Six on Saturday – 1/6/2024

Categories six on saturday52 Comments on Six on Saturday – 1/6/2024

The weather man said earlier that June 1st is the beginning of meteorological summer and just for once the weather itself is in agreement. What the weather man also said was to make the best of it because it’s only going to last two or three days then go back to below average temperatures. I don’t really care, so long as it’s not raining. The garden is growing apace: no, let me correct that, the plants in the garden are growing apace and I could do with the garden growing to keep pace. It’s all so lush this year, I reckon the paths will be impassable a month earlier than usual.

Six on Saturday entails picking just six of the multitude of things going on and telling the rest of the world about them. It’s a simple idea but a good one, not mine, the credit for that goes to The Propagator, who wrote a participant’s guide, which I tweaked and which is here.

One.
I posted a short video of Sue’s cacti during the week and this one was in it but had only partly opened one flower. In a crowded field, it could get the prize for extraordinary colouring. As Sue pointed out today though, out of flower you wouldn’t take the plant for free, it’s just plain ugly. It had a label, which I moved to take the photo; it said “Echinocereus, huge pink trumpets”. You could try asking at your local garden centre.


Two
Not a million miles away in terms of colour scheme is this Leptospermum that’s been growing outside for a few years now. It goes under the name Leptospermum ‘Karo Spectrobay’ and is an Australian variety rather than the more widely grown New Zealanders. It’s currently flowering like mad and making lots of new growth beyond the flowers, on which it is planning to flower next year. I’m not keen on it making such rapid growth but equally, I don’t want to lose next years flowers, so I have something of a dilemma pruning wise. I’m thinking to cut back the non flowering shoots in hopes of getting growth lower down.


Three.
Fern of the week is Polystichum polyblepharum, or polly-polly, as Architectural Plants were calling it some years ago. A bit beyond it’s first fresh green flush of growth now, it’s a beautiful evergreen mound of shiny, rich green fronds. I removed last years leaves a few weeks ago, a task made very tricky by the emerging and very fragile new fronds.


Four.
I planted Allium cristophii around five years ago and they did well enough that I bought more a couple of years later to expand the clump. Last spring I was somewhat concerned when I saw the carpet of seedlings around them. Now I’m back to just four and the seedlings have all vanished.


Five.
This is the time of year when our garden looks closest to wildness. We let Geranium palmatum, Aquilegia and foxgloves self seed and leave as many in as we can without other things being crowded out. When they’ve finished flowering they get pulled up and hopefully there are some annuals ready to be planted in any gaps. A lot are growing along path edges so don’t leave much of a gap. There’s something about the randomness of it that appeals to me; this year the Aquilegias have bounced back a little from the downy mildew and there are more foxgloves than we’ve had for years. Geranium palmatum is down a bit compared to peak years.


Six.
Pauline is probably going to be posting a picture of her orchid in full flower and in no way am I trying to steal her thunder, but this is my self sown orchid which is in danger of being run down by Crocosmia. I’m assuming it’s a seedling of Dactylorhiza x grandis ‘Blackthorne Hybrid’, which I have had for many years, but it may not be and is flowering now when it’s presumed parent is still in tight bud. Dactylorhiza x grandis is the hybrid between the common spotted, D. fuchsii, and the southern marsh orchid, D. praetermissa, and according to my book occurs not only where both parents occur but also in the absence of one or even both parents. Orchids play by their own set of rules.

It wasn’t planned but everything I’ve posted above, except the fern, is pink. The garden is unintentionally colour coordinated, with just a lonely yellow Primula prolifera bucking the trend. That is set to change.

Published by Jim Stephens

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

52 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – 1/6/2024”

  1. Pingback: Six on Saturday 15-06-24 – Fred, a French Gardener2
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  5. Six on Saturday, Starting With an Untruth

    Lots of interesting things amongst your six, Jim, as always. Isn’t new fern foliage gorgeous? I have had to trim out a few old fronds I missed this week, as they were much letting down the side of the fresh green fronds around them! I had to smile at your orchid and its rules, although I suppose in truth most of the things we grow end up growing by their own rules 😉 Are you nearly ready for your openings? I am mostly at the keping on top of things stage, but the Golfer has been rather tardy with the path cleaning so far… Thanks for hosting. https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2024/06/01/six-on-saturday-starting-with-an-untruth/

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    1. I think there could be a last minute dash to clear the last unsightly bits up to the allotment, out of sight, out of mind. The garden itself isn’t looking bad so I guess we’re as ready as we’ll ever be.

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      1. Haha – that’s a good idea! I have certainly moved some pots of very nibbled hostas out of the way for the time being, as they get neglected while we had scaffolding up the sode of the house. Hope the openings go well for you 👍

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  6. Pingback: Six on Saturday, Starting With an Untruth | Rambling in the Garden
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  10. So much beauty in your post this week. The Echnocereus flowers are incredible, Dactylorhiza is lovely, and I love the foxgloves when they are backlit.

    Here are my six. Among other things, a flower I have waited a very long time for, and a snail having a completely unexpected (and slightly gruesome) meal.

