Six on Saturday – 15/7/2023

Categories six on saturday56 Comments on Six on Saturday – 15/7/2023

St Swithun’s day, or St Swithin if you prefer. I’m mildly impressed that someone has gone to the trouble of putting a detailed entry about him onto Wikipedia. He was the Bishop of Winchester from 852 to 863. He got credited with a whole bunch of miracles when they moved his remains on this day in 971. Presumably he wasn’t a saint before that. Anyway, he’s the reason it’s raining and will go on raining for 40 days. I just wanted to make that clear, before you blame me. We had 44mm on Friday, my water storage is full.

Six on Saturday is a meme kicked off by The Propagator in 1623. It originally required its devotees to find six things in their gardens to shout about on a Saturday. Nowadays, like much else, it has moved online and most followers post pictures of six lovely things from their garden onto a blog or tweet or some such modernity, then bring the world’s attention to them by posting a comment down below. Onwards.

One.
My first is Cleome, of which I was given seed of a white version some years back. Fred sent me seed of a pink form last year and that now seems to be dominating, perhaps because I had a much better germination of it this spring. I bought and sowed a purple variety too, but they came to nought. Getting them established in June’s drought was a struggle but worth it. The first white flower opened yesterday, a week or two after the pinks.

Two.
For my second, I offer up Deinanthe caerulea. It’s a relative of Hydrangea from China and has both fertile and sterile flowers which are very distinct. The whole plant is only about a foot tall and it had been somewhat smothered by perennial sweet pea; I should have put it in last week when it may have had more flowers on it.

Three.
Crinum powellii gets the third slot. This plant was getting mauled by slugs so I dug it up and potted it a few years ago. It didn’t like that much either, its roots were massive and restricted by the pot. So I planted it out again and in this, its second year in a new location, it finally seems to have found conditions that suit it.

Four.
Last year when we had the garden open, more people asked about Indigofera pendula than all the rest combined. It had a rough winter and has been slow to get going this year, but it is now starting to put on a show and get noticed. The new growth produces racemes of flowers at every leaf and does so for two or three months. In the winter I will cut the four foot shoots to around six inches and from that length I will get the first flowers next year in June.

Five.
Fifth place goes to Sue’s glasshouse. There are two points at which our garden visitors are frequently heard to say wow; the first when they come round the side of the house and see the unexpectedly large garden, the second when they look in Sue’s glasshouse. Even with the main cactus flowering period over it’s an impressive display.

Six.
For my sixth I was going to put in a flowering shoot on my bamboo, usually a prelude to the plant’s demise. It only appears to be one small shoot, I am hoping it will be the only one. That rejected, here are a couple of flowers on Dahlias that I grew from seed. They’re not as good as most named varieties but in terms of satisfaction given, that they are my own compensates for any shortfall in quality.

There were other pictures. Inspired by Deborah @bucks_head_garden I’ve put a few of the spares on Instagram where I seem to exist as jimstephens350. Deborah’s photographic work at https://www.instagram.com/dfwhishaw/ is fabulous too. Do people do sixes there? I must have a look.

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 – 15/7/2023”

  3. Wow, that greenhouse is spectacular! Great six this weekend. I am very interested to see that substantial indigofera pendula. I was gifted 3 rooted cuttings last year and only one made it through the winter. The surviving plant is doing OK, but still in a pot. Now I am inspired! I love cleome and grow all three colours … when I can persuade them to germinate 🙂
    Here are my six: https://frogenddweller.wordpress.com/2023/07/15/six-on-saturday-experiments/

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  4. Pingback: Six on Saturday – Experiments | Frogend dweller's Blog

  5. Your first shot of Cleome with the backdrop of V. bonariensis is so lovely I hope you’ll consider getting it printed up for your holiday card this year. I’m usually rather immune to Cleome’s charms, but the way you have cropped out its stem makes it quite lovely. I don’t mean that to sound left-handed, but the stems, in our climate at least, become rather gangly by this time in the summer. In a mass, it is lovely, and your close up with raindrops is superb. Congratulations on finally finding the sweet spot for your Crinum lilies, too. Your garden looks wonderful, and the rain has finally blessed you with the wetness all those beautiful plants crave- All except Sue’s cacti and other succulents. What a breathtaking display. I admire her orderliness and the care given to each planting.

    Here are my six for the week: https://woodlandgnome.wordpress.com/2023/07/15/six-on-saturday-disturbance/

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    1. I try so hard when I’m taking pictures of plants to remember not to just focus on the thing I’m taking a picture of. Automated digital cameras encourage rather thoughtless picture taking and I end up with hundreds of images, most of them mediocre and the good ones down more to luck than judgement. The garden’s gratitude for a thorough drenching was so apparent, I could see it, smell it, almost hear it. The plants were smiling.

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    2. The whole business of filling in the summer gaps with annuals is something we’ve only really been doing for the last four or five years, especially the last three when we’ve been opening the garden in June, July and August. The tall, airy ones have been the success story; short stuff seems like a good idea in May but when everything around grows up they get shaded out. If the stems get straggly with the tall stuff, they are largely hidden.

