A bright shiny new year, just like the last one. The weather is on the turn, from relentless wet to something different. Might even get some sun. it doesn’t look like it’s going to get very cold where I am, a degree or two below zero at the worst. Enough to put the brakes on for the few things that were getting ahead of themselves.
I went for a wander round the garden and the only things flowering are Camellias, nothing that I haven’t already put in earlier sixes. An almost flower free six then, which makes a change.
The Six on Saturday crowd are very welcoming, should you be tempted to come aboard. Joining in couldn’t be easier (apart from the challenge of finding six things to talk about). Just find six things in your garden on a saturday, take some pictures and post them on a blog or some such with a link in the comments below. Detailed guidance here.
One.
I almost missed this flower show. A couple of years back a gardening friend gave me a piece of Danae racemosa. I shoved it in a pot to get rooted and established and it’s still there. It’s not doing a great deal but it is flowering. Alexandrian laurel is one of its common names, another laurel that is nothing of the sort. It has phylloclades instead of leaves, which are leaf like stems, from which the flowers arise. Red berries to follow. I need to find somewhere to put it.
Two.
I found two shoots of Camellias that shouldn’t be where they are. One looks like a seedling but I have no camellias in the garden that produce seeds. Could it be a shoot from the roots of ‘Nuccio’s Pearl’ that I dug out at least five years ago? Seems pretty inconceivable. The other shoot is at least three years old and had escaped my notice until today. Total mystery, just shouldn’t be there. I’ll have to try to dig them up and grow them on to find out what they are.
Three.
Nerines. The almost complete failure of my Nerines to flower had led me to believe that some dire fate had befallen them. There was no sign of them for months but now they are starting to push up shoots amongst the bitter cress. I had pretty much come to terms with losing them, not least because they are at their worst in midsummer, dying leaves collapsing onto the path, when the garden is open. It will be a lot easier to come to terms with them still being there. If it is dry next week I will weed the bed.
Four.
My Melaleuca squarrosa suffered badly in frost last winter but has produced a crop of new shoots from below ground. The question now is how much I should do to protect it it from frost going forward. I don’t really want to have a garden full of things that need a lot of protection to get through the winter, nor do I want to lose it. With things that die right down you can pile leaves on them and forget them, the melaleuca shoots are green and leafy so any protection needs to come back off as soon as possible.
Five.
I’m still learning about growing begonias in the garden. Last year I got caught out when Begonia pedatifida ‘Apalala’ started pushing up new leaves ridiculously early so that they had pushed through their protective leaf blanket before I noticed them and got frosted as a consequence. Today, with frost in the forecast, I went to check whether they were making new growth. What I found was new leaves already pushing through the leaf covering. Begonia emeiensis is the same; having all but died down, with no new growth for weeks, back in November, it now has new leaves inches above its winter leaf blanket. I’m not sure how I should treat them. If I put more leaves over them, I’ll be pulling them on and off for the rest of the winter. There’s something odd about plants that will grow in the cold and wet of winter but then get mushed by the slightest frost.
Six.
Let me chuck in another flower from the greenhouse. Correa ‘Marian’s Marvel’ has been happily growing in a garden down the road for years. I knocked their door and cadged a few cuttings. Last winter saw a decent sized plant killed by frost having been planted in the ground. Fortunately a few more cuttings were on the go, this plant being from one of them. The plant down the road is still looking great. I need to grow it harder; poorer ground, more sun; toughen it up a bit so it survives better.
I’m hoping to get some gardening done this week though with daytime temperatures only a few degrees above freezing I might change my mind.
garden ruminations 
Lovely growth, indoors and out! I’m just a little too far north/cold to grow Camellias outdoors. I love them so much. I had one that I’d intended to grow in a pot, to bring in during the winters and take back out during the summers, but it didn’t last long. Maybe I’ll try that again.
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Your correa is lovely!
