Six on Saturday – 23/9/2023

Categories six on saturday42 Comments on Six on Saturday – 23/9/2023

For a while it seemed like autumn had been put on hold, there was lots flowering, quite a bit of new growth, and while it was all getting a bit overgrown it was at least standing up. Wednesday’s weather was a blow in two senses and it’s not looking so pretty now. Some Dahlias have collapsed, half the flowers are gone. Situation normal…….

For me it represents the tipping point between finding too many things for a Saturday six and finding too few. It’s not that nothing is happening, more that most things did the best of their happening a while ago. Anyhow, complaining won’t help, time to crack on.

One.
I summer pruned my apple trees on 15th August and as anticipated they have subsequently broken from the distal buds and made new growth. It isn’t a problem because I hadn’t cut back to the first bud above the basal cluster of leaves but left the shoots two or three buds longer. I will now cut back to where I want to be, safe in the knowledge that no more buds will break this late in the year. Hardly any fruit this year, just a few ‘Tregonna King’, an old Cornish variety.

Two.
I did a Chelsea chop on a couple of sedums this year, a first for me that has me wondering why it took so long. Out the front is ‘Autumn Joy’, a neat mound of flower about a foot high. Is it maybe a little later flowering because of the chop? So much better than the usual sprawling mess that I’m used to. Not a bee or butterfly to be seen, sadly, perhaps the picture was taken between downpours. I’m seeing yet another variation on the “proper” name on the RHS site, it’s Hylotelephium x mottramianum ‘Herbstfreude’. The name needs a Chelsea chop as much as the plant.

Three.
There are several forms of Begonia grandis available, perhaps more. Begonia sinensis ‘Red Undies’ is a Wynn-Jones selection from a Chinese collection and while he refers to it as species sinensis, others have sinensis as a subspecies of grandis. They list it as B. sinensis ‘Red Undies’ BWJ8011. Suffice it to say that I bought it early last year, kept it in a pot until this year and have now planted it out in the ground. I expect it to be fully hardy and completely herbaceous and to produce prodigious numbers of bulbils that will spread it around and ensure that I can keep a backup or two under cover.

Four.
Seemania nematanthodes ‘Evita’ is a somewhat obscure indoor plant that I picked up a couple of years back. Like Achimenes and Kohleria, fellow members of the Gesneriaceae, it dies down to small tubers in winter, which are kept bone dry until spring when they start up again. It then starts flowering in late summer and keeps going until it stops.

Five.
Banana. Musa sikkimensis ‘Bengal Tiger’. I don’t remember overwintering this last year, meaning I must have bought it this year, as a 9cm liner if my memory is correct. Which means its growth has been pretty impressive, it’s now in a 10 liter pot and nearly a meter high. The label says it’s one of the hardier species but still needs some protection, so I will keep it under cover this winter. If it keeps up this rate of growth it will go out and stay out next year, with whatever protection I can rig up. It can grow to 4.5m, that’s pretty big.

Six.
Other than that it’s honeysuckle, I don’t know what this is. It’s not planted in our garden but has come over the fence from one of our neighbours. Could be revenge for the Clematis montana we planted on our side, though we look at the south side of the fence so it all wants to grow in our direction. I’m very happy to have it flowering in mid September; I must peer over and see if it’s flowering on their side too. If anyone can put a name to it, I’d be glad to have one.

Phew! That was my first time of doing a blog post on a Mac laptop using the touchpad. Usually I use a Windows PC with a mouse. Next week I’m away from my desk; hopefully you will get to see where. In the meantime, enjoy your garden.

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Published by Jim Stephens

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

42 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – 23/9/2023”

  2. Nice banana! For what it’s worth, even if it does get super tall next summer, it’ll probably fruit (or not, in my case) and die so you’ll only have a handful of small pups to worry about overwintering. The banana on my balcony was taller than me last summer but called it quits and left me with three babies, which are now waist-high. I’ll have to separate them this spring before putting them out again, or that pot is going to burst.

    May I enquire as to the identity of that pretty golden bamboo in picture three? I am having bamboo ambitions for next year.

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  4. Time got away from me, so no post this week, but I will say the beans are going crazy and it is time to pick the delicata. Had to water with more to do tomorrow and must set aside the rainwater that will keep my houseplants happy over winter. Nice weather, except we had two days of rainy looking clouds but not a drop in my area.
    Seemania nematanthodes ‘Evita’ is stunning! Love the banana too the lush leaves are great!