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      1. It is so interesting to watch the heights of the plantings increase through the summer, and then go down to ground level again after the frost. Do you seed in place, or start the annuals in flats? We had a lovely planting of Cleome at the botanical garden where I volunteered that self-seeded and returned year after year, alongside some four-o’clocks that did the same thing. It is always fun to see what works and to find new solutions to what doesn’t.

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      2. The difference between things that self sow and things that don’t is how attractive they are to slugs. I assume that plants like Aquilegia and welsh poppy, the seedlings of which never seem to get eaten, evolved in a slug rich environment and developed defences, whereas things like Cosmos and Cleome didn’t, or if they did, have lost it in the plant breeding process. I’d love to be able to grow all these things in situ, they all know they have to get that first root down as deep as possible as quickly as possible, into reliably moist soil, and they also don’t than fall over. Short version, I start them all in flats, well, cell trays mostly.

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      3. So interesting, Jim. I never considered the work of slugs in slowing down self-seeding plants. Add Rudbeckia hirta to that list of plants that must have defenses against slugs. We get lots of reseeding on certain perennials, but I’ve not done much here with annuals. You are very fortunate to have your greenhouse space for raising seedlings. I’ve always thought that was more efficient anyway, when you consider the thinning needed for things that reseed in-situ.

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  6. Pingback: Six on Saturday: Disturbance – Our Forest Garden

    1. You are far from alone in not posting every week and I sincerely hope that neither you nor anyone else feels any pressure to do so. The thing about Crinum I like the best is their horse-shoe shaped anthers. Dahlias are relatively easy from seed, the main thing is to keep them growing and not have them run out of steam at any stage. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and quality of flowers I got from sowing seed from a couple of named varieties I had growing in the garden. They were at least as good as those I’ve grown from bought seed.

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  8. Pingback: When your lavender is ready but you are not | Mom in the Garden
  9. Pingback: Six on Saturday: 15 July 2023 – My Tiny Welsh Garden
  10. Pingback: Six Interesting (to me) Observations on Saturday | Rambling in the Garden

  11. Wow indeed for Sue’s greenhouse. It is kept very orderly. I notice that the cacti are in terracotta pots in trays and the succulents in plastic pots on saucers. Q: Does she stand them on gravel? Is there a reason for the different type of pots?
    I like cleomes, never thought of trying to grow them from seed. It’s a pity that I seem to have run out of space in my garden as they would probably look quite good among grasses. My photos were taken when the sun shone this week, very wild and windy here today and frequent showers. And as well as St Swithin’s day it is also Lafrowda Day. Pretty wild in St Just too!

    Six on Saturday | Time to Stand and Stare

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    1. It’ll sound crazy but I hadn’t noticed that the cacti were all in terracottas and the rest in plastics until I processed that picture. She’s been doing a lot of potting on, so it may not have been so clear cut before. Actually some of the succulents are in clays and some of the cacti in plastics, but mostly not. The succulents dry out quicker and plastic holds water better than clay. Also, many of the cacti are very top heavy, especially when the compost is dry, so clays are heavier. Finally, vine weevil is a real problem in the succulents and it’s easier to turn the plant out of a plastic pot to look for them; the roots tend to stick to clay pots.
      Lafrowda day also has a Wikipedia entry, though it doesn’t say much, and my copy of Alan Kent’s ‘The Festivals of Cornwall’ doesn’t add a lot more. Gave me an excuse to look something up in it though.

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  12. Lovely as always! I especially like the Indigofera pendula. We also have been blessed with rain just as I got a letter from my lawn service indicating that I should be watering my lawn as there is a drought on. I found myself thinking that maybe droughts are natures way of telling us we should give up the lawn. Hmmmm. Well, my garden is humming away, with birds and butterflies, bees and hoverflies, and Chloe the neighbor cat who finds refuge in my garden and is often sleeping among the dill behind the beans. Of course it has been to hot for the scarlet runners to fruit, but the bees and hummingbirds are enjoying the flowers all the same.

    Here are my six:

    July 15, 2023 Six on Saturday

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    1. We’re still under a hosepipe ban and it’s not likely to get lifted until autumn. It’s not easy to know how to respond to the threat of more drought conditions; I’m inclined to try to find ways to keep growing the things I do now and store more water to irrigate them with.

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

  15. Recently, I visited a friend who had a marvellous perennial garden. One portion had a beautiful grouping of cleome that were producing large quantities of seed pods. Like all true gardeners, he shared with me. Those seeds are now planted so now onto step two or three for me.

