It’s raining. Our second full day of rain this week. The first was enough to refill all my water storage; this second lot will make sure the ground is well and truly soaked ready for a surge of spring growth. In short, enough already!!!
The garden is mostly loving it, though that includes slugs, which are especially threatening when Salvias and Dahlias are just starting to emerge. There’s no shortage of suitable subject matter for Six on Saturday; what is happening down your way? Join us and tell us how your garden grows. The participants guide is here.
One.
Acer palmatum ‘Orange Dream’ has been in for around four years now. Two years ago I put it in a post and it was 75cm tall and bushy. It’s 2-3 times as tall now, depending on how wet the leaves are. I have been removing the lower branches and twigs, aiming for 2.5-3m of bare stems before the foliage starts. It’ll take another couple of years to get there. The high camera angle makes it look wider and lower than it really is.
Two.
In March 2019 I wrote that I had Cyclamen repandum flowering for the first time from small tubers I’d been given a couple of years earlier. The first two small colonies are now well established; I have raised many more from seed and planted them in several places and self sown plants are now appearing, and flowering, at random places around the garden. I also have a few seedlings of a white form which may be big enough to get planted out this summer.
Three.
There are ferns bursting into new growth everywhere I look. I’ve not done a count on how many I have lately but it must be around 40. This is Dryopteris wallichiana ‘Jurassic Gold’ and it’s tucked into a corner between a trellis post and the fence, so not easy to get a decent shot of. I carefully cut out all the old leaves at the beginning of the week and it has grown prodigiously since.
Four.
Ferns are not the only things that are particularly striking when in fresh new growth. Holboellia brachyandra is a great flowering plant but its leathery green evergreen leaves are pretty dull, except when they kick off at this season of the year.
Five.
Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Valentine’ is flowering and has an offspring miles away that is also doing well. Now that I know it sets viable seed I will watch it carefully and try to collect them before they fall (in the unlikely event that I remember to).
Six.
The last of my Camellias to flower are ‘Spring Festival’ and ‘Night Rider’. This is ‘Night Rider’, which has these gorgeous dark blooms and then produces pretty stunning new growth. I need to cut it back from the path and had hoped that the dozen or so cuttings that I took last summer would produce me a backup in case it all went horribly wrong, but none produced roots.
In the space of just a few weeks I’ve gone from really struggling to find six things to feature to having loads of spares that I can hardly bear to leave out. I should do a midweek leftovers post. Or just tack a few extra pictures on the bottom here without names or comments, they’d have to be immune from prosecution if I did that, wouldn’t they?
garden ruminations 
Haha… I do like a bit of bending of the rules, particularly when it comes from the host! Fabulous cyclamen and acer. And yes, the ground is thoroughly saturated which is not good for my septic tank soakaway!
LikeLike
Gorgeous ferns, Jim – don’t you just love that new growth?! Today’s camellia is really striking too, and it has been interesting to see how long the season is with all the different varieties you have. https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2025/04/19/six-on-saturday-turning-inwards/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ohh, lovely spring joy all around, including the leftovers. I am now dreaming of that Japanese Maple. Thanks for hosting. https://theshrubqueen.com/2025/04/19/six-on-saturday-life-cycles/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m loving the idea of a leftovers slot – I may do that next week! Thanks for the reminder about ferns – I need to double check mine – I tidied them up about a month ago but I’ve not rechecked them since.
Here’s my six this week – https://thegarrett.garden/2025/04/19/six-on-saturday-19-april-2025/
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Acer palmatum ‘Orange Dream’ is a beauty. They are slow growers but the elegance of their colors and shapes make them a prize. My camellias are done blooming but it has been a spectacular year for them my way.
Here is my effort for this week
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love it when it’s raining on a Saturday morning…gives me time to read a bunch of Sis posts and go down the internet rabbit hole, looking up plants and flowers that are new to me…so today I read about the Sausage Vine that’s your fourth photo (is it as fragrant as they say?) and why the new name for Bleeding Heart. Fascinating! Plus, of course, I have time, on a rainy day, to sip coffee and post my own contribution to this fabulous meme:
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, yes, I think we’re all happy that you tacked on those extras. Your garden is lush and happy. Slugs aren’t fun, but otherwise, the rain is wonderful. Those Camellias are gorgeous, and that ‘Orange Dream’ Acer–wow! Thanks, again, for hosting.