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      2. Usually it asks for those, and my browser remembers the details, but yesterday I had to click on the WordPress button which, being complacent, I ignored the first time

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  7. Pingback: Six on Saturday: Boo! | Rambling in the Garden

  8. The banana looks splendid. We’ve overwintered basjoo successfully but nothing else – good luck. Sometimes I think these things are hardier than they let on.

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  11. Pingback: Six on Saturday | 23rd September 2023 – Little Blue and White House

  12. The autumn here in the Deep South USA is off to a good start. We will have temps in the 80’s for the next week and as usual it will be dry. Although plant growth has slowed, there is plenty of time left before frost comes for plants to develop deeper roots.
    Thanks for the advice on the Chelsea chop. I have tried it several times this year and it definitely encourages branching. I did the same with my sedum “Autumn Joy”.
    I like the Mac and I am more facile with the touch pad now then I used to be.
    Here is my effort for this week. Happy gardening!

    Fall 22 Sept 2023

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  14. Pingback: Six On Saturday: Autumn has arrived | n20gardener
  15. Pingback: Six on Saturday: 23 September 2023 – My Tiny Welsh Garden

    1. The Chelsea Flower Show is held each year towards the end of May and herbaceous perennials which reliably grow tall and flop can be cut back by about half around that time to get a shorter, bushier and hopefully, self supporting plant.

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  19. I’m reading a lot about giving Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ the Chelsea Chop. Seeing how great yours is looking is the spur I need to tackle mine in the same way next year. It’s always a sprawling mess. Love the light and shade photo of the banana. The neighbour’s honeysuckle is gorgeous.
    My link for this week:

    Gently Fading

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    1. I’d like to think that I took a picture of the Sedum when I chopped it, which would tell me exactly when and how hard I’d done it. Usually it grew tall, flopped onto the drive and got run over by the car.

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  22. Pingback: Six on Saturday. 23.9.2023 | Lead up the Garden Path

  24. I am joining in this week (with just photos this time), with many thanks to you for hosting!
    I am so glad to hear that Sedum Autumn Joy can be given the Chelsea chop and will finally try it out myself on one of mine next year, after dithering for years. The changing of names defeats me and I stick to the ones everyone else knows for simplicity! Talking of names… ‘Red Undies’?! I didn’t realise that some Begonias are hardy either. Happy autumn Jim!

    Autumn Equinox, 2023

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    1. ‘Red Undies’ joins a very long list of terrible plant names. The undersides of the leaves are red. The grandis group of Begonias are reliably hardy in the warmer bits of the UK. I have a few other species that live outside and survive winter with a covering of leaves.

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  25. All of those honeysuckles look like ‘Peaches and Cream’ to me now. We have one at work, but I do not know what cultivar it is either. I miss the simple Japanese honeysuckle. I got some, but it is not as popular as it had formerly been out in the real World.
    Bananas seem like an odd choice there. It seems odd that they are even available, although I know that anything can be purchased online nowadays, even if unavailable locally. We got seven cultivars of banana here, and are about to get two more. Most stay less than twenty feet tall, and one gets only about six feet tall, but one gets forty feet tall, and another is the Musa ingens, which gets sixty feet tall or taller.
    Anyway, these are my Six, all of which are about one grapevine.

    Six on Saturday: the Wrath of Grapes

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    1. If we could grow bananas as easily as you can we’d find them much less interesting. There are only a handful that are hardy enough to grow outdoors here and Musa basjoo is the only one I’ve seen that comes through winters well enough to get big, by which I mean 15-20 feet, a 60 foot banana would be something to see.

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  26. This banana tree is normally hardy to -10°C at the root level. If you don’t lift it up and pot it , you will have to protect it well with thick mulch and uncover it in spring (or an enclosure filled with straw and/or dry leaves) but it should work. Good luck ! About writing the post with the Mac, you will see that it’s much easier than the PC!
    here is my link. https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2023/09/23/six-on-saturday-23-09-23/

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    1. Sounds like I’ve made work for myself with the banana, hopefully it will be worth it. I’ve been using PC’s since the days of a small green winking C> in the bottom left of the screen and 5 inch floppy discs for the programs. Macs will never be easier.

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