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Yes , lots of dry weather forecast here too, just dipping below freezing occasionally, so very tolerable, all things considered. How curious about your nerines – what do they think they are doing, putting up new shoots at this time of year? My six are here:
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Here’s a frosty six from my Edinburgh garden
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My Amarines didn’t flower at all this year, I’m hoping that was due to lack of heat, the bulbs still look healthy. I was pleasantly surprised to see not only a blue sky and some yellow orb today, but also a few flowering iris reticulata plants – one Katharine Hodgkin and several George. Plus hellebores in bud, a single yellow crocus! And a very optimistic Marigold. Soon be enough for me to rejoin the SOSers.
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Hi Jim and hi everyone! Apologies for prolonged absence. Here is my return post: https://notesfromtheundergardener.wordpress.com/2024/01/06/saturday-6th-january-2024-six-on-saturday/. Looking forward to getting back into gardening by catching up with everyone’s adventures. HNY, everyone 🙂
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I love Alexandrian Laurel and that Correa! wonderful. I have never seen Camellias do that – a mystery to be solved someday. Gardening patience! Here is my link https://theshrubqueen.com/2024/01/06/six-on-saturday-new-colors-and-textures/
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I enjoyed reading your post today, and looking up a few things. You are quite devoted to your Begonias, and I am sure you will find a way of growing them successfully outside.
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I am right there with you about it sometimes (like now if one lives in Wisconsin) it is hard to come up with six, as evidenced by my selections for this week which include mittens, a sunrise, and a cat. I wish I had taken a snap of the catnip I found still growing near my office…
Your Danae racemosa is very interesting! I am also curious to learn what those camelias are! Garden mystery!
Here are my sixish, such as they are!
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What an interesting six you offer this week. I particularly like your Begonias trying to emerge so early, and your baby Camellia plants. I hope you can solve that mystery. I am working with some sprouting Camellia seeds at the moment and have some babies in pots from previous years, but none are mature enough yet to bloom. Should prove interesting if they survive. We have been a good bit colder than you lately with nights in the mid-20sF and days not much above 45. Yet remarkably, we still have flowers blooming in containers on the patio along with our stalwart Camellias. Here are my six for the week: https://woodlandgnome.wordpress.com/2024/01/06/six-on-saturday-be-here-now/
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You’re presumably getting seeds set on sasanqua camellias, which we don’t get a lot of here. It’s a satisfying thing to grow your own, unique version of something long lived like a camellia, even if the odds are heavily stacked against it being significantly different from something already ‘out there’. We’re due frost tonight and I’ve been checking my heaters. The power cut out in the middle of the night the last time we had frost, which did some damage.
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Very sorry to hear about your frost damage. You have such a remarkable collection under glass that is a huge concern. We burn candles in glass jars in our garage on very cold nights to give some protection against the cold and manage to keep things around 50F even on these cold nights. I’m amazed at how well the tender ferns and Begonias are enjoying it this year. You are correct, that these are C. sasanqua seeds I’m sprouting. I have already moved about 25 into pots in soil, and have perhaps 10 still in a damp paper towel in the kitchen. I would actually prefer to see some variation in the flower color and form because I have 3 just alike already and the seeds are mostly from those plants. Someone gave me some C. sinensis seeds a couple of years ago, but I didn’t get them past seedlings as the squirrels got to them. Happy 2024, Jim, and a heartfelt thank you for all of your faithful work in hosting SoS. You are always an inspiration.
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At first glance the buds on the Correa reminded me of mini acorns. Chance seedlings are fun but, as you put in a reply, having grown them on we often feel a need to keep them even if they’re not really anything special. I find it very hard to discard plants even though my head tells me I don’t need them/they’re not adding anything to the garden.
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That applies to deliberate seedlings just as much as chance ones. You want one plant, you get ten seedlings. Throwing 9 away is the hardest thing.
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Here are my six for this week.
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Interesting development with the camellia. I have had C. japonica send up a shoot nearby the parent plant but I assume this comes up from a root. I have had shoots of Canna which came up 3 years after I had removed what I had thought was everything in the bed.
