Six on Saturday – 20/12/2025

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One word sums up this week, wet. Today, meaning Friday, it didn’t rain but I spent most of the day helping resheet a polytunnel for some friends who live nearby. Consequently I have spent almost no time in the garden all week. I did a quick sortie yesterday to see what I can find and took a few pictures, I still haven’t looked at them, so I may have to get creative in order to get six things to talk about.

Six on Saturday being this meme that I have hosted these last few years, started by and hosted by The Propagator, then passed on to me when he took off in a different direction. Join in, all you need do is post a picture or two of six things going on now in your garden, write a few words about them and put a link to your post in the comments below.
The Propagator wrote a participants guide, which tells you more.

I mentioned last week that I had just picked up a rescue hedgehog and released him in our garden. He seems to have settled in very well but I will write a separate post about him shortly. He’ll only get a look-in here if I run out of other things to talk about.

One.
I don’t seem to have put in Clematis cirrhosa ‘Wisley Cream’ since 2023. It has made a lot of growth since then and is suckering here and there in a mildly concerning way. Its flowers are small and a long way short of prolific, but at this time of year, beggars can’t be choosers. I hope I have the name right, I’m not wholly confident.

Two.
I grow quite a few Begonias that are hardy enough to stay in the ground all winter, sometimes with protection. By this time of year they have usually retired underground for the winter but this is Begonia ‘Garden Angel Blush’ on 18th December. Most don’t get going very quickly in spring but I cannot complain about this one’s late season performance. What you could do with them in moist shade in an area that got cool but didn’t get frost!

Three.
Ferns are not the first thing one thinks of when considering autumn colour but this pot of Araiostegia parvipinnata was lighting up a shady niche on a very dull day and deserves an honourable mention. It is wholly deciduous, which is not unwelcome as it has beautiful bristly rhizomes that spend much of the year hidden under the fronds.

Four.
Gill described her Correa as a stalwart of the winter garden last week and I’m very happy to echo that sentiment with another which has the additional merit of a pronounceable name. I give you Correa ‘Marian’s Marvel’. I relegated it a year ago to the bank behind the greenhouse, the only place I had available where it seemed it might thrive. It has done OK, if falling slightly short of thriving, but it was a testing year. Only trouble is no-one gets to see it, though in fairness, flowering when it does, not many people are going to get to see it flowering anyway, wherever it is growing.

Five.
Geranium palmatum is a biennial which keeps itself going by self sowing and gives us a generous display of flower in June when there can be a bit of a gap between spring and summer flowerers. It also has very large and beautiful rosettes of apple green leaves during the winter months which are all too easily overlooked in favour of the few flowers that are about in that season. So much better than bare soil, both visually and for the health of the soil.

Six.
At the end of September I included Zantedeschia ‘White Giant’ in a post because it had started a growth spurt which seemed ill advised at that point of the season. It had flowered in May and just sat there through the summer. Sure enough, come November it paid the price with leaves damaged by frost and broken by gales. We’ve had a few weeks of comparatively mild weather and it’s decided to throw up a flower spike. I am keeping my fingers crossed for it to be out on Christmas day or perhaps New Years day. I just read a nursery description that said ‘once winter arrives the foliage generally dies down’.

Next week will see us past the festive season and past the shortest day, so lots to be cheerful about. Have a great Christmas, see you on the other side.

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Published by Jim Stephens

Gardener, no-dig allotmenteer, camellia enthusiast. I love colour, it cheers me up. Retired nurseryman.

32 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – 20/12/2025”

  5. Pingback: Six on Saturday: {20/12/25} – Cath's Camera

  6. The weather has been atrocious this week and dark by 3:30pm. Not gardening weather at all. Hope you and Sue have a lovely relaxing week and thank you for being a wonderful host this year.

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  8. Pingback: Six on Saturday: Not Just Green and Brown | Rambling in the Garden
  9. Pingback: All the Colours – Highgate Garden Chronicles

  10. The pink and green flower is intriguing – I have never seen anything like it. I also enjoy the bright green of the geranium foliage – reminds me of the Physocarpus I planted last year – so green! We have also had rain and warmer temps, so again the white Christmas eludes us, but my car is back in top form so maybe I can get my late Christmas at least moving. I completely cheated and have very few plant pictures this week.

    https://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com/2025/12/20/december-20-2025-six-on-saturday/

    Happy Christmas!

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  11. Pingback: Six on Saturday. Winter Solstice. | The Blooming Garden
  13. Pingback: Six on Saturday: 20 December 2025 – My Tiny Welsh Garden

  14. It seems out of season to have Clematis flowering at this time of year but very welcome. I have ‘Lansdowne Gem’ which is very prolific but having dark pink flowers doesn’t show up as well as ‘Wisley Cream’. I wonder if I could grow the two together???

    Thanks for enabling us to share our gardens Jim and wishing you and Sue a very Happy Christmas.
    https://thequiltinggardener.wordpress.com/2025/12/20/six-on-saturday-20-12-2025/

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  15. I love the fern with its golden colours, but you may be teasing us, as you live in a mild area, and a similar fern may have turned to mush here. Would you say Correa ‘Marian’s Marvel’ and other Correas need acid soils only? Maybe others would advise that should I get one I ought to grow it in a pot with acid compost? Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas. Many thanks for all your wonderful leadership. From soggy Somerset: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2025/12/six-on-saturday-20-december-2025.html

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    1. The RHS dictionary says Correa reflexa will tolerate some lime but generally to grow them in acid soil. Our soil is just the acid side of neutral so it’s not an issue for me. As I commented to Tony just now though, they seem to need to be toughened up to improve their winter survival chances. A plant fresh from the nursery will be too soft and won’t survive. They grow in poor sandy or stony soils with low nutrient levels in the wild.

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  18. Pingback: Six on Saturday. 20.12.25 | Lead up the Garden Path

  19. Here, callas bloom sporadically whenever they want to, including through winter, (although those that grow wild dry up and die back by late summer). I had not given any thought to their frost tolerance. If they die back for winter, do they bloom with more profusion for spring, (instead of just blooming sporadically)? Correa does not freeze back?

    Here are my six.

    https://tonytomeo.com/2025/12/20/six-on-saturday-more-unseasonal-azaleas/

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    1. The Correa came from a plant in a garden down the road where it had been for many years. The first time I left it out for winter it died; fortunately I had a backup. I think it needs to be hardened up before planting; kept in the same pot for a couple of years without feeding, drying out between waterings; then it is hardy enough to survive.

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