Flaming June! Huh! We have family over from Australia and while we were never going to compete with their weather, we could have done without the demo of a proper Cornish summer. The garden is loving it, though the marauding molluscs are having a ball. There have been many fatalities and there will be many more. (molluscs, not plants) We have our first open days next Friday and Saturday and currently the Friday forecast is for rain in the morning, dry in the afternoon. I suspect that will change. There’s lots happening, I even have a couple of Dahlias that might be out by then.
Join us if you have half a dozen things in your garden that you’d like to show off, it’s very simple. The participants guide will give you more info should you need it.
One.
Last Sunday was the day of the Tregrehan Plant Fair and I managed to restrict myself to three things I had no room for, only one of which was a Begonia. One of the others was Neoregelia ‘Mo Peppa Please’, (it was labelled ‘Mo Pepper Please’) which I was assured was more or less hardy in Cornwall. I’m seriously doubting it and will take it in until I’ve got a plant or two as backups. It just struck me as radically different in appearance from anything I have already. It’s a bromeliad and would be epiphytic in nature. I have planted it in the dry leafy duff under my bamboo, it being a bit tricky to produce South American rainforest conditions for it. If it fails to thrive I will move it elsewhere.
Two.
A plant I may well have bought at Tregrehan last year is a dark stemmed form of Impatiens sodenii. It has been seeding about in the greenhouse and had become very pot bound in its original pot. I thought it was time it had a taste of life in the real world. So far, so good; “so far” being about a week. Cuttings for backup have been taken, none of the seedlings having had as dark a stem as the original. This will not be hardy so must be propagated or brought in for winter.
Three.
A plant I’ve had for a long time is this orchid but it doesn’t seem to have featured in a six before now, mainly because for several years it has been struggling in the root zone of my big yew tree. I moved it, or at least part of it and it is much happier. I must go check its label and see whether I left a bit behind. (If I did, I can’t now find it, but the new plant has no label on it either. If my memory is correct it’s Dactylorhiza x grandis ‘Blackthorn form’ but I’m not 100% sure. It’s raining, I’ll look more carefully when it’s dry)
Four.
Corydalis flexuosa cv. I don’t know which of the several clones of this species this is but it is a plant I rate very highly. It gets a couple of feet tall and tends to flop onto its neighbours but it flowers from May and keeps going until dry summer weather stops it. The flowers are a gorgeous clear blue and scented; the foliage plain mid green. It has been reliably perennial for around ten years, spreading a little. It is in light shade and usually moist soil on the north side of a group of shrubs.
Five.
Eryngium giganteum has been self sowing perhaps a little too enthusiastically for a number of years but almost all in the immediate vicinity of where it was first planted. Very few of the current crop are flowering and only one of those is at all silvery. I could tag that plant and save its seed, or get rid of the lot and buy seed of a selected form, ie ‘Miss Wilmott’s Ghost’. The green is nothing very special.
Six.
I popped out earlier to retake a couple of things where I hadn’t got the exposure right. It had been raining and had really lifted the colours of Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’. It can have slot six.
I’ve just remembered what the third plant that I bought at Tregrehan was, it’s bugged me since item one. Lysimachia stenophylla, which I’d been looking out for since seeing it in a garden a couple of years ago. It was on about the second stall I visited and I grabbed it before someone else did, then inevitably I saw it again on a few other stalls. The fear that you might come back and find the thing you’d wanted has gone is a potent sales pitch. The header picture hydrangea I’ll put in next week’s six.
garden ruminations 
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Hi Jim, good luck with the Bromeliad. I love them! Once you have one and it survives I bet you will want more 🙂
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Oh good luck with your openings, Jim – I haven’t checked the forecast for ours yet and I know we can’t be lucky with the weather every year…🤞Both white and blue corydalis are striking – and so is the length of time they flower for. The varieties I have flower much earlier and for a very short time. I have very recently bought a blue one but can’t remember the variety. For some reason your Spotty Dotty picture doesn’t appear on my screen, another plant I yearn to have one of these days. Thanks for hosting https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2025/06/07/six-on-saturday-some-welcome-showers/
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So much variety! The Impatiens are charming. The orchid is gorgeous. The corydalis is a lovely blue. And ‘Spotty Dotty’ is…unique! I am getting back to normal after the invasion.
