Six on Saturday – 4/5/2024

Categories six on saturday48 Comments on Six on Saturday – 4/5/2024

Episode 364, seven years chalked up. My opening six on 6th May 2017 were Camellias ‘Annette Carol’ and ‘Nightrider’, Maianthemum racemosum, ‘Plympton Pippin’ (apple) graft, Schefflera taiwaniana and Libertia x butleri. The last two are long dead and gone, the Camellias are over this year and the Maianthemum is behind where it was then. ‘Plympton Pippin’ proved a little less vigorous than some of the other varieties on the tree but both scions grew successfully and have buds on them now, actually a little later than the rest of the tree, which may explain why I have not had a glut of Plympton Pippins to eat.

It wasn’t on my mind when I went round this morning that this was an anniversary edition, or I might have considered a reprise. It was a cracking day for gardening and my priority was to get the long grass on my allotment cut down, mainly to stop it being used as cover for slugs. The slimy assassins that didn’t die were rendered homeless.

To business then, six things from your garden, on a Saturday, on a social media platform or blog or some such, then post a link in my comments section down below. That’s all it takes to join our international community of gardeners. There’s a participants guide, but I’m sure you barely need it.

One.
Clematis montana ‘Warwickshire Rose’. This is supposedly one of the less vigorous forms of C. montana, at least I think that was on the label when we bought it. It was a seedling of C. montana ‘Rubens’ in the garden of garden designer John Williams, whose home county is Warwickshire and whose mother’s name is Rose. That’s the sort of extra information you get from looking things up on the internet, in this case on Clematis on the Web, and it may have added to your interest in item number one, or not. I like it for it’s relatively deep pink flowers against dark foliage.


Two.
We have quite a few Hostas, almost all in pots, and they’re all looking good with their new foliage. This one, that is the one on the left here, is the one that is grabbing my attention most effectively. It’s called ‘Great Excape’, which is hard to forgive, even for a plant of this quality. The other is ‘Orange Marmalade’.


Three.
This wasn’t the newly emerged fern I’d intended to put in this six but the pictures made the decision. High contrast can look great in the real world but beat the camera when it comes to the capture. I came closer to getting away with it for Athyrium ‘Ghost’ than for Blechnum penna-marina.


Four.
I’ve done my first Chelsea Chop, on Hylotelephium telephium. Too bad I can’t do a Chelsea chop on the name. It was a foot tall and starting to flop. It remains to be seen whether I have jumped the gun and done it too early.


Five.
Sue finally snapped and decided it was time to move some stuff out of her greenhouse. My night-time slug forays have become a little more perilous, running the gauntlet of cacti and Agave’s. The thing with the flower spike touching the top of the picture is Mangave ‘Pineapple Express’. Oddly, the glasshouse looks just as full now as before and another season of potting on and growing bigger isn’t going to make getting them all back in come autumn any easier.


Six.
I’ve also been moving things out and moving other things about. Musical plants with a robin or blackbird providing the tunes. Other people bed out Begonias; we bed out Begonias too. Begonia luxurians in its summer quarters, all five feet of it.

It’s beginning to look as if the weather has at long last turned a bit of a corner. Normal rather than below average temperatures, a lot less rain and a fair bit of sun is our forecast for the next couple of weeks. Everything is primed to explode into growth. The seemingly endless gloom of recent months is soon dispelled when a garden really starts to come alive again.

Published by Jim Stephens

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

48 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – 4/5/2024”

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  11. Its always nice to have the company of birds entertaining us with their tunes as we slog through the annual challenge of hauling plants out of storage. Your last photo of the Begonias enjoying a good stretch in the sunshine is my favorite this week, though I’m admiring your Clematis, too. Ours finally bloomed this week on the patio, but I’ve long since lost its name. Yours has a far more charming story. I’m happy to hear that your weather has cleared and that you and Sue are able to get outdoors and enjoy springtime at last. Her collection is lovely. A shame our greenhouses and other storage spaces don’t just naturally grow along with the plants! 

    Here are my six for the week: https://woodlandgnome.wordpress.com/2024/05/04/six-on-saturday-opportunities-for-change/

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    1. It’s not just the glasshouse that we could do with growing as the plants grow. The same is true of the garden. Almost all our plants seem to enjoy being outside where they get much better light levels without excess heat building up. I will soon need to put shading on at least one greenhouse. It’s still cold at night though so there’s a lot of stuff going out by day then back in again at night.

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      1. It is interesting that you mention carting plants back indoors for cold nights. I am lucky when my back lets me get things out in the spring and back inside in the fall. I have been waiting to put out many of the Begonias, ferns, and elephant ears in pots because just when I think the weather must be settled, we get another shot of cold. But I am out of excuses, and you have inspired me once again. And I’m missing how beautiful the plants grow again once they are out in the sunlight and wind.

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  13. Pingback: Six on Saturday: Opportunities for Change – Our Forest Garden

  14. That’s a lovely clematis Montana, I like the deeper pink and larger flowers. I have Rubens which is very exuberant, shall we say. I wonder if the Plympton Pipkin has anything to do with Plympton in Plymouth, where I grew up! I’m sure the Internet will reveal all….

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  19. Happy anniversary. I had no ideas begonias could be that amazing, there’s always something to learn from your posts. The clematis looks lovely, with the previous garden being a postage stamp I was cautious about introducing something so vigourous but now I’m thinking that variety could work to cover an uninspiring fence behind the greenhouse and polytunnel. This is my six https://lifeonalondonplot.com/2024/05/04/six-on-saturday-04-05-24/

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  21. Seven years, how time flies! It seems an appropriate time to thank you for taking over from The Prop. You are much appreciated. You must be doing so much better than me with your slug forays. I seem to be have a constantly replenishing supply of the little darlings. Now they are eating the red onions! I moan again about them but also have a clematis montana to share. Your last photo is a lovely combination of plants, colours and textures. Here’s my link https://n20gardener.com/2024/05/04/six-on-saturday-gardening-woes/

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    1. I do believe my slug forays really help, if only because for the rest of the night the later waves of slugs consume the ones I’ve chopped in half, rather than the plants. It’s an unpleasant business.

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  27. Another way to put it is: 2184 photos have been posted. Happy Anniversary! Camellia ‘Nightrider’ is fabulous, is it still in your garden? I don’t recall seeing it recently (but I do have a dreadful memory). Today I’m admiring your clematis and the two hostas. I bought a bare root of ‘Orange Marmalade’ last year. It didn’t grow and I should have complained. But I didn’t. My loss. Here’s mine for this week:

    https://notesfrommygarden.co.uk/2024/05/04/warm-spring-days/

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    1. ‘Nightrider’ last made an SoS appearance in 2002. I started numbering my SoS pictures from the beginning and this week reached SOS3500. I don’t always confine myself to one picture per item and there are the headers too.

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  29. Pingback: Six on Saturday. 4.5.2024. | Lead up the Garden Path

  30. It is interesting looking through SoSs of yesteryear and realising what’s no longer in the garden and seeing how other plants of progressed over the years. Happy 7th SoS anniversary. The two Hostas look very striking together and ‘Great Excape’ (shudder) is a beauty. I was just looking up what the collective noun for cacti is. Forest of cacti, cactus garden, cactus collection or clump of cacti came up. Personally I’d go for a cornucopia of cacti. It’s an impressive collection https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2024/05/04/six-on-saturday-4-may-2024/

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