https://plantpostings.blogspot.com/2025/04/six-favorite-native-plants.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love the bleeding heart – My grandma always had the pink and the white variety and I adore them, but do not have a good place for them. I visit a churchyard in Madison that has a little sanctuary garden with plenty of that and other lovely flowers. Of course it won’t be up yet here, but soon! So fun when things start popping! My garden looks pretty brown and sleepy yet, but if you get close, you see the signs of stirring. Leaves are popping out, new growth is making its way. Temps should be warm, ~20 C this week, with sun today followed by plenty of rain. I am happy abut that, as I have one rain barrel full and had help off putting my second one out due to threats of cold weather. It is safe now, any cold snap will be too short to freeze the barrel. Great news given the forecast, My stars for the week continue to be the daffodils and the tulips that have now opened up or are about to. I rejoice for each tiny leaf! Here are my six:
https://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com/2025/04/19/april-19-2025-six-on-saturday/
LikeLike
All the photos are gorgeous, and I enjoyed reading about them. Love the idea of a “leftovers” column!
LikeLike
I love the white callas from the bonus picture (not sure if that’s the name in the UK (maybe arum lily?) . I am trying to grow some at the moment.
Thanks to Six on Saturday, I am now hooked on Cyclamen. I bought one in APril 2024 and has been flowering ever since. I wasn’t expecting that, so I bought another (white)
LikeLike
Loving your fern, and what a great name for it. Envying your rain, so little here and thanks for reminding me about the lamprocapnos, I keep forgetting mine. I hope will still look good for next week. I had never thought to collect seed – and I will probably forget anyway! Here’s my six for this week https://n20gardener.com/2025/04/19/six-on-saturday-more-delights/ as you say things are getting easier to find!
LikeLike
I planted Acer palmatum Orange Dream last year but 3/4 is now dead. It is sprouting from the base so I hope it isn’t grafted and its the root stock sprouting, the new leaves look the same as yours. I must save the seeds of my Cyclamen repandum as mine aren’t spreading, it would be nice to spread them about. Lovely selection of spring flowers and foliage, I too have had more than enough rain!
My six are here………………https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your garden looks amazing in the opening shot. I’m assuming the central plant is that amazing dark red Camellia ‘Night Rider’ featured in your six. What a beauty. The Acer palmatum ‘Orange Dream’ is one I was looking at recently, it’s still on my list, I just need to find the perfect spot before committing. Here’s mine for this week:
https://notesfrommygarden.co.uk/2025/04/19/goodbye-summer-hello-winter/
LikeLiked by 1 person
The central Camellia is ‘Bob Hope’. You can just about make out ‘Night Rider’ in the bottom left but it is too dark to be a plant primarily viewed from a distance. I’m very much hoping that I can bend ‘Orange Dream’ to my vision of what best fits the space I’ve put it in. Having more or less by accident created a woodland clearing feel for the one shady corner of the garden, low growing plants with a perimeter of fence, shrubs and bamboo, I almost immediately did what I knew was the absolutely worst thing I could and planted a tree in the middle of it. I have more than once considered removing it but it is beautiful and if I can get it high enough to be part of the canopy it should be OK.
LikeLiked by 1 person
‘Orange Dream’ is in my online basket at the moment along with a couple of shrubs. I’ll mull over my choices during the next couple of days. We’ve severely cut back a huge Choisya ternata that the January storm damaged and it has left me with a large area to fill.
LikeLike
The rain has been welcome but I concur – it could do with stopping now. Those cyclamen are lovely and there is something very pleasing about fresh new foliage. I really like the dark red magnolia too – although I have to confess I read Night Rider as Knight Rider initially https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2025/04/19/six-on-saturday-19-april-2025/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Since you were the second person to refer to the camellia as a magnolia I panicked and checked I had it right. Camellia and Cyclamen is my usual pairing to mix up, I do it repeatedly, which considering I live and breathe Camellias, can get me funny looks. Night Rider only makes sense as a reference to Knight Rider, Oz Blumhardt probably thought it was quite witty but the Camellia world is littered with the names of forgotten people and events. Or people who might have been better forgotten in some cases.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not sure why I went with Camellia rather than Magnolia. Sorry for causing a moment of panic!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or even magnolia rather than camellia. Maybe a lie down in a dark room is required?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good grief, I did it again! Maybe my phone is autocorrecting Camellia to Magnolia? Nope, it’s me. Dark room it is.
