How can I spend day after day working on this garden and it’s as big of a mess now as it was a week ago or a month ago? I can’t make the chaos recede. A lot of it is the inevitable consequence of sowing seeds or allowing seeds to sow themselves. One way or another it makes for a lot to deal with. How to pick six out of the chaos? Take a load of pictures then see what takes my fancy.
One.
We went to a local wholesale nursery with our local garden club, which inevitably meant that plants were purchased. I bought this pink, in pretty terrible condition, but two varieties in the pot and this one has the most amazing scent, so I thought it was a bargain even with no labels. Looking online I think this might be ‘Bailey’s Celebration’.
Two.
Fern of the week is Dryopteris lepidopoda, the Sunset Fern. It’s a fairly new addition and still in a pot. I must find somewhere to plant it out.
Three.
Polygonatum mengzense f. tonkinensis HWJ573. I have raised a great many seedlings from the fruits of this plant and none has ever come close to the rich colour of the parent. It has arching shoots about 50 cm long, chocolate brown until well into the summer when it has tiny greenish flowers followed by very long lasting scarlet berries through the winter.
Four.
Maianthemum racemosum ‘Emily Moody’ is also in my shady area and in this warm weather has had a very short spell in flower. Last week the flowers were just partly open, now they’re going over. While they lasted they smelled strongly of lily of the valley, especially on damp evenings. Unlike some woodlanders this will stay in leaf all summer then go dormant for the winter. It’s around 90cm tall.
Five.
If I have to wait until this is looking as good as it should then it is never going to make the SoS list. Convallaria majalis ‘Vic Pawlowski’s Gold’ has survived, even spread a little, in the ten years or so that I’ve had it. It’s probably flowered before too, but it is popular with the slimy ones who are apparently immune to its poison.
Six.
Tea break.
Well, if that last picture gets you thinking that you have nothing to apologise for then join us on our saturday showcasing of the best of global domestic gardening. There’s a participant’s guide to tell you all you need to know.
garden ruminations 
Oh, I totally understand your thoughts in the opening sentences. I feel the same way. My plants are healthy and the weather is good, but I spend so much time and yet the chaos continues. You picked some beauties to highlight!
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Your today’s entry inspired me to join in, Jim.
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I had to smile at your sixth photo, Jim! I was going to say that me having a (sitting) tea break in the garden is a rarity but technically I suppose you are not really IN the garden in that photo… 😉 I did sit and take a phonecall in the garden today though, which is a start I suppose! I have a convallaria with golden yellow leaves whose name I can’t remember and although it hasn’t spread it does reliably come back each year and flower, unlike the normal variety which I rarely see. Thanks for hosting Jim – I have roses today: https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-more-roses/
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The Hostas are looking great Jim. That looked like a well earned tea break
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You have some very unusual and beautiful plants in your garden Jim. I always love visiting you. Mine are pretty common, but I am happy to see most of them reappear after such an awful winter.
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I enjoyed all your pictures, the pink flower is absolutely darling, #3 Polygonatum mengzense f. tonkinensis is very interesting and of course the best part of gardening… enjoying our treats after all the hard work, cheers!
Here’s my 6 – sorry in advance for all the photos.
https://artbyisabel.com/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-05-18-2024/
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🤣 I expressed the same sentiment about coping (or not) with spring garden chaos. However, I love all of your six choices … especially the last!
Here are my six: https://frogenddweller.wordpress.com/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-classics/
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Your no 5 is a type of lily-of-the-valley? Very nice leaf pattern. I have a simpler one that spreads like crazy in dappled-shade area of my cool Scottish garden. Meanwhile, I’m enjoying the thugs that aquilegia are for my six: https://balmerino.ddns.net/geekygarden
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Ha, it is continually busy this time of year. Love the tea break. The polygonatum is gorgeous. And the first pink is very pretty!
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I like the tea break, too and know the feeling of working all day and not feeling like a dent was made in the workload. Wonderful Lily of the Valley regardless of slugs, I wish I could get a little of that fragrance here. https://theshrubqueen.com/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-not-hogwarts/
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‘Tea Break’ is my favorite photo, and is wonderful for letting us all see that even the very best gardeners are fighting their own special chaos in the garden. Stopping for a cup of something sweet and inspiring is also the best way to keep going with the work we love. Here are mine for the week: https://woodlandgnome.wordpress.com/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-biodiversity/ and also speak to the shaggy wildness and untidiness of late May in the garden!
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The pink is beautiful. The Dryopteris is a beautiful fern. I have a liking to D. erythrosora (Autumn Fern).
Here is my effort this week. Bloom time is here.
https://mensgardenvestavia.wordpress.com/2024/05/17/middle-of-may/
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It’s a lovely collection of flowers, and it’s fantastic to see your ‘behind the scenes’ snap, with the standard chaos and works in progress… Here’s my snapshots for the week. https://doingtheplan.com/2024/05/18/forget-me-nots-roses-wisteria-and-aquilegia-rose-queen-six-on-sat-18-may-24/
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Weirdly, The inner workings of wordpress is not registering my comment again, just showing a “pingback link to my page. Why, I have no idea. I try again! Love the fern and the chocolatey looking plant that I am not going to type its full name. So weird. I hate it when tech decides to not behave they way it normally does. I also have the issue of whatever simple app I used to use to make adjustments to my images is simply gone. Now my computer wants me to use much more powerful and complex image editing software. What a pain. I just like to do minor cropping and set the image quality to 70% so it is smaller. Not anymore, and I just don’t have time to devote to learning how to do a simple thing in a complex software package. Such is life. Take away a simple functional tool and give mee the equivalent of a fighter jet. Anyway, the link is there under Chris Mousseau’s post. Have a great wekend!