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Both these shoots are too far away from other camellias to be suckers. I meant to take a closer look just now when I was out there. I’ve known Camellias shoot from roots a couple of years after the plant was dug, but this is much longer than that.
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Interesting six, you always have something unusual to show us Jim!
My six are here……………….https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com
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So with you on things that survive damp sogginess and then dissolve in the frost. I’m very much a hardy plant grower, anything too delicate is not countenanced, of course I miss out on much! My garden is on the move just in time for some frost, hopefully there are no softies to be lost! https://n20gardener.com/2024/01/06/six-on-saturday-on-the-move/
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I very nice Correa Jim. Check out my slightly bleaker #SixOnSaturday from the east of Scotland at http://www.balmerino.net/geekygarden. I’m also on Mastodon at @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot, trying to get the Sixes going there too, lots of people viewing, but still few posting.
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There seems to always be things to learn in nature, even if you think you have a good handle of most of it.
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I was disappointed with my garden this morning, not much happening out there yet!
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I know what you mean about getting fed up with tender plants and deciding to stop growing them and then growing them in spite of yourself. It is an affliction. I nearly included a correa this week, one that is very hard to spell, it survived last winter outside without protection and is a bit leggy but growing nicely. I hope I haven’t just signed its death warrant. Off to West Penwith next week, you might sense my near presence ….. Here are my Six https://offtheedgegardening.com/2024/01/06/six-on-saturday-a-corner-turned/
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You certainly have some very unusual plants in your garden, Jim. I’m glad to hear that your nerines have survived, they’re always lovely in the border. I do like that unusual Correa ‘Marian’s Marvel’.
We have frost this morning, and more ahead I think. But it’s to be sunny over the next few weeks if forecasters are correct. Here’s my six for this week:
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This Danae racemosa plant is amazing ! I had already seen something like this with the flowers of ruscus hypoglossum located under the leaves, in Portugal I think… About the camellia, this is good news. (I also sent you an e-mail about a new acquisition: the C. Nuccio’s cameo, I don’t know if you received it) Here is my first 2024 link: https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress. com/2024/01/06/six-on-saturday-06-01-24/
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bad link, sorry… https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2024/01/06/six-on-saturday-06-01-24/
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Danae racemosa is most unusual – I’m looking forward to seeing the berries when they form. I’m also looking forward to finding out what the mystery plants are one day. I spy blue sky out the window here – it’s been a while https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2024/01/06/six-on-saturday-6-january-2024/
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Not sure if I posted or not….just to say that your winter garden is interesting to read about. I have nothing really to report but here are my six anyway
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Alexandrian laurel is an odd one. Phylloclades are odd. I am pretty good at figuring out how things work, but that one is beyond me. It seems so unnatural.
From seed, do Camellia japonica take a long time to bloom? Must they mature out of a juvenile phase?
These are my six:
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Sadly, most of the Camellia japonica seedlings that I’ve grown have been scrapped in moments of realisation that I have absolutely no need for them, or anywhere to grow them. I grew a ‘Bob Hope’ seed to flowering size, I think it would have been 4 or 5 years and certainly not worth the wait. Then you get into the mindset that having looked after it so long you don’t want to throw it out. I wonder how many average seedling Camellias the Nuccio’s threw away over the years, I admire that level of ruthlessness. I’ve had C. reticulata in flower in under two years, kept in too small a pot and under cover. I checked over the couple of dozen seedling camellias I have on the go just a few weeks ago, I think there were buds on one or two, I must have another look. I suppose if they germinated in the ground and grew naturally they’d likely take a lot longer.
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Well, you are more patient with them than I am. I prefer to grow what others already developed. If I grow something to bloom, I would not be able to discard it. It annoys me to read about growing citrus from seed. Not only are the cultivars not true to type, but their seedling must mature through their wickedly thorny and fruitless juvenile phase before sharing their potentially worthless fruit. ‘Rangpur’ lime is supposedly true to type, but that is not typical of others.
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