Six on Saturday – 26/8/2023

Categories six on saturday54 Comments on Six on Saturday – 26/8/2023

The sky out the front window is black, it’s raining, and the sun is shining brightly. Out the back the sky is blue. It’s been that sort of day. The garden is beginning the long slide into autumn; pretty much all the gardening that can be done has been done but it’s way to early to be thinking about much end of season tidying up . Our garden openings are behind us, the paths overgrown, the overall effect getting a little ragged even if there are plenty of individual things looking good. I’m starting to plan for next year, making notes, taking pictures, looking things up, making more notes. I will forget where I put them if previous years are any guide.

Live in the moment then, with six things happening in the garden right now. I was suitably impressed with the pictures Gill’s brother knocked out on his phone and went out earlier in the week to try and get some comparable images. I’d like to think some were quite good but they just don’t seem to be of the things I want to include.

One.
Polystichum setiferum ‘Ray Smith’ for example. Ferns are a thing I mostly take pictures of when they’re making fresh growth in spring. This year quite a few are making a second flush of new growth now. Athyriums, which have very soft and drought vulnerable foliage, mostly died away completely and have made a fairly full second lot of leaves. The rest are like this one, a mix of new and not so new. I wonder how the new growth will cope with winter.

Two.
It hasn’t been a good year for our Fuchsias. They didn’t enjoy the heat in June and the wet of the last several weeks has caused disease problems. Fuchsia ‘Dying Embers’ has come through with flying colours. It has dark green healthy foliage, lots of dark red and deep purple flowers, is healthy and compact.

Three.
The ginger lilies are starting to flower. Hedychium ‘Assam Orange’ is usually the first; this year ‘Stephen’ is flowering at the same time but was looking a bit ropey. I watered it a bit in June, having learned my lesson last year when it suffered badly from drought, and it is now performing well, albeit a little shorter than it sometimes gets. This is one of the hardiest varieties and will grow anywhere in the UK.

Four.
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides is beginning to look like it might need its wings clipped; there’s doing well and there’s doing too well. This is the low, spreading, herbaceous species, of the three that I have come across. It can also produce a very good autumn colour display but never has in our garden. I do like a nice clear blue. It has Persicaria sinuata growing amongst it, adding a few pink bobbles, a plant I once knew as P. runcinata ‘Needham’s Form’.

Five.
My Dahlias just didn’t want to grow back in June and I held off watering until they were absolutely desperate because I knew once I’d started I would be unable to stop. They have made prodigious growth since the rains came and this one, Dahlia ‘Dazzling Sun’, is a massive improvement on last year, when it was miserable, never produced a decent bloom and had me wondering why on earth I’d bought it. This is why.

Six.
For a couple of years I thought that in Anemone ‘Bressingham Glow’ I’d found a well behaved Japanese anemone. It’s not running riot but it is running. I’m prepared to put up with it for flowers of this quality.

That’s my six for this week. If you would care to join in with the six on saturday crowd you would be very welcome. It’s very straightforward but the full guide is here. Have a good week.

Published by Jim Stephens

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

54 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – 26/8/2023”

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  6. Six on Saturday: ?

    I apologise for the delay of posting this link. It is late morning now. I got no color; only six unidentified species. I wanted to post a picture of an unidentified cultivar of crape myrtle, but did not get a good picture of it. Your ginger is impressive again. My common kahili ginger barely survived gopher damage. I should let it grow into a substantial colony so that is gophers take some of it, they will not take all of it. The other gingers do not bloom until autumn. I am getting to like ‘Assam Orange’ in pictures, but have not seen it here.

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  9. The dahlia is stunning! I also like the anemone very much. Weather can definitely have an impact on the garden, but your fuchsia looks great! When I lived in Seattle we used to lament that some years a kale years as everything else succumbs to cool moist weather. And slugs that come in two sizes, Big and Bigger. No slugs in my current garden, but it is definitely moving towards end of season. I picked a mystery squash today to see if it is edible, and hopefully delicious! Here are my six:

    August 26, 2023 Six on Saturday

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    1. I also want to comment that I am finding that I cannot comment to many of the posts these days. I am told I must be logged in so I make sure I am logged in and still nothing. I do not know if there are new security settings (must I “follow” your blog to comment?) Clearly it is not the case for all SOSer – some I can comment no problem, but others, no idea what the issue is. Kind of annoying…

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      1. Sorry you’re having problems. It’s not one I’ve encountered and I don’t know the answer but if anyone else has had similar problems and found the answer, let us all know please.

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      2. Hi Elizabeth, on my phone they seemed to have changed the settings and now have to press the Login button each time I want to comment on a post, which is annoying. No you don’t need to press the three follow buttons there, to make a comment, only if you want to. I seem to be able to comment on everyone’s except for one blog where they have even higher security set up to comment, and I can’t comment on them, even though I follow the blog! That is why I got rid of having to identify yourself with an email address on my blog, as I find it cumbersome and puts you off commenting on so many places.

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      3. I’ve bumped into the same thing. Beginning a few months ago, I have to put in my name, email and website url to post to Six on Saturday and even to post this comment. If I don’t fill in the info, I become anonymous. It’s rather odd.

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      4. I’m having the same problem. I’ve tried everything I know of but there’s one blog in particular this week that I can’t comment on – for the same reasons as you mention, Elizabeth. I’ve tried numerous times, in different ways. Nothing works at the moment.

