If you’re expecting the last six from me for 2024 to be the cherry on the top, forget it. I went round the garden this morning, looking for something, anything, to talk about and the pickings are thin. In a year when we haven’t even had a frost hard enough to do more than blacken a few leaves, there is remarkably little either flowering or showing much sign of growth. The one positive was that having set up my trail camera to watch for hedgehogs, I was this morning rewarded with the first sighting since early in the year. Never mind that it perhaps ought to be hibernating, at least they’re still about.
It feels slightly desperate to invite newbies aboard the SoS meme when it’s going to be a struggle for the old hands but put it like this, any post this Saturday will not pass unnoticed. Participants guide is here. Onward.
One.
Erinaceous europaeus, the European hedgehog.
Two.
I’m not going to get too exited about new growth on a clematis when it will probably get cut back in the next few weeks, but even on one that I’ve already cut back the buds are swelling. They usually survive such frost as we get here, so I’ll chalk it up as a good thing.
Three.
New shoots on Fuchsias I’m not so sure about. I’ve taken to cutting them back hard in autumn, rather than leaving old growth and an accumulation of leaves to protect the crown of the plant. This is in an effort to minimise the chances of Fuchsia gall mite getting carried over from one season to the next. However, plants cut just a few weeks back are shooting away and I can’t see those shoots coming through the winter.
Four.
It’s the time of year when the evergreens get a chance to be noticed. Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Elizabeth’ has been wheeled out before at this time of year. The white leaf margins turn a good purplish pink if it gets really cold, meaning that most years it gets a pink blush at best in this garden.
Five.
Eucryphia ‘Gilt Edge’ has small, cream edged leaves and is now around 8 feet tall. It has never flowered but I haven’t given up hope.
Six.
Five weeks back I posted a picture of Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’ lying prostrate under a dusting of wet snow. I have done nothing to it and somehow it has dragged itself back to almost upright. It isn’t exactly sporting autumn tints but it’s making an effort so I’ll leave it for now.
Phew, made it to six without including the finished fence. Next week is next year, replete with possibilities. We did a boxing day walk round a local reservoir. It was foggily photogenic.
garden ruminations 
Very foggily photogenic! Wonderful scene. I like your selection today. It depicts winter well. Happy New Year! Amelia.
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Happy New Year to you too!
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What a great photo from your Boxing Day walk! We too have had two days of mist, but Christmas Day itself was gloriously sunny and pleasant, although not quite as mild as the day before. Sorry not to have dropped in for a few weeks, but hopefully all is back to normal now. I have been astonished by fresh shots on my clematis too, but also on several other things too, like roses and persicaria – I am sure this doesn’t mean winter is over!! ‘Elizabeth’ is such a pretty pittosporum; sadly my ‘Tom Thumb’ has never looked the same since I fell into it… My six are here: https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2024/12/28/six-on-saturday-the-holly-and-the-ivy/
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The hedgehog ambling around, what a sight! We don’t have them here. Love your foggy/moody Boxing Day photo.
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Do not despair! I appreciate even the small signs of growth. I poked around and well, things are now soggy without the snow. Temperatures more like April than late December. It will be a good three months before I see anything in my garden, though I can usually count on some of the campus gardens to get me through, and the promise of a greenhouse tour – how is it I never have been to the Botany Greenhouses on campus? I usually go to the horticulture greenhouses because they are on my path. Botany is a little out of my way, but really, in almost nine years I have not gone there? That will be remedied! If nothing else, it will at least give me some SOS fodder!
I love the foggy shot. Reminds me a little of a shot I took in the Boundary Waters area of northern Minnesota. A small rock with a tiny pine tree on it, reflected in the water. The far bank of the lake nearly completely obscured. A small orange buoy marks the rock, and reminded a colleague from China of the seals placed on artwork in China. Fog makes everything feel peaceful. At least if you do not have to drive in it! Where I went to University, outside of Sacramento, there would routinely be 80 car pileups on the causeway. One time I was riding my bike to class and I truly could not see my hands on the handlebars of my bicycle!
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Foggy weather, like many flavours of weather, is fine for a day or two and starts to seriously grate by day three or four. I didn’t know it could get to arms length visibility though, I’ve no desire to experience that.
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The first year I lived in Seattle, we went 90 days without even a peek at blue sky. My friend’s 3 year olf just stood and gaped at it when the first clear day arrived. Poor thing probably thought the sky had gone gray for good. People drive over the Cascades to get some eastern WA sunshine, but it can be dicey with road closures and avalanches. If the roads are clear it is a nice drive.
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It’s somewhat foggy and mizzly here as well. Rather uninspiring. It’s slim pickings here but I do have six things. Thanks for hosting Jim.
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All dank and misty here too, it is an effort at this time of year but before long there will snowdrops galore. Love the eucryphia, fingers crossed for flowers next year. Also the pittosporum is a beauty. Here are mine https://offtheedgegardening.com/2024/12/28/six-on-saturday-inbetweeny/
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Great signs of growth…..so much potential. Here are my six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2024/12/six-on-saturday-28-december-2024.html
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It is a bit of a worry that the hedgehog is out and about but it looks a reasonable size doesn’t it? I have similar foggy photo scenes from a similar walk on Boxing Day.
Anyway, thank you for hosting each week, it isn’t an easy task. I’ve had a go at a six this week: https://mysanctuarygarden.wordpress.com/2024/12/28/six-on-saturday-28-12-2024/
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I’d have put out a bit of food for the hedgehog but have yet to figure a way to keep the greedier of our two cats from eating it.
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That’s a lovely foggy photo scene and it’s great to see the footage of the hedgehog. I’d read they tend to emerge during milder winters these days. I’m not sure our young one has been up and about yet https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2024/12/28/six-on-saturday-28-december-2024/
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Hedgehogs still look scary to me. I do not care what those who are acquainted with them say, I would not want to encounter one in the garden at night. Why must they be nocturnal?! That just makes them even scarier! Anyway, even I know that some gardens lack some of their bloom for winter. Six on Saturday is not just about bloom. I often include trees without bloom, or even bark that I find to be interesting. I just happened to get five types of bloom and foliage that resembles bloom for my Six.
https://tonytomeo.com/2024/12/28/six-on-saturday-saturday-of-flowers-iii/
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Daft isn’t it, we delight in how many things are in flower at Christmas or new year, then start fretting about the seasons having gone to hell in a handbasket.
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I hope the next morning frosts won’t burn the tender shoots of your fuchsia, which are now showing the tip of their nose…
The last photo with the fog is really beautiful.!!
Here is the link for my last Six of the year which possibly sums up the best.(?) https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2024/12/28/six-on-saturday-28-12-24/
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