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  16. Thanks for reminding me about St Swithins day. It’s a wet one here again, but after the last two dry hot years I’m happy to have a rainy one for the sake of the garden. (desperately trying to look on the bright side here!) You’ve got some real wows in your post but Sue’s greenhouse tops them all (sorry).
    Here’s my Six for this week and your comment prompted me to put it on Instagram too this week.

    https://www.hortusbaileyana.co.uk/2023/07/a-rainy-week.html

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  17. Definitely some wows worth having. We are forecast gale force winds I believe so I have battened down the hatches. And you raise the thorny question of instagram. I’ve not yet tried but I feel I might have a go soon! Here’s my link six-on-saturday-a-wet-and-windy-weekend

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  18. 1623! Boy-oh-boy, no wonder The Propagator was ready to hand over the driving reins. Talking of rain, we’ve had a nice drop now, not sure how much, but the garden is sighing in relief.

    Your garden visitors really do get a treat and with all your gardening knowledge, I’m sure you have some great conversations with them.

    I have a question about propagating Helenium on my post today, any tips?

    Here’s a link:

    🌦Rainy Summer Days For This Week’s #SixOnSaturday Post. #GardeningTwitter #GardeningAddict #LoveGardening

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  21. There are people in the Six tag on Insta! I’ve been mirroring posts there and to FB and have found people on both.

    The cactus glasshouse is amazing. Is it heated?

    Crinums are such fussy things — I never knew this back in California, where they naturalized in our backyard. Now, I’ve got a potted one that’s been sitting around sulking for a couple years, after being assured they do fine in pots. Going to have to try sinking and lifting to see if it makes a difference.

    All dahlias are lovely, whether they be classified as bedding or exhibition worthy. Yours look particularly floriferous!

    My Six: https://littleblueandwhitehouse.com/2023/07/15/six-on-saturday-15th-july-2023/

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  23. Crinum powellii, now there hangs a tale! Carol Klein planted one in my garden when she was filming here for BBC 2 in 2006 and said that she always plants them deep unlike other people who like to plant them near the surface of the soil. That was the last I saw of it until 3 yrs ago when all of a sudden long green leaves appeared and I wondered what they were from. Then I remembered, but still no flowers, I think I will have to dig it up and move it elsewhere! Sue’s plants are an real Wow, no wonder your visitors are impressed!
    My six are here………https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com/

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    1. There will be many more wows, Jim, when all the SoS contributors see that greenhouse – I am surprised she was willing to leave you in charge when she was off on the other side of the world… ! 🤣 The fact that it is FULL is perhaps even more impressive than its size 😉 Whatever size of g/h you start with they are never big enough – and my neighbour is just about to take possession of another one, realising that I was right when I told him a few years back that his new one then would not be big enough….
      I was going to ask if you had a trick for germinating your cleome – but then you mentioned your no show purples… Thanks for hosting, Jim – my six are here: https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2023/07/15/six-interesting-to-me-observations-on-saturday/

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      1. Sue needs another greenhouse, come to that, so do I. Need v want, the eternal dilemma. I don’t have a set method for cleome seed, the same treatment seems to be work with one pot of seed and not the pot right beside it, or it works one year but not the next.

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      2. Haha, yes, the distinction can be a bit blurry! 😁 While I have cleome seed left I will keep trying, perhaps, but don’t think I will buy any more…

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  24. Pingback: Six on Saturday | 15th July 2023 – Little Blue and White House

  26. I’m so glad you provided an explanation for all the rain we’ve been getting – but I hope not to have to endure this for so many more days. 😀
    Sue’s greenhouse is a treat – what an unexpected and fantastic sight your visitors have. Your own efforts won’t go unnoticed either – your garden seems to be a feast for the eyes and the soul.
    Here’s mine for this week:

    Summer is Hiding

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  28. Greenhouses do not impress me. The assortment of desert and chaparral species performing so well within a greenhouse impresses me! I know that many or most of those species enjoy harshly dry and warm situations, and are more susceptible to rot in confinement, particularly within a greenhouse.

    Six on Saturday: Not So Bad

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  32. Pingback: Six on Saturday | Time to Stand and Stare – Cornwall in Colours

  33. Indigofera pendula was always the most admired plant when I opened my previous garden. I always found it hard to photograph though. Lovely cleomes, I haven’t grown them for a while, I don’t know why because I adore them. Dahlias grown from seed are always more beautiful than named varieties because you grew them yourself and each one is surprisingly different. Sue’s greenhouse is stunning, it makes me want to give mine over to succulents but then where would I keep my nerines and all the tender stuff? One needs a whole estate of greenhouses really.
    Joining you this week, let’s hope I can get the link thing right this time.

    Six on Saturday. From the Sublime to the Ridiculous.

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  34. Pingback: Six on Saturday. From the Sublime to the Ridiculous. | The Blooming Garden

  35. I didn’t realised that Six on Saturday was going for so long, there must be a copy or two in the Wells Chained Library, I shall check next time. One would say that there had been so many changes in gardening and so many new plant introductions since then. Like many when I first saw Indigofera pendula, I turned blue with admiration/envy and I cannot understand why I have yet to try one here. Here are my Six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2023/07/six-on-saturday-mid-july-2023.html

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    1. I don’t think Indigofera pendula is easy to come by, I’m glad I grabbed it when I did as that nursery (Treseders) haven’t had it since and I’ve not seen it elsewhere.

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