Summer trundles on, doing its summery thing. Back in the 1980’s our garden was literally the corner of a meadow, though there is very little evidence left now. The farmer whose land it was is pretty elderly now and while he has been round our garden in the past has not done so recently. I may see him Sunday and get the chance to extend an invitation. Anyway, I digress, but what Six on Saturday is about is finding six items of interest in our corner of whichever meadow we inhabit and telling the world about them. It’s as simple as that. So simple in fact that it’s a mystery why anyone thought a participants guide was necessary, but there you go, they did.
One.
Out in the front garden this Dierama is flowering for what I think may be the first time. I’ve been telling our visitors that it is a seedling of Dierama ‘Blackbird’, from an AGS or HPS seed distribution. It is not. I checked before committing to the written word, it was purchased as Dierama ‘Blood Drops’ from Plant World Seeds and sown in early 2021. I have two plants and they differ somewhat, as one would expect from seed but I don’t know if ‘Blood Drops’ is a clone or a seed strain so the taxonomy gets tricky. The seed list description doesn’t help. I don’t think the photo has quite got the colour but it’s too late now.
Two.
When people come round the side of the house the first they see of the back garden is this bed of Astilbes. We dutifully tell them it was once a pond and why we filled it in. It’s a great splash of colour but doesn’t last long. Fortunately Astilbes have attractive foliage so it will get dead-headed and be green while other flowers get their turn in the spotlight.
Three.
July is when most of our lilies flower. My first serious foray into lilies was with Lilium leichtlinii, which I had seen growing to great effect in Keith Wiley’s garden, Wildside. He had a pot of them plunged in his courtyard garden and that has been my blueprint for the last couple of years. This year I have plunged less of them, just stood the pots outside the front of the house, but L. leichtlinii, and the one coming next, are in pots, were overwintered and started into growth in my tunnel and have now been sunk to the pot rim in the garden. Once again the Miscanthus ‘Morning Light’ beside the lily has caught me out with its size and spread, crowding the lily somewhat.
Four.
Lilium ‘Red Velvet’ is to all intents a red version of L. leichtlinii. I don’t know what their relationship is but they share the same flowering time, fine foliage, pendant flowers, lack of perfume and upright habit.
Five.
Linaria x dominii ‘Carnforth’ is the name I attributed to this when I put it in a six in 2021 but I am somewhat doubtful of the name now. Pale toadflax hybridises with both purple and common toadflax and this could well be pale (L. repens) crossed with purple (L. purpurea) but doesn’t really match pictures I’ve seen of the presumably selected clonal form ‘Carnforth’. I’d be glad to hear any thoughts anyone has on its identity. I rather like it, Sue rather doesn’t and I admit it’s a bit wayward and seeds around a bit.
Six.
Last one and time to break the bad news to this weeks failed auditioners. The final spot goes (drum roll) to Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’, in combination with a dark leaved, red flowered Begonia. Overwintering it under cover is something I just don’t want to think about just yet.
I’m doing another short video of how the garden as a whole looked for this weeks opening and will post it on YouTube with a link on this blog sometime in the next day or two. Now all I want to do is go to bed. Hosting garden visitors and talking plants for hours is both uplifting and exhausting; or perhaps I’m just getting old. Have a good week.
garden ruminations 
I loved the ending of this post, “Hosting garden visitors and talking plants for hours is both uplifting and exhausting; or perhaps I’m just getting old.”
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Just scraped in under the wire
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That astilbe is gorgeous! I’d love to grow some, but don’t think my conditions would suit it. And the red banana is stunning. I’m tempted to try one of those as well but it would look hopelessly out of place in my garden and there is no way I could overwinter it. Might have to make do with a red elephant ear instead.
My six: https://minhus.blogspot.com/2025/07/six-on-saturday-natives-in-bloom.html
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Do you leave the Lillies in their pots over the winter or do you remove them? I’ve planted my Ensete on into a 70 litre pot and it’s growing really well. I’m really not sure how I’ll overwinter it though.
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I leave the lilies in their pots, or have done so far. They would probably benefit from fresh compost after two or three seasons so several are likely to get repotted this year.
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What I also meant to say was wow, 70L is a mighty big pot, I’m not there yet, though probably will be next year if it survives. Fred was offering instruction on overwintering it, I think he stores his in his attic, dry and out of its pot. Basically frost free and dry.
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The lilies!!! Whatever work went into those beauties was worth it, wowowowowo. The Astlbes are fantastic as well. Enjoy your garden and visitors. https://theshrubqueen.com/2025/07/05/six-on-saturday-the-last-mango/
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Jim, your showstopper is the banana with red flowering Begonias. As far as I’m concerned, you could have posted that single photo (I counted more than 6 plants in it, by the way) and gone on to your rest. Extremely kind of you to have also shared the other 5, which are also beautiful eye-candy. I particularly like the Dierama, a flower I’m not familiar with but that reminds me of a nice summer-blooming Salvia. The lilies are gorgeous, too, as is your prodigious patch of Astilbe. Your comments some weeks ago about your Himalayan maidenhair fern have been churning, and led me to not only order some plants to grow here, but to also research and write an article about Adiantums for the other website I write for. There is a link from my post this week, which also shows off some fruit trees, flowers, and ferns: https://woodlandgnome.wordpress.com/2025/07/05/six-on-saturday-renewal/ I hope you are feeling fully recovered after your happy Open Garden Day. Thanks again for hosting!
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Ah, the Dierama is lovely. I have admired them in plant catalogs for years. No one around here grows them, though, so I suspect they do not like our climate.
Here are my six. Three plants and three garden animals this week.
