The house painting is finished but the scaffolding is still up, so while the chaos has receded a little, we are far from back to normal. It looks like we have another week of sunny weather before a possible breakdown so everything is growing like mad, good for the build up to opening the garden in mid June. There’s plenty going on, so no problem finding six things, just a slight problem deciding which six to run with. Join us, you must have six things going on in your garden; just do a post about them and put a link to it in my comments section below. The participants guide hasn’t moved either.
One.
First up is Melaleuca squarrosa, which was hit hard in winter2022/23 and has taken quite a while to recover. It was looking good in early morning sun today but even with the most flowers on it that its ever had, the impact is fairly muted.
Two.
What happened to Ostespermums? They used to come in shades of white through to dullish purple; no more. These were bought to go in containers probably destined for the sunny front of the house. Every year we say we’ll do less containers and every year we do more. I blame a well judged multi buy pitch by one of our local plant emporiums, you want three so you buy eight.
Three.
Zantedeschia ‘White Giant’ has now been planted out into our bog garden, replacing Lysichiton camtschatcencis, or at least being planted on to of it. I have a hunch it will try to make a comback, its roots were way deeper than I was prepared to go. It’s claimed to get 2m tall; so far it has made 1.2m. There is no setting on my camera that can cope with the contrast between its flowers and the rest of the world, I need to discover HDR.
Four.
Polygonatum mengzense f. tonkinensis HWJK573 would be in my top ten, albeit along with about fifty other plants. The new stems emerge with dark chocolate leaves and produce myriad tiny green flowers. The colouring slowly fades and last years shoots have green leaves, still with scarlet fruits which have been present since autumn. Each berry contains one large seed, which germinate readily enough but none has yet produced a plant with nearly such rich colouring. The clump has spread extremely slowly and I still haven’t tried to propagate it vegetatively.
Five.
I just looked back at my six for 18th May last year and because I was wondering if I’d ever posted Convallaria ‘Vic Pavlovski’s Gold’ and there it was. Along with the Polygonatum above and Maianthemum ‘Emily Moody’. Maybe I could use it for the header picture. Or not. I do try not to be too repetitive but the good things come round at about the same time year after year. Let’s have Echium pinniniana instead, trying to stand tall among the scaffolding and building site crane down the road.
Six.
Maianthemum ‘Emily Moody’ would be in my top ten, albeit along with about fifty other plants. If I was a diligent tagger you would no doubt find that this comes up every year without fail. And with good reason, it’s 3 feet high and more than four feet across, has the same scent as lily of the valley and even after the flowers fade, goes on looking imposing for months. In autumn it has fruits containing seeds that are easy enough to grow but slow to make a mature plant.
I use numbers for my picture files, SOS1234 etc. I just tweaked and resized an image for my header this week and it is SOS4000. There are 1899 other images in my blog folder which aren’t in that numerical sequence. 4.4 GB of pictures. It’s no wonder they keep building data centres.
garden ruminations 
Growing like mad is a great way to describe it. Your garden is exquisite. Have a great week!
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Trying again with the link…
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If my Ostespermums ever looked like that I would never complain!! Wowsers. So many colours and such a huge amount of plant. I just put mine in today. I don’t recognize a single other plant you are growing; likely because zone 3 would kill them all! Thanks for hosting. My entry this week isn’t about harcest -25 (although I grabbed a bunch more asparagus today) but about the pretty things in the gardens.
Bernie
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Greetings from Germany! What a lovely idea to focus on good news and spread joy! Am I allowed to join in, if Idecided to share 3 on Sunday?
1) Yesterday, after almost two months without rain, we had a thunderstorm. Lots of water… rain barrels full 🙏
2) Tomatoes start blooming
3) Strawberries get ready to be harvested… 🐑
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Yes, what to do with all those pictures, especially as most of mine have a resized version too; I’m sure I don’t need to keep them all… As Noelle says, you are invariably introducing us to things many of us have never heard of before – and it’s no wonder you would be struggling to shoehorn at least 50 things into your top ten! Thanks for hosting, as always. My six are here, all roses today: https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2025/05/17/six-on-saturday-roses-grow-on-you-ooo/
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Yes, we do need new data centers for all of the wonderful garden photos! Recently I moved/copied my photo files, back to around 2009, onto a removable hard drive as insurance. But the numbers are all mixed up as that is over perhaps 5 cameras. Now there is room for many, many more! Here are my 6 for this week, all ferns: https://woodlandgnome.wordpress.com/2025/05/17/six-on-saturday-variations/
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I love osteos, though I suspect yours are tender ones. Still nice to fill summer containers. I might be tempted myself if I see any. The Zantedeschia ‘White Giant’ is gorgeous as is the Melaleuca squarrosa, another one I am tempted with…
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The only plant in your six today I have heard of is Osteospermum and I have similar container issues! We can grow them as winter annuals here. Emily Moody is very intriguing, especially the scent. Are the Camellias done for the year? https://theshrubqueen.com/2025/05/17/six-on-saturday-mango-alert/
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I like to see the same plants and at different times of the year, you have so many and I often have to look up the plants as I have never seen or heard of them before. However I do recognise Osteospermums, and we must have been the first people yesterday walking away from a large gardencentre without a barrow load! Here are my six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2025/05/a-dry-and-dusty-six-things-in-garden.html
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My favorite is the ‘Emily Moody’. Here is my six for this week.https://mensgardenvestavia.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/midmay-easy-street-16-may-2024/
Happy gardening everyone!