LikeLiked by 1 person
😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nightrider is gorgeous – I have Konron Jura which isn’t as sumptuous in the flower. I’d love to see a photo of the whole shrub sometimes, so you can gauge the proportion of flowers to foliage, which I think is crucial to a Camellia.. Great post, thanks!
LikeLike
Night Rider has smaller flowers than Konron Jura but also smaller leaves. I was planning to put it into another six in a couple of weeks time so I’ll include a whole plant shot. I’m curious to know what you regard as optimal for the ratio of flowers to foliage in Camellias, mine span the full range from almost completely hiding the foliage to flowering rather sparingly. Broadly its flower power versus a natural look.
LikeLike
Thanks Jim – of course what I regard as optimal isn’t everyone else’s view. That having been said, I do like relatively sparse flower to leaf ratio, and I do find most nurseries tend only to show the flower, not the whole plant, except perhaps for Burncoose. The plant habit I also find interesting but not perhaps crucial to its success as a garden shrub. Many thanks for thinking of showing the whole plant in a couple of weeks – I’ll be looking! Best wishes Rebecca
LikeLike
The rain is welcome, we haven’t yet had as much as you have. I like the dark magnolia too.
Here’s my six
LikeLike
60mm of rain in the last 24 hours.
LikeLike
We only got 15.5 mm in the last 24 hours, but Sunday through Friday are forecast to be rainy. I think we are still trying to come back from drought, so I will be happy that at least it is now warm enough that plants are being less shy about coming out to play.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My rain gauge had racked up 60mm in 24 hours when I checked it this morning, which is a lot in one go for us.
LikeLike
Is Holboellia brachyandra the short-anthered sausage vine, or do you have a simpler common name for it? Is it the same as the cinnamon vine, or is that another species? I sometimes see one of the species of the genus in nurseries, but I do not remember what species it is. I think that it is grown more as an ornamental than as an edible, sort of like passion flower. Cyclamen repandum are pretty with a brighter color than Cyclamen hederifolium or Cyclamen coum. I got a lot of color for a change this week.
https://tonytomeo.com/2025/04/19/six-on-saturday-azaleas-2025/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t have a common name for it. My understanding is that it was introduced by Dan Hinkley and Bleddyn Wynn-Jones in 2003 from Vietnam so it’s very far from common in the UK. They don’t produce fruit in the absence of a different clone so I’d need another to grow it as an edible. It’s a monster, I don’t have room for one without butchering it most cruel. The two species usually encountered here are H. coriacea and H. latifolia, the latter sometimes sold under the name Stauntonia hexaphylla, which is quite different, if in the same family. Cyclamen repandum in my experience is remarkably uniform, especially compared to C. hederifolium. It sets a lot of seed, should you want some.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps that is why I have never seen fruit on it here. It all seems to be of the same cultivar. I was not aware that it needed a mate. It is pretty regardless of fruit production, or lack of such production, though. I should be more observant of its name when I see it in a nursery again. Now that I see the other species names, I suspect that what I see here is Holboellia latifolia. Thank you for the offer of seed for Cyclamen repandum, but I do not even have Cyclamen hederifolium established yet, and may never get any. My concern at my home garden is that it or Cyclamen repandum could naturalize. My home garden is in a very forested rural area, where control of escaped species would be impossible. I must be very careful with potentially invasive species. I am very fond of Cyclamen hederifolium, but as I get acquainted with it, I realize how prolific it can be. Thank you though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What to choose and what to leave out, so pleased you gave us a glimpse of the latter too. Jurassic Gold is living up to its name this week, and what a pleasing upright form too. Here are my six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2025/04/first-roses-and-other-beauties-in-my.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
It seemed a shame not to use the pictures, some will get a proper slot later but some things always seem to miss the cut.
LikeLike
LikeLike
That’s a nice Six, much improved with these additions. By the way, what’s the plant in the top left of the last unlabeled group?
A very pretty Japanese acer. The shot is very nice. Here’s my link for this week: https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2025/04/19/six-on-saturday-19-04-2025/
LikeLike
That would be Lilium leichtlinii, nearly as good in leaf as it is in flower.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fantastic photos this week, Jim. Full of optimism, spring is the best time. Love the fern and your moody camellia. Did you see my email in the week or was I spammed? What extra pictures? I didn’t see a thing! Here are my six https://offtheedgegardening.com/2025/04/19/six-on-saturday-here-comes-the-rain/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t get your email, gmail doesn’t recognise my preferred email address. I’ve sent mail to you from a different address. It’ll probably go into your spam!
LikeLiked by 1 person