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Such a lovely “six.” While I couldn’t pick a favorite, that Dierama is new to me, and it is stunning. We are on the same schedule for the other plants you show, and the Lilies seem to be the stars in the area currently. Thanks for hosting.
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My garden wasn’t part of a meadow, but it was part of a farmyard! We even had a public path running through what is now our conservatory! Luckily our conveyancer spotted that and it turned out it had been altered but not signed off by the council!
Love your lilies. I am sad that my Martagon lilies didn’t survive the S&S.
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Loved your selection this week, Jim. I always enjoy the six photo tour of your gardens. I truly wish that I lived close enough to be one of your garden visitors. Here’s my contribution to the SOS worldwide tour of gardens:
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You can have the next best thing to a visit with the video I posted yesterday!
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Your Ensete is spectacular, Jim, and well worth the over-wintering hassles, I hope. I imagine it’s in a pot that you have to drag into your greenhouse? ANd it does do well with the Begonia below…
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I must take the bathroom scales out at the end of the season and weigh the Ensete pot, just out of curiosity.
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I am completely envious of your lilies, as I have mentioned the lily beetle just ruins everything for me. I hope all your visitors are truly appreciative of all your hard work, I’m sure they are. Garden visitors are generally nice people! Here’s my link from a scorched, parched garden. https://n20gardener.com/2025/07/05/six-on-saturday-broken-promises/
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What elegant and glorious lilies, and for me wonderful that they have no scent. I am truly tempted to try them next year, but I wonder how they will fare without poly tunnel etc. Is it possible to plant them in the ground, and have them flower maybe perhaps a little later>
Here are my six this week:
https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2025/07/from-my-garden-six-things-this-saturday.html
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I think it’s the combination of wet Cornish winters and slug armageddon in spring, but I’ve not had much luck growing lilies in the ground. Even martagon lilies go backwards. They go completely dormant so could be overwintered anywhere in their pots but do tend to come into growth early, at least in the tunnel.
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What marvellous Lilium Lechtlinii! I have grown lilies in pots in full sun for decades before learning that they actually like shade. Off to order some now. Best wishes Rebecca Child
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Our gardens had the same beginning Jim, as part of a farmers field! Back in the 1950s when the farmer bought his new tractor he wasn’t going to risk it on our wet corner of his field, so out came the old shire horse to plough what is now my and my neighbours gardens. His daughters still live in the village and have many a tale to tell me about what went on here!
Love your lilies and astilbes, so colourful.
My six are here……………………….https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com
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The lilies and the astilbes are spectacular. I’m sure the garden visits are exhausting but I bet the visitors come away from your garden full of ideas and inspiration.
My far less impressive six is here: https://mysanctuarygarden.wordpress.com/2025/07/05/six-on-saturday-05-07-2025/
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Lots of lovelies this week, Jim. That dierama is a fabulous colour and the lilies are beautiful. The ensete and begonia combo is wonderful. How many times do you open a year? Did you here that Deb has broken her arm and won’t be opening in July? Poor thing. Here are my six, have a great week https://offtheedgegardening.com/2025/07/05/six-on-saturday-le-tour/
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What a great selection of photos from your garden this week. The bed of Astilbes must be a ‘wow’ moment for your visitors as they enter the garden. But the combination of the black banana and red Begonia is my ‘Wow’ moment of the week. Fabulous! Here is mine for this week:
https://notesfrommygarden.co.uk/2025/07/05/a-new-rose-combination/
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Great selection this week, Jim. The colour of that dierama is stunning. I have grown some of the Slieve Donnard strain in the past but the colours aren’t as strong. I am not a fan of unscented lilies, but have grown ‘Night Flyer’ which seems very similar to your ‘Red Velvet’. Finally the ensete and the begonia make an excellent colour combination. This week’s six:
https://ricksplantworld.blog/2025/07/05/six-on-saturday-5-7-2025/
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I like growing dieramas from seed as you never know what you will get. Your ‘Blood Drops’ is pretty colour. Fabulous astilbes, they are a problem to keep looking good this year. I am weak with envy looking at your stunning lilies.
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Astilbe looks like a picture from a catalogue. It is too perfect. Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’ is sometimes described as Ensete maurelii. I believe that it is a cultivar rather than a species, as you describe it.
Here are my six:
https://tonytomeo.com/2025/07/05/six-on-saturday-more-unexpected-surprises/
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I tried diarema seedlings, it never worked. Apparently, once they’re established and happy, they last a long time. Very pretty yellow and red lilium flowers, and regarding the red banana tree, don’t worry about the winter, it’s easy to lift up and overwinter: I’ll explain you again if necessary ( I wrote a post about it I think)
In the meantime, here’s my link for this week: https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2025/07/05/six-on-saturday-05-07-25/
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Do you want me to try and save seed from my Dierama to send you? They certainly took a year or two to get going but have grown strongly this year, as well as flowering. The Ensete was no problem last winter in the sense that all I did was move it under glass and keep it frost free and try, but this year it will be twice the size and twice the weight. Even on a trolley I have rough and narrow paths and a couple of steps to negotiate. My backs hurting just thinking about it.
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Indeed, I was thinking of digging it and putting it on a trolley, but your back will be the main element and the first to decide. For the diarema seeds why not try again with your own seeds?
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A great selection. The Lilies are a show, especially L. leichtlinii. I’m pro the Linaria – those pale stripes on the upper petals are very nice indeed. Alas, my sole surviving Astilbe, growing in the ground near the wildlife pond, is struggling yet again with the dry weather. I may need to consider improving the soil for it so that the ground retains more moisture https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2025/07/05/six-on-saturday-5-july-2025/
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