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Greetings again from the Pacific Northwest and a happy Saturday to all! Jim, I grow exactly zero of what you’ve shown today and find them fascinating. Emily Moody is perfect, especially due to fragrance. All is very pink here, even a new birth in the family — https://gardensatcoppertop.com/2025/05/17/the-joy-of-spring-pinks/
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As usual, gorgeous selections. I am intrigued by the Maianthemum – Love the scent of Lily of the Valley, but they are a noxious invasive plant here – the worst thing is invasive plants that are attractive. Burning bush (Euonymus alatus) is another that is showing up where it is not wanted, but widely sold by nurseries and widely purchased for its fall color. Here are my six – things are moving along nicely despite crazy storms the last two days.
https://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com/2025/05/17/may-17-2025-six-on-saturday/
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I love that you blame the local plant emporium for causing you to buy eight plants instead of three. What an excellent excuse!
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An impressive collection this week Jim – I especially like the Polygonatum – I’ve not seen that one before – and the Maianthemum – it’s one to look up! Everything is doing what oit should be doing over here.
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Loving the Echium pinniniana, what an impressive plat.
Here’s my six
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Love the osteos – gorgeous colours. “want three so you buy eight” – I feel very seen LOL.
Here’s my six for this week – https://thegarrett.garden/2025/05/17/six-on-saturday-17th-may-2025/
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I absolutely love zantedeschia but have never managed to keep one going. I live vicariously! Wonderful. Good luck with scaffolding coming down – always the worst part! Here’s my link https://n20gardener.com/2025/05/17/six-on-saturday-mid-may-border/
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Lush and beautiful
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As usual a wonderful six Fred. Your echium is amazing. Did you get that fabulous chocolate polygonatum from Crüg? Sorry if my link is a bit obtrusive, I can’t get the hang of it on my tablet. It either doesn’t work at all, or comes up huge.
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Like Catherine, I’ve never heard of “Emily Moody” but it’s one I’ll look out for at the garden centre. I found myself repeating plants this week, too, but my garden is too small for me to avoid that. My six this week is here: https://mysanctuarygarden.wordpress.com/2025/05/17/six-on-saturday-17-05-25/
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Hey, I remember that melaleuca. It seemed a bit too Californian for your garden (although it is not actually ‘from’ here). Osteospermums really are crazy nowadays. The formerly common ground cover sort is so rare now that I sort of miss it. I was not aware that Maianthemum should be blooming now. It grows wild in at least one of the landscapes, but I have not been there in quite a while. You certainly have quite a few coastal plants this week; all but Polygonatum mengzense f. tonkinensis.
These are my six:
https://tonytomeo.com/2025/05/17/six-on-saturday-elderberry-foliage/
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Such colourful osteospermums, love your echium, wish they were hardy! My favourite though this week is your M. Emily Moody, so beautiful.
My six are here………………..https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com
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I am envious of your echium, I have tried to grow them many times but even after overwintering under glass I have never had any success. There is a border against a high brick retaining wall in the center of Sheffield that features them most years and Sheffield isn’t the warmest of places. I think my garden was just too shady for them. Funnily enough some friends and I were discussing “what happened to osteospermums?” but not for the same reason. Some had appeared in the local wholesale market and we were saying that they were not as common as they used to be. The conclusion was that possibly, given our normal summers and their need of sun to flourish, that they were perhaps going out of fashion here in the same way as mesembryanthemums have.
My six this week: https://ricksplantworld.blog/2025/05/17/six-on-saturday-17-05-2025/
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‘Emily Moody’ looks lovely & the fact it has a Lily of the Valley fragrance makes it sound perfect. Wow to the Osteospermums https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2025/05/17/six-on-saturday-17-may-2025/
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Wow! These osteos are stunning! So much colours. About the echium pininana, is yours winter hardy? I have one potted in the greenhouse right now, but I know that if I plant it in the ground , it won’t survive the next winter to flower next year. I’m hesitant to let it continue growing in a pot in the greenhouse at the risk of it touching the ceiling and plant it next spring. https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2025/05/17/six-on-saturday-17-05-25/
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What a dazzling display of osteospermums. That’s exactly what my garden needs and with one photo you’ve talked me into a garden centre visit. ‘Emily Moody’ is a keeper – it’s one I don’t know but looks gorgeous. Here is my six for this week:
https://notesfrommygarden.co.uk/2025/05/17/wilting/
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Don’t worry about being repetitive, it is good to see plants again. Love Emily (Young Man!) and Poly (ditto). Hopefully the scaffolding will be down soon and all will look wonderful. Love the osteos, such jolly plants. Here are my six https://offtheedgegardening.com/2025/05/17/six-on-saturday-fence/
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The scaffolding has gone! Only damage was one broken pot, I’m happy with that. I’m now working on the all looking wonderful bit.
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