Another month down, March tomorrow. I’m slowly getting back to gardening, tidying up mostly, but some seed sowing too. I started the long deferred task of cleaning out my propagator, with a view to getting cuttings of a few things under way; Fuchsias for one, not sure what else yet. Taking photos for this week’s six was again a case of dodging showers, waiting for a glimpse of sun, looking for the rare unblemished bloom.
If that sounds your kind of thing, you’re probably already a Six on Saturday contributor and if you’re not you maybe should be. It’s very simple, post a short piece about six things in your garden today and put a link in my comments section below so we can all find your post. There’s a guide here, should you need it.
One.
Narcissus ‘Jetfire’ is not a daffodil variety I have grown before this year but Sue was given a few bowls of them last month and very good they have proved to be. I’ll group them all together in one pot when they die down, there’s little point planting them in the ground where they’d almost certainly fail.
Two.
A couple of weeks back I put in a picture of a double flowered Hellebore and had a whinge about how they didn’t really thrive in our garden. That is true, and most of them get diseased and die out after a few years. However, they do set seed and I get carpets of seedlings, a great many of which get weeded out. Where they’re not competing with other plants I will leave them and this group are all self sown seedlings from a long forgotten parent. I think I may prefer the naturalised look to most of the snazzy hybrids I see in the garden centres and there’s no disputing that they are excellent value for money.
Three.
I’ve been catching prodigious numbers of slugs in my slug traps but a night time walk around made me realise how many were not getting caught. It’s funny though how I will spot things at night with a torch that I’ve completely missed by day. Like this Corydalis, which may be Beth Evans or may be an unnamed seedling. I made a fair hash of getting a picture of it.
Four.
For a plant that most of the time is just green leaves, then when it does flower has very unshowy brown flowers, Euphorbia mellifera manages to be very ornamental. Such a rich green, enhanced by a white midrib and the finest red margin. Look how water droplets bead on the leaf surface and reflect the light. And the flowers have a strong honey smell, though I don’t recall seeing many, if any, bees on them. It’s growing in the poorest of soil and as much input as it gets from me is to hacked to the ground every second year when I get bored with its flowers. That’s usually around May but could be earlier this year, I don’t think it usually flowers this early.
Five.
Camellia x williamsii ‘Charles Colbert’ is the largest camellia in the garden. I have cleared the lower branches so it has a tree habit and I prune it to keep it at around 12 feet in height. I also thin it fairly heavily every couple of years so that it is not too dense a dark blob against the sky. It gets a little bigger every year and I get a year older very year, so there will come a time when I prune it drastically, not least to allow its near neighbour Camellia transnokoensis, room to thrive. Will it be this year? Maybe.
Six.
I have put Camellia lutchuensis into two previous sixes this year but this week it hit peak flowering so I’m putting it in again. Pass within a few metres down wind of it and there is a wonderful perfume in the air. It has a graceful, twiggy habit that makes it hard to photograph; you see through it and there’s almost always some part of it moving. I hope and expect it to eventually make a small multi-stemmed tree.
That’s it for February then. The risk of serious cold is receding, the days are getting longer and the light brighter. I need a few dry days to get on top of my allotment weeds, then hopefully its full speed ahead into the growing season.
garden ruminations 
Micro-climates never cease to amaze me. Yes, you are in a very different climate than me (I’m in the high desert in NM, USA) but the color and abundance of your February garden is just awe-inspiring.
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I went and had a look at my E. mellifera and hadn’t noticed that it was flowering already, I too have never noticed any bees on it, only flies, in spite of the wonderful perfume that spreads far and wide when the wind is in the right direction!
My six are here belatedly thanks to problems with the laptop…….https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com/
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Much to admire as always. Your camellias are stunning, and I am inspired to get some for our garden when we’ve fully settled in. As I understand it, they do well in partial shade, which is exactly what we have.
Not much to post from my garden this week – just seedlings looking small and green and quite uninteresting.
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I love the way you write. My favorite line today is, “It gets a little bigger every year and I get a year older very year, so there will come a time when I prune it drastically”
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Oh, Camellias…they’re definitely a favorite. I wish I could grow them but my climate is just too cold in winter. The Daffodils and Hellebores will be blooming here soon, though, which will help with my mood and help to counter the stress of current events. Thank you for sharing the beauty of your garden.
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Lots of lovely camellias, Jim and although today I do feature the one I planted after your recommendation last year, it is only about 12″ high, well perhaps 18″ so nothing compared to yours – but is covered in buds 😊I need to go and check my corydalis tomorrow, as they just appear when our backs are turned, don’t they? Thanks for hosting https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/six-on-saturday-progression/
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Another vote for Jetfire – I tend to buy narcissi in pots to dot around the garden. Here’s my six, complete with pots of narcissi! https://lifeonalondonplot.com/2026/02/28/six-on-saturday-28-02-2026/
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Beautiful camellias, my white one has horribly brown flowers! And I also love the Jetfire. For some reason I seem to have lost my Jetfire and my Mother Duck narcissi though I did buy 100 new bulbs in the autumn, so no shortage of yellow! And every year when I see your Corydalis I think I must buy one.
