4/2023

Categories six on saturday56 Comments on Six on Saturday – 15/4/2023

It has served me well thus far in my life to keep my head down and generally pass unnoticed. Quite why I am heading off to Kent this weekend to lead a camellia study tour is something of a mystery to me. I just want to be quietly pottering about in my own garden really.

The pace is continuing to pick up as the days lengthen, the sun gets stronger and temperatures go up a little. I have so many seeds sown, some needing pricking off, others needing moving into better light; all need regular and careful watering, I need to be here.

It’s Thursday now as I write this, I’m getting a train early tomorrow and not coming back until monday, so I’m afraid you’re on your own in all probability, unless I get a chance to reply to any comments in the evenings. I suspect that might not prove possible though. You don’t need me, you can talk amongst yourselves for a bit. I seem to have a shortlist of 13 items to whittle down to six, I’d better crack on.

One.
Back in January I included an item about grafting onto one of my apple trees. I made four grafts, three of which are now breaking bud and starting to grow. No matter how often I do them, It still seems little short of miraculous when they take and grow away. I’ll leave the tie and wax for a few weeks yet.


Two.
I felt sure I’d already included Anemone lipsiensis ‘Pallida’ in a six this year but I must have taken its picture and passed it over in favour of something else. It’s not going to get any better than it was looking today, so it’s going in. It’s a hybrid between the wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa, and Anemone ranunculoides. I bought one of them recently, so perhaps I’ll get spontaneous hybrid seedlings popping up in years to come.


Three.
Another plant I’m surprised to find I never included in a six is Epipactis gigantea. Admittedly it got a short blog all to itself shortly after I planted it last year. A terrestrial orchid that I was assured would be easy and reliable if planted in moist shade. It has at least survived and is coming up. I hadn’t even labelled it or marked where I’d planted it (still haven’t) so I’ve been keeping an anxious eye on the general area for a few weeks now. At least I hadn’t planted anything else right on top of it while it was dormant.


Four.
Very close to the orchid is a plant of Acer palmatum ‘Orange Dream’. Or at least I think that’s what it is, I’m getting very sloppy with my labelling, which is not at all a good thing when my memory is as rubbish as it is. It’s looking a lot better than it did last year, almost as if it has been growing during the winter; I just don’t remember it being so bushy. I want it to grow rapidly to just above head height so that it becomes part of the overhead canopy rather than a view blocking presence in the middle of my shade area. It’s around 75cm now so has a good way to go.


Five.
I don’t often include things that are on my allotment, though I do regard it as an extension of the garden. I have big drifts of forget-me-nots flowering up there now, it seems a bit ahead of the plants in the garden. It’s either a sign of a sloppy allotmenteer or it’s my contribution to early flowers for insects in a rather typically sterile agricultural landscape. It also fits in nicely with my no-dig cover crop regime in that it has protected the soil through late winter when the phacelia I’d sown in the autumn had died from frost. Rabbits got in and trashed my purple curly kale or I’d be eating that still.


Six.
All too often I don’t get around to cutting off the old fronds on my ferns until the new ones are well into growth and it’s very hard to avoid damaging them. This year I timed it better and Polystichum polyblepharum is first out of the blocks with its new fronds. There are a great many more snapping at its heels.

Toothbrush, camera, books, phone, money, tickets, spare batteries, charger……… I always forget something. See you on the other side.

Published by Jim Stephens

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

56 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – 15/4/2023”

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  9. I’m late sowing seeds this year as it has still been quite cold in the conservatory and I was aiming to be away myself last week. Warmed up greatly today so I will make a start, though I still might have to leave things to their own devices for a few days at the end of the month which is not ideal. Kent is a wonderful county for gardens, you need a week there to visit them. I hope your tour guiding is going well and you are enjoying yourself.

    Six on Saturday | April Showers

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    1. It was a very interesting weekend but in truth I’m not cut out to be a tour guide, I need my horticultural fix directly, not vicariously through others. I rarely seem to get exited about the same things as anybody else.