    Six on Saturday #85; June 1, 2024

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  11. Pingback: Six on Saturday #85; June 1, 2024 – Sweetgum and Pines
  13. Pingback: Six on Saturday, 1. Juni 2024 – Here you are!

  14. So many foxgloves! I adore foxgloves but haven’t managed to get any going in our garden, despite having thrown seed about every couple of years in the hope that some will take. I know that our climate is suitable, and my old apartment building used to have huge stands of them every spring. I suppose I just haven’t found the perfect microclimate yet :-

    Your Dactylorhiza is lovely. I think we have a few growing wild in our forest and you’ve reminded me to go check on them to see if they’re spiking.

    Oops, I nearly forgot about sticking a link here! Here’s my SoS for the week:

    https://littleblueandwhitehouse.com/2024/06/01/six-on-saturday-1st-june-2024/

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  17. Wow, that Cactus is very pretty! 🌸 Lovely foxgloves and the Leptospernum is superb! It is ironic, I can’t grow those pretty Tea Tree varieties in my garden because it is too dry in summer here for them! So I will have to enjoy them from your English garden!

    Here are my six –

    Six On Saturday – 1🌸6🌸24

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    1. There’s a lot in our modest sized garden and we’re both incapable of resisting buying new things whether we have room for them or not. We went to a plant fair this morning and bought six more; that is Sue bought one and I bought five. The trouble with having one of the best rare plant fairs so close is that the argument that you might not ever see it offered again is too persuasive.

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  21. Wow, the cactus! Impressive! I love he surprise of seeing a showy flower on a dry looking prickly cactus. I also love the foxgloves and the approach of letting them self seed and fill in as they will. My gardening style is pretty much all chaotic, so I appreciate mixing it up.I am seeing many lettuce seedling in and around the logs that support my garden. The logs are beginning to feel a bit punky underfoot, so they are definitely breaking down and on bed in particular is still pushing up the fungus known as dead man’s fingers (Xylaria polymorpha). It’s a little creepy, but they are just doing their job of consuming polysaccharides in rotting wood.

    https://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com/2024/06/01/june-1-2024-six-on-saturday/

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  22. Pingback: June 1, 2024 Six on Saturday – Gardening in the Prairie

  24. Aquilegia self seeds in my garden and I am grateful, even though it is plagued by the leaf miners.
    I have Polystichum polyblepharum which is such a stout looking plant here. Common name is tassel fern here.
    Here are my six:

    June, June

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    1. Every thing is always so pretty when growing “wild”. We found out the other day my niece is not a fan of foxglove, or maybe foxglove doesn’t like her..while planting out some new..she broke out in hives…bad.

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  26. Mmm… I did leave a comment and a link, but then I was asked to log in (although I am permanently logged in to my WP account) after logging in, the comment disappeared altogether. Maybe look in your spam folder?

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  29. Pingback: Six On Saturday: Unexpected gardening opportunities | n20gardener

  30. The weather is not quite so good here, but at least it’s dry and we are promised sun tomorrow (jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, but never jam today I think the saying goes).

    I did nearly forgot to link in my Six and have popped in from the garden to do so. I’ve got a big list and I’m hoping to get a few things ticked off it.

    I love the randomness of self seeding plants, particularly foxgloves, and yours are looking wonderful. They must enjoy all the rain and the S&S don’t seem to go for them.

    Enough rabbiting on from me – here’s my Six

    https://www.hortusbaileyana.co.uk/2024/05/prince-charles-and-wincester-cathedral.html

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  31. Oh Jim, your orchids are looking so beautiful and further on than mine, although yes, it has started flowering and it is on my six! Mine looks exactly like yours, leaves too, so I’m not sure now if mine is a common spotted. I don’t have any others and as far as I know my neighbours don’t either, where can the seed have come from?

    My six are here…………..https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com/

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  32. Pingback: Six on Saturday. 1.6.24 | Lead up the Garden Path
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  38. What happened to the Allium christophii seedlings? I saved seed from mine, as well as from Allium schubertii, because they are my first, and there is only one of each. I read that they disperse their seed as their floral trusses dry, break off, and tumble about in the wind like tumbleweeds. Do they rot there because the weather is damp and cool for so long?

    The Echinocereus flowers look like those of Echinocereus pentalophus, which I am unfamiliar with. I only recently met a species in the wild in Arizona, but it looks nothing like that. I brought it back, but have not identified it.

    Australian tea tree used to be more popular here. I have not seen it in nurseries in many years. Actually, I do not remember seeing it for sale since I was in school prior to 1990. That was about the time that New Zealand tea tree became very popular.

    These are my Six:

    https://tonytomeo.com/2024/06/01/six-on-saturday-crosswalk/

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    1. I don’t know what happened to the Allium seedlings, most likely browsed off by slugs as soon as they came above ground. The tea tree has surprised us by seeming to be hardier than the NZ varieties we’ve grown in the past, which have all eventually been killed by cold.

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  39. I have a similar wild orchid in my garden, which should flower soon, but which is not cultivated. This is the Pale Heath Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata). Otherwise, this week, the pretty cactus flowers caught my eye… I briefly saw your post with a video, but I didn’t have time to watch it. It’s on the project this weekend! Here is my link. https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2024/06/01/six-on-saturday-01-06-24/

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