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Beautiful camellias! I neglected to add them to this garden which I started in 2010. And only had ‘Donation’ in my previous garden because it’s self cleaning. My grandma had three very blobby ones in red, pink and white. It was my job to deadhead them so I associated them with dead kind of slimy flowers. I wish I had some single ones now. I added a small one two years ago. Mail ordered and still very small.
I did not know Euphorbia mellifera could be cut back hard! Mine is almost as tall as me. Must check to see if it has buds!
My six: https://tanglycottage.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/six-on-saturday-27-feb-26-more-flowers/
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Haha, to see your narcissus and then to look at what I am excited about, well, we are not in the same season, from a gardening standpoint, though my daffs and even tulips seem to be coming up a full 2 weeks early – they were pushing up two weeks ago and I lamented that finally there is green growth, such as it is, and me with no time to tell you about it! Well here are the little sprouts. The ones that are further along may well be narcissus, my husband made an impuls buy of some cheap bulbs in rough shape. I was a little sick when I planted them, so I did a rough job and figured they could sink or swim. They chose swimming (or at least to tread water), so we shall see what they look like in good time. Your Camelias always delight!
https://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/february-28-six-on-saturday/
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Gorgeous selections as always – lovely to see spring is beginning in the UK. My highlight this week is the sunshine hitting the garden disco ball…
https://doingtheplan.com/2026/02/28/sunshine-senetti-greenhouse-hyacinth-horsey-and-disco-six-on-saturday/
J x
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I find ‘Jetfire’ to be fairly good in the ground – much better than, say, ‘Tete-a-Tete’. Such a beautiful Corydalis. Now that’s a plant that I can’t seem to keep from year to year (apart from C. lutea😱).
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Beautiful camellias as always. They are my favorite winter bloomer.
I have become more interested in hellebores recently after visiting a friends collection. This week he directed me to my local big box hardware store where he had found Ice n’ Roses ‘Merlot’ at a modest price. I visited and purchased two which I think I will divide and place strategically in my shade garden.
My ‘Jetfire’ daffodils are showing out now. They have successfully transitioned to a bed under a row of crape myrtles. I am optimistic about their progress.https://mensgardenvestavia.wordpress.com/2026/02/27/late-winter-green-27-feb-2026/
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Twelve foot high Camelia…gosh, that must make a fabulous impact. Thanks for the insights into your garden this week Jim. That is a lovely little corydalis unfolding. Here are my six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2026/02/plants-etc-from-garden-at-end-of.html
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I’m in the love pulmonaria camp although I haven’t got a white one… yet.
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I’m so glad I started joining in on this, it’s made me see my garden in a whole new light. I’ve looked before, but this is the first time I’ve really paid attention!
https://potsandplots.blog/2026/02/28/six-on-saturday-28-2-2026/
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I also started sixing recently and I am really enjoying it. For some strange reason, I got stuck in a login loop trying to comment on yours and a couple of other blogs here even though I’m on WordPress and logged in. So I will say here that I enjoyed your post, and thanks for the reminder to cut back my red and gold twig dogwood.
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It’s good to have something come along that gives your whole relationship with something like gardening a big refresh. Getting an allotment and starting to grow veg did it for me in 2013, then SoS came along, followed a few years later by opening for NGS, so letting other people in virtually or bodily.
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I’m visiting again and it is lovely to see the variety in your garden Jim. Some fairly standard stuff from me but things are growing again and it is cheering to see the new growth. Here’s my link https://n20gardener.com/2026/02/28/six-on-saturday-sunshine-and-showers/
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Those camellias are such a joy, a wonderful display. And I do like the naturalised hellebore. I have a similar thing going on in my garden, but I do have to admit to loving some of the fancy hybrids too, as you can see in my #SixOnSaturday: https://balmerino.ddns.net/geekygarden/
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I prefer the more muted hellebores as well although, saying that, my six this week does include hyacinths in a shade of shocking pink.
https://wp.me/p88ZiK-cSF
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Morning, Jim. I love your bowls of Narcissus mine are in the ground and I have the grand total of one flower 😦 As always your camelias are wonderful and you inspired me to buy one when I saw a beauty for sale in Lidl. IT looked healthy and had a beautiful flower. I hope it will grow in a pot. Fingers crossed.
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It amazes me how many plants you have in flower at this time of year. My garden has few flowers, I’ve included the ones I have in my six this week: https://mysanctuarygarden.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/six-on-saturday-28-02-2026/
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There’d be a lot less without my Camellias. They take quite a bit of room and need the right soil, so I’m lucky to be able to grow them.
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Camellia lutchuensis as a small tree?! I have never seen one as large as yours. Our stock plants, which provided cuttings for production, were many years old, but only about three feet tall, or maybe shorter. They really are amazingly fragrant, even while so small that they bloom with only a few flowers.
https://tonytomeo.com/2026/02/28/six-on-saturday-new-leaf-2/
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7.5 feet so far and growing at 1.5 feet a year, perhaps more.
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‘