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    2. Every year suits some things and not others. I’m not sure what a season that was perfect for everything would be like, there probably is no such thing. We will insist on growing plants from both cooler and warmer climates than our own, wetter and drier climates than our own; then complain when not everything is perfect. As for slugs, I think I might prefer the bigger slugs to the myriad tiny ones, they’re much easier to spot and despatch.

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  10. Pingback: Six on Saturday – A chill in the air, a glut in the kitchen! | Frogend dweller's Blog

  11. Your fuchsia (with the ironic name) is fabulous. I wish mine looked like that. What compost do you use to grow yours in pots? I need to repot some of mine and I think I used John Innes no 3 last time. Your anemone is similar to my ‘Pamina’ which stayed quite compact for a few years, but this year is spreading her wings. A lot. My pale pink one also spreads and also has foliage which goes black so I am forever cutting the foliage down. I shall be removing clumps of them both after they finish flowering this year.

    Six on Saturday | Summer’s End

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    1. We use Melcourt Sylvagrow with 9 month Osmocote added at 3.5g/litre for just about everything. I then supplementary feed with liquid feed for hungry plants and anything that is into its second season. Osmocote is expensive but I have seen smaller quantities offered on eBay.

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  12. Pingback: August 26, 2023 Six on Saturday – Gardening in the Prairie

  15. I like the description of the slow downward trend of the garden with some ragged edges appearing. But there are also some bright spots with fall bloomers emerging. We are in a dry spell here now which is the fall pattern. Some watering will be in order over the next few weeks.
    Here are my photos for the week. I use my iphone now exclusively. It is very capable. It is not good for wildlife telephoto shots but I rarely need those.

    Its Still Hot 25 Aug 2023

    Happy gardening y’all !!

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  18. Pingback: Mr Frog, Sliding Sumac, Housing Crisis, Chaotic Anemones and Bright Fuchsia. Six on Saturday, Aug 23 – Doing The Plan

  19. You could nearly have presented your six this week as a cut flower arrangement, ‘Late August Still Life.’ (Or is that, ‘Late August and still living?) It is very interesting to read your comments about how the ferns, Dahlia, Fuchsia and gingerlily have suffered from recent weather patterns, and still overcome the challenges- with your help- to look so terrific at the end of August. For the record, our Hedychium are shorter than normal, too, and their lighter foliage shows they are just holding on through our unusually dry weather. We are still waiting for some rain… Thanks, as always, for hosting, Jim. Here are our Six for the week, without even a hint of the sort of floral beauty you have shared this time: https://woodlandgnome.wordpress.com/2023/08/26/six-on-saturday-magic-seeds/

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    1. I had someone visit in the week who showed me a couple of photos he’d done of cut flower arrangements against a black background, more still life than flower arrangement. It would be a good way of trying out plant groupings and they’d have to be flowering at the same time. No need to stick with flowers either.

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      1. That must have been so interesting. I like getting the lighting right so there is a black or dark background with the subject well-lit, but rarely stage anything. It is a terrific way to try out plant groupings, especially since so many flowers have a reasonably long season. Your Polystichum gave me the idea. That is a variety that I believe is easy to obtain and grow in England, but much harder to source here in our area. I love its texture.

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      2. Polystichum setiferum is readily available here in around three or four varieties but there are many others that are much harder to find. ‘Ray Smith’ produces plantlets on its fronds some years, so I have been able to give a few away to people, but it hasn’t done so for several years.

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  24. Hi Jim and Sue,the first words I read made me think that unfortunately we didn’t have the same colour of sky this week.
    I note that despite everything your 1st Hedychium is ahead of mine. Magnificent flowering
    When I was on vacation in the south of France, I saw some great Ceratostigma in bloom and collected seeds for next year! Here is my link for this week (with as you will see a little more blue than you ) : https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2023/08/26/six-on-saturday-26-08-23/

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    1. I saw Hedyschium ‘Tara’ in full flower in another garden a few days ago, so perhaps two weeks ahead of mine. The garden was low lying and the plant partly shaded, I’d have expected it to be later than mine. I wondered whether dryness had held mine back, not a problem they had. Which Ceratostigma do they grow in the south of France?

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  26. My experience with fuchsias seems to be the opposite to yours, mine are all hardy varieties, I have to admit, they really are the stars of the garden at the moment and they flower for such a long time. My Cerastostigma plumbaginiodes is behind yours, not showing any flowers yet, hopefully soon.
    My six are here…………….https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com/

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    1. We do have several Fuchsias that are doing really well, as well as several that are struggling. I’m planning to get rid of the poor ones, which hopefully will leave us with a still respectable range of good ones. As you say, they are invaluable for flowering so long, and deep into the autumn too.

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  29. My fuchsias haven’t performed well this year either, but it’s good to see your F. ‘Dying Embers’ looking so good. Anemone ‘Bressingham Glow’ is a beauty and well worth holding onto. What a lovely dahlia – ‘Dazzling Sun’ is perfectly named.
    Here’s my contribution for this week:

    Not an Ugly Duckling

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    1. I wonder whether Japanese anemones could be contained/constrained, like mint, or bamboo. I don’t feel that mine is the sort of garden where wandering plants are easily accommodated, their wanderings are always encroachments and usually have to be beaten back.

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      1. I completely agree with you Jim, I would rather choose well behaved plants. This is the time of year to take stock which I am doing, and clearing out some of the bullies.

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