It’s not been a bad week weather wise but I’ve done very little gardening as I’ve had my eldest sister staying. In a place like Cornwall that means that you switch from normal resident behaviour to tourist behaviour and go around visiting places you normally avoid like the plague, but also places that are not tourist traps but you never seem to get around to visiting. There’s a Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, which is actually 20,000 hectares over ten distinct sites in Cornwall and West Devon. It’s really interesting and often poignant. For example, the statistic that in the first six months of 1875, over 10,000 miners left Cornwall to find work overseas as the industry went into steep decline locally. We went up to the South Caradon Copper mine area and had a mooch about. It’s littered with old buildings and spoil heaps and there was one open shaft where the capping had apparently fallen in, surrounded by a few rotten posts and a couple of strands of barbed wire that afforded no protection at all.
Hey ho, this is nothing to do with the job in hand, which is to post six things from the garden as cheerleader for the Six on Saturday memettes. Tell us about six things happening now in your garden and post a link in my comments section below so the rest of the world can find it, or at least that part of the rest of the world which reads my comments. There’s a participants guide here.
One.
Another thing that happens when you take your eye off the ball in a garden is that things pop up to surprise you. We were given a very small plant of Zantedeschia ‘White Giant’ at the beginning of the year and for a long time it didn’t seem very interested in living, just sat and sulked. It got potted on and consigned to the back of a bench at the side of the house where it was pretty much hidden. Today it looked like this. Allegedly it can get 2m tall.
Two.
Then you get the things that just seem to go on and on and are looking amazing considering we’re into October. Like this tuberous Begonia, which has been flowering for months and is quite possibly looking better now than it has all summer. OK, there’s a certain lack of subtlety about it but I’m not finding that too hard to live with.
Three.
Another plant pigeonhole is the one for self sowers from good parents that are sufficiently different from their parents to need to be kept, for evaluation purposes. Impatiens are good at this, they produce seedlings quite freely and anything that looks like it might be a small improvement, or even just pretty distinct, is very hard to throw away. Jill Heavens sent me I. arguta ‘Alba’ and I found another growing in the middle of a clump of another species I’d bought. I have the purple version from stolen seed and now I have what looks like a cross between the purple and one of the whites.
Four.
Out the front, Hylotelephium ‘Herbstfreude’ is looking pretty fine. It’s darker than I seem to think it usually is. Last year it got a Chelsea chop, this year I can’t remember whether it did or not. It probably did, it’s too compact and upright not to have.
Five.
Nasturtiums. We have a well established volunteer population in the top corner of the garden, growing in too much shade and in too rich soil to give of their best, but that’s not why I put this in as an item. The two flowers were on the same stem, two nodes apart. I raised my excessively bushy eyebrows at how different they were.
Six.
Salvia ‘Roman Red’. The label then has a P in brackets after the name, which means nothing to me. One of the numerous Google hits has it as Salvia splendens x darcyi ‘Roman Red’. Salvia splendens is that hideous bedding plant that I loathe, and yes, now that I know it’s one parent of ‘Roman Red’, I can see the similarity. Somehow though, this seems like an infinitely more refined plant but it’s making me realise that (a) my taste in plants is very suspect and (b) the line between what I love and loathe can be wafer thin.
The Cornwall Tourist Board offered me way too much money to refuse their request to include the following pictures. Polperro, before you ask.
Onward and upward. I’ve three more sisters descending on Monday, quite the family reunion. They’re not staying here, not that much of a family reunion.
garden ruminations 
So much beauty !!
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Nice! beautiful begonia.
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Beautiful Cornwall pictures. I really like the Calla lilies.
https://mensgardenvestavia.wordpress.com/2024/10/04/october-moon-4-oct-2024/
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I normally have nasturtiums at this time of the year, they are so reliable. This year I forgot to sow the seed that I keep in the fridge in the usual nooks and crannies and I couldn’t believe that there were no self-seeders, bereft!
This is my six although I am fast running out of options. https://ricksplantworld.blog/2024/10/05/six-on-saturday-05-10-24/
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That’s a lot of sisters! Were you the only boy?
That begonia is certainly striking – I tried out an orange one with small flowers this year which has flowered really well but sadly I still can’t bring myself to like it very much. It certainly looks as if your sedum has indeed had the Chop, and accordingly is a striking example of why it’s a good idea! Not sure about the salvia… Thanks for hosting, as always – here is my six for today: https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2024/10/05/six-on-saturday-the-cull-has-begun/
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Yep,one of me, four of them.
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Family reunions are fun, and a good amount of work for the family host. I hope you all have a great time together. I like your begonia, she’s a bit of a floosy! And I completely agree with your comment that the line between loathe and love can be paper thing.