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Its so lovely to see such variety in all the gardens! This week I have been mostly enjoying the birds, bees and roses… https://doingtheplan.com/2025/06/07/six-on-saturday-bees-birds-horsey-james-galway-and-yukka-buds/
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Spotty and speckled seems to be a theme of your six this week, Jim… or perhaps it is just the inspiration from the spotty/dotty rain? I do love your Podophyllum. They have such lovely shaped leaves, but are all too short-lived here each spring. Our leaves (on the native species) have already mostly disappeared for the season. The Eryngium is quite impressive, too. And I admire your restraint on only picking up three new plants. Too bad there wasn’t a spotty dotty and lovely Begonia in your mix. I’m always enjoying your Begonia collection. My six also reflects our shift into early summer, and all of the many blooming shrubs that respond to the change in our weather: https://woodlandgnome.wordpress.com/2025/06/07/six-on-saturday-shifting-to-summer/
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I too think the blue corydalis is gorgeous. Every time I see one on a blog I think I must buy one, and have yet to do so. Also on the list is Miss Wilmott’s Ghost! All I need to do is make some room.
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Nice Eryngium – it looks soft and spikey at the same time and has a nice silvery color. I also like the clear blue of the cordyalis and the freckled bromeliad. Glad things are shaping up nicely for the garden open house. Things are still slow here, but temps are improving and ample rainfall is being provided. I am actually thinking about starting to fill my winter water bottles early, as my barrels are full yet there is rain forecast for tomorrow.
Here are my six https://gardenruminations.co.uk/2025/06/07/six-on-saturday-7-6-2025/#more-18682
Have a great week everyone! I am back up north for the FEMA grade exercise in support of our nuclear power plant. I assume that the Toddler in Chief has not dismantled FEMA yet. To busy breaking up with his boyfriend King Elon, one supposes.
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Love that Corydalis!!! And everything else, of course! I hope your open garden goes well next week!
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I love the orchid Dactylorhiza sp. You have tantalized me with that beautiful blue lace cap hydrangea.
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Your picks are gorgeous, as always.
My favorite quote today is “I managed to restrict myself to three things I had no room for.”
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Wishing you good luck with the weather for your open days. I love the photo of Eryngium giganteum, even if it may be spikey in real life! Spotty dotty is a plant I keep wondering about, if I saw one I would probably buy it. Here’s my link https://n20gardener.com/2025/06/07/six-on-saturday-busy-times/ but I imagine you are busier!!
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I haven’t done much gardening today, it’s been tipping it down.
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I could do with some tipping it down weather! My potatoes are suffering. Probably be blight next!
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You have some really unusual plants there, Jim…
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What an interesting six! Spotty dotty was all the rage here about 5 years ago, but they all seem to have disappeared now, so I don’t think they liked our climes. Good luck with ‘Mo Peppa Please’, it looks like a great one to keep going and propagate.
Here are my six: https://wp.me/pM8Y1-9qT
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‘Spotty Dotty’ was hugely expensive when it first appeared, maybe because it was slow to bulk up, maybe because growers were cashing in on a new and very distinctive plant. Then it suddenly was everywhere, perhaps because a micro-prop lab started churning out young plants, now it is less common, perhaps because the volume producers have dropped it in favour of the Next Big Thing. As much as you’re free to choose what you grow, there’s a lot of corporate decision making behind what is readily available. It’s part of the attraction of events like Tregrehan Rare Plant Fair.
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Spotty Dotty! What a great name and the orchids are lovely too, thanks for including them.
Here’s mu=y six
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Your Corydalis is a stunner, I have never managed to keep any for more than 2 yrs! Your orchid looks very similar to mine which has just started flowering, the leaves are the same and the flower is very similar, will show mine soon when a few more flowers are open. Hope the weather improves for your visitors and your open days. My six are here……………..https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com/
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I had the original clone of Corydalis flexuosa when it first appeared and really struggled to keep it going and had the purple leaved form only for a while. This one is in a very ordinary piece of ground and seems very robust.
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I love Spotty Dotty too, yours is looking bigger and better than mine though. And the blue corydalis is gorgeous. I have a similar one, ‘Blue Heron’ but your leaves are greener. I am amazed by a hydrangea in bloom already. Lucky you going to Tregrehan Plant Fair.
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Hydrangea serrata ‘Cap Sizun’, it is always the earliest of mine to flower. Mark Fillan (Tuckermarsh Plants) had several superb Hydrangea serrata varieties on his stand, I so nearly succumbed and am still regretting not doing so. I’ve seen bigger and lusher Spotty Dotty’s than mine, which suffers from sharing its root zone with a large Camellia, and is probably tougher and more resilient, if smaller, as a result.
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Well I shan’t show you my Spotty Dotty then. I don’t think she gets enough moisture in my garden. I love ‘Cap Sizun’ but it would be pink in my garden.