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https://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com/2024/05/18/may-18-2024-six-on-saturday/
Nice selections. I could have ferns everywhere!
Things are looking good here. The only native that has yet to wake up is Asclepias incarnata, which if memory serves is a bit sluggish, probably owing to its somewhat shady location. I will probably plant out my warm weather crops next weekend -eggplant, peppers and squash. I am toying with the idea of melon of some sort – the ones at the store are pale imitation of what a melon can be. If I can’t smell it, there will be no flavor!
I need to stick with indoor work today (long neglected housework) today and tomorrow will be for weeding and preparing for next week’s planting. Perhaps I will thin the kale and have a nice salad! Have a great week and happy growing!
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You show a fabulous collection of plants and then we get to the final photo and we realize you’re human too! You look just how I feel this time of year!
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The opening paragraph and the final photo makes me feels far less alone in my gardening projects! Thank you. Here are my six items: https://aftereden.blog/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-18-may-2024/
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How reassuring it is to hear you reference chaos, I felt overwhelmed this week. I know it will settle down soon but those weeds are romping away and there are other things to do! I also like the polygonatum. I think I have some buried underneath Japanese anemone leaves. Here’s my link https://n20gardener.com/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-help/
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There is always something new and unusual in your posts, Jim… well appreciatd!
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Everyone needs time to enjoy the fruits of their labour and a well earned tea break is a must for any gardener. Love the double coloured pink.
Here’s my six.
https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/2024/05/18/%f0%9f%8c%bagarden-beauties-from-my-hampshire-garden-for-sixonsaturday-gardeningx-gardeningismytherapy/
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Although it’s a pity that Maianthemum racemosum ‘Emily Moody’ flowers for such a short period, it must be worth having in the garden for its perfume. The Polygonatum is impressive – what fabulous leaves – chocolate satin.
Here is mine for this week: https://notesfrommygarden.co.uk/2024/05/18/a-floral-six/
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That is a lovely pink. Your last picture makes me feel better. https://thistlesandkiwis.org/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-18-05-24/
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Like the last photo with the very impressive hostas in front of you having a rest! Also like ferns too, they make such good contrasting texture in the borders. Your Polygonatum is attracting lots of interest and no wonder, it is beautiful!
My six are here…………….https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com
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That Polygonatum definitely gets the prize for ‘plant name of the week’! Nice to know others get periods of chaos too. I have just come up for air! Here are my six https://davidsgardendiary.com/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-118/
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I just looked up the Polygonatum in Dan Hinkley’s book and weirdly it’s not in it. Crûg list it but have none available. They are saying the name is wrong and that it’s a new species still needing a name. HWJ573 being Hinkley and Wynn-Jones.
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Polygonatum mixes well with impatiens omeiana! Is it strange that the slugs are attracted to the Convallaria majalis that you present when they would not have been attracted to the Lily of the Valley I have? or it’s lucky for me
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It’s the only lily of the valley form I have that gets attacked by slugs and only a little, compared to many other much more popular victims.
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‘The Best of Global Domestic Gardening’, mine is far far from that! Loved the sight of you sat down with a cuppa contemplating what to do next. That is a pretty impressive bank of staged hostas close to your house. Here are my six for this week: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2024/05/mid-may-in-garden-six-on-satuday.html
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Convallaria majalis is impressive, cultivar or not. I am told that it can be somewhat invasive; perhaps not aggressively, but persistently so. I would not mind if it were aggressive, if I could get it to grow at all. It might do well here, but I could not grow it within the more arid Santa Clara Valley, only a few miles to the north. A flower grower I worked for during the summer of 1986 grew it as a minor crop, and it was the most expensive of all commodities there, and likely used only for wedding bouquets and veils. Maianthemum racemosum is native and grows wild within at least one of the landscapes here. I was near there today, but did not go to see it. I should have. I have been getting to like it now that it is spreading there.
Gee, I did not mean to leave such a long comment. These are my Six:
https://tonytomeo.com/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-while-you-were-out/
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Around here lily of the valley can be terribly invasive. If it is well contained with concrete on all sides it is not as bad. Love the delicate flowers and the scent. I love it anyway, but won’t plant it in my yard since it would surely get out of control and I am trying to focus on native plants for the most part.
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I have one patch of Convallaria that is just as you say, invasive, but slowly enough not to make it obvious. I hold Maianthemum ‘Emily Moody’ in high regard, the other, shorter form I have, rather less so. Didn’t dan Hinkley suggest the western form might be a polyploid? or am I making that up?
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Oh, I do not know. Although uncommon, it grows wild here, so mostly gets ignored. Actually, I was annoyed when I noticed it on the edge of a walkway within one of the landscapes because I suspected that it would be difficult to get rid of. It has migrated away from the concrete, and does not hang over the concrete, so has stayed. I really learned to appreciate it, and would now like to relocate pieces of it to other unrefined landscapes.
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So that’s where your washing line is! They rarely get mentioned in these garden design programmes and yet our garden is pretty much designed around the thing. That Sunset Fern is a beauty onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-18-may-2024/
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Hmm, I’m having link issues today – https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-18-may-2024/
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The washing line is unusable at the moment because of all the stuff in the way. Nothing got designed around it, it was more of an afterthought.
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Fabulous, it is such a crazy time, Spring, and every year it seems to catch us by surprise. It will all slow down soon enough, I’m counting on it. Love that polygonatum, what a beauty! The bargain pink is lovely. The geezer in the last shot doesn’t look too bad either. Keep on keeping on. Here are mine https://offtheedgegardening.com/2024/05/18/six-on-saturday-word-cloud/
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