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I am back for a while. Nice to see the autumn gardens.
https://cornwallincolours.blog/2024/10/05/six-on-saturday-autumn/
I wrote a long comment, but couldn’t post it, kept being asked to log in even though I am! WP can be so annoying at times. My main point was having 4 sisters! And being a tourist in your own place. Doesn’t look like the weather is going to be on your side next week.
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Love the impatiens. The flower shape made me realize that a favorite native plant that grows here is an impatiens -Impatiens capensis, aka Jewelweed, AKA Touch Me Not. The ripe seed pods burst open at a touch flinging seeds everywhere. Bright orange flowers and the 6 year old in me cannot stop touching the pods. I also love the nasturtiums! The ones with variegated leaves that I grow now do not do the crazy color thing, but I have seed from some red ones that I will plant next year and see what happens. Taking my hummingbird feeder down as they seem to have headed south. They would love Salvia Roman Red! Also, I cannot imagine a 2m tall calla lily! Crazy! The march towards winter continues, though the weather is fairly warm yet.
https://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com/2024/10/05/october-5-2024-six-on-saturday/
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Snap! I have included a lovely yellow Nasturtium in my six this week. Love Cornwall!
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Gloriously autumnal in your colours this week. And very interesting to see how a good chelsea chop works on the hylotelephium. That would work wonders on most of mine. Happy entertaining for next week. Here’s my link https://n20gardener.com/2024/10/05/six-on-saturday-i-need-to-get-going/
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I love your sense of humor! How could I not giggle at “(a) my taste in plants is very suspect and (b) the line between what I love and loathe can be wafer thin.”
Your eyebrows are not excessively thick and bushy, but what a word picture!!
We went to a copper mine site when we were in Cornwall 44 years ago. I remember the stark photo I took, but I’m too lazy to look for it. Besides, you are too busy with family reunion activities to look at it.
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My friends used to live in Polperro before they moved to Portugal. They tell me it is very picturesque. Why not -money for plants 🙂
I love the Zantedeschia ‘White Giant lily but the plant of the week goes to the Begonia. I wonder when they start selling them in the garden centres here. Did you plant the tubers or buy the mature plants?
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After posting my first comment I went to look up more about Hylotelephium ‘Herbstfreude’ and wondered if I ought to get some, and wondering how it compared to my Hylotelephium ‘Autumn Joy’. Saved myself a few pounds there, as they are the same with Autumn Joy a synonym with you using the correct name of course.
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I think we have been shown that bribery in office is quite the thing now, and you won’t be made to give it back, since you have declared it. What a fine show Hylotelephium ‘Herbstfreude’ is making and thanks for the reminder that the Chelsea Chop is needed on my Hylotelephium next year. Here are my six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2024/10/six-on-saturday-5-october-2024.html
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I’ve seen the same thing with self-sown nasturtiums as well, nature always amazes me! The zantedeschia is very aptly named.
My contribution this week: https://mysanctuarygarden.wordpress.com/2024/10/05/six-on-saturday-05-10-24/
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Family or flowers, that’s not a fair choice, Jim…
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The Zantedeschia definitely has to move now – far too good to be relegated to the back bench.
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How odd regarding the Nasturtium producing two completely different flowers. Zantedeschia ‘White Giant’ looks the picture of health now https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2024/10/05/six-on-saturday-5-october-2024/
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Impressive Zantedeschia! Healthy and not nibbled by slugs which is not the case here.
And another thing, Cornwall look magnificent !….and it seems that the nice weather was with you during your visit. Here is my link https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2024/10/05/six-on-saturday-05-10-24/?_gl=1*107mcly*_gcl_au*Mjk1OTgwMzc2LjE3MjM0NjYxNzk.
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Is two metres tall for a calla? The common sort that grow with good exposure in the landscapes and in my garden are only about four feet tall, which is about one and a quarter metres. (I can translate that.) However, the same sort that have naturalized and grow wild in riparian situations out in the forest commonly get taller than six and a half feet tall, which is about two metres. They are quite a bit taller than I am. Therefore, I suspect that if I intentionally grew some of them within more crowded areas of the landscapes, they would get about as tall. Their foliage is green, without the white spots. Your nasturtiums are rather colorful for feral. Ours are either simple orange or simple yellow. They start out as fancier varieties, but eventually revert to simple orange and yellow after a few generations. Oh gee, I got carried away again. Here are my six.
https://tonytomeo.com/2024/10/05/six-on-saturday-fake-autumn/
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The begonia is really pretty, and of course I love the nasturtiums. I have never been to Cornwall. It was a part of the country that my mum loved and visited a lot when she was young before the war.
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