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Lovely six this week Jim, all beauties. Well done for such restraint at the plant fair, I’m not sure I would have done so well. Hope the weather improves for your visitors, I think tomorrow may be better. Here are my six https://offtheedgegardening.com/2025/06/07/six-on-saturday-blurry/
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It struck me that there are still an extraordinary number of plants that I would love to have a go at growing, I could easily have filled the car with things I’d have liked to have but I just don’t have room for what I’ve got. A lot of stuff will get temporarily relocated to the allotment for the opening season, the damned visitors expect paths to walk along, so unreasonable!, though I need to dump last year’s relocations, most of which are now mercifully deceased.
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Am envying you those orchids, Jim. They remind me of the wild ones that grew around our erstwhile home in Much Wenlock. And that blue corydalis. Lovely. Here are my 6
https://tishfarrell.com/2025/06/07/garden-treasures-the-salvaged-and-the-self-seeded/
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I’m sufficiently impressed by how well the orchid responded to being moved to be tempted to try and build up a bit of a natural looking colony. I wish I’d noted exactly when I’d divided it.
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The wild iris hill in Wenlock that is managed by volunteers, do a species count at the end of June. Then the vegetation is cut in September followed by harrowing. The harrowing appeared to have the effect of splitting and spreading the rhizomes across the hill, so increasing numbers. I don’t know if that helps.
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Interesting to hear about your silvery or not so silvery Eryngiums Jim. I have a very silvery strain handed to me by John Massey from his own garden, and I shall be very happy to send you seed when it is ripe should you wish to start again. Here are my six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2025/06/in-garden-six-on-saturday-at-start-of.html
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I’d be very happy to take you up on the seed offer, anything I can send you in return?
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Happy to save the seed for you Jim.
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I’m admiring the dark stems and pale pink flowers of the Impatiens sodenii, they make a good-looking pair. Good luck with your open day next weekend – here’s hoping for perfect weather! Mine for this week:
https://notesfrommygarden.co.uk/2025/06/07/early-summer-showtime/
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The corydalis is such a gorgeous blue. Let’s hope the weather improves before your open days.
Here’s my six for this week: https://mysanctuarygarden.wordpress.com/2025/06/07/six-on-saturday-07-06-2025/
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I hope the weather plays ball for Friday and Saturday. Visitors are in for a treat. That Corydalis flexuosa is a beauty https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2025/06/07/six-on-saturday-7-june-2025/
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Impatiens sodenii can get a bit hefty if it does not freeze back. I cut mine back at the end of winter to keep it tidy. Do you grow the seedlings intentionally, or do they just self sow? Eryngium giganteum brings back memories. It was one of the cut flower crops that I worked with during the summer of 1986, although it was blue and likely smaller. Corydalis flexuosa is one that I see only in pictures.
Here are my six.
https://tonytomeo.com/2025/06/07/six-on-saturday-going-bananas-again/
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Eryngium giganteum as a cut flower! Nasty spiky thing, I imagine the memories it brings back are not good ones. The Impatiens sodenii has been self seeding, I haven’t been alert enough to collect any seed before it is shed, presumably energetically, that being the way with most Impatiens. Does it shoot from the base if frosted?
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Yes, it grows vigorously from the base, although it never frosted completely in that particular garden. It just got shabby as it lost most of its foliage through winter, so got cut back. The difficulty was delaying the process of cutting it back. I liked to cut it back as soon as it got shabby, but that stimulated new growth that could also get shabby if it was too early. Ultimately, if new growth got shabby, it was merely replaced also.
Eryngium giganteum (or whatever Eryngium it was) was icky to harvest, but it was the 80s. Echinops was unpleasant to handle also, but I dig it now.
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I have the same Ground Orchid in my garden that comes back every year. This year I find that the flower stem is smaller: have you noticed? ‘Spotty Dotty’ is very sought after. When you find it, indeed, you have to take it. I saw one in a garden near here, ….but not yet in mine… https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2025/06/07/six-on-saturday-07-06-25/
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The flower stems on my orchid are the biggest I’ve had in years but only because it’s now in a better situation than it was. Spotty Dotty is readily available here, I think someone must be micro-propagating it. The similar ‘Kaleidescope’ was attacked relentlessly by slugs and eventually died, so I wouldn’t recommend it as an alternative.
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Good to know. Thanks and have a good weekend !
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Fascinated to see how the neoregelia goes. I share your admiration for the corydalis and can certainly recommend ‘Miss Wilmott’s Ghost’. From what I have read about her, she was certainly a character!
My six at: https://ricksplantworld.blog/2025/06/07/six-on-saturday-7-6-2025/
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