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  12. Enjoy your trip! The garden will be anxiously awaiting your return! The anemones are lovely. I also like the forget me nots. My grandmother used to have my digging them out of her lawn and replanting them elsewhere. I do not have them, but love the dainty flowers! Things are on the move here, but about to be smacked down by winter. So it goes.

    https://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com/2023/04/15/april-15-2023-six-on-saturday/

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  13. Pingback: April 15, 2023 Six on Saturday – Gardening in the Prairie

  14. By the time you read this, Jim, I trust you’ll be basking in the glow of success after your brilliant tour. I hope the weather was fine. That little Acer is impressive. I have something similar that hasn’t leafed out yet and I’m holding my breath a bit about it. They taking their time stretching up, don’t they? Here are my six for the week, during my favorite week of spring: https://woodlandgnome.wordpress.com/2023/04/15/six-on-saturday-my-favorite-week/

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    1. I don’t know about the glow of success, when it comes to identifying camellias success is putting names to 10% of those you’re asked about with any real confidence. There is something very special about visiting the garden of a real plantsman and being immersed in fabulous plants most of which you’ve never seen before. I’m still buzzing.

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  16. Pingback: Six on Saturday: My Favorite Week – Our Forest Garden

    1. I’m originally native to Surrey and have two sisters in Kent, in spite of which I have seen a side of it I didn’t know existed; relatively high ground, extensively wooded, acidic soils. I need to remind myself of the geology of the south east, the stuff of my ‘O’ level geography over 50 years ago.

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  23. Hi Jim I remember reading your earlier post on Epipactis gigantea when I was coveting having it last year, I’m glad to read it’s survived! It’s one I’m keen to get growing at Glendurgan. Do you remember which nursery at the plant fair you got it from? Everywhere I’ve looked at online seems to be out of stock this year!

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  24. Pingback: Six on Saturday: 15 April 2023 – My Tiny Welsh Garden

  26. I’m glad Anemone lipsiensis made the cut this week. She’s gorgeous. I think that this is the week where we turn that corner from ‘What can I include’ to ‘What shall I leave out’. I hope you enjoy your tour and meet some interesting fellow enthusiasts.

    Here’s my Six for this week

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  33. Six on Saturday: Camellia japonica


    After I share this link to my Six on Saturday, which just now posted at midnight, I will begin my trip back home from vacation in the Pacific Northwest. It was RAD, but I have no pictures of it yet. Actually, I do not take many pictures. Anyway, I must go now.
    Incidentally, I spent most of my vacation pruning old apple trees that were surrounded by native Polystichum (although not Polystichum polyblepharum) and Anemone (although not Anemone lipsiensis) and Myosotis laxa (although not common forget me not). Epipactis gigantea lives a bit farther south. Japanese maples are very popular here, although I have heard of ‘Orange Dream’ on your blog.

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    1. It’ll be a small miracle if I don’t leave anything behind, I seem to be lugging half my worldly possessions around with me. The cacti lady won’t let anything die, I have every confidence in her.

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    2. Returning safely, or not leaving anything behind, turned out to mean a bit more than coming home with everything I took with me. I had to get young plants of wild collected Viburnum setigerum and Camellia forrestii back from Sevenoaks to Cornwall on the train and underground without damage. Mission accomplished, phew!! A gift from probably the most interesting garden I’ve had the privilege of visiting, ever.

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  37. Safe travels Jim. I know the panicked feeling of leaving seedlings for a few days well – it’s why I seldom go away for more than 48 hrs until the greenhouse is empty for the summer season! Fingers crossed for a good tour of Kent’s Camellias,(who knew there were any?!). I’m gearing up for Rosemoor next weekend and hoping there are a few camellias left in bloom worthy of inclusion – this year seems to have sped to an early finish in many plants.

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    1. One day completed; there are Camellias in Kent, one of the biggest I’ve ever seen at Battle Abbey today. We could have done with being here two or three weeks ago. See you at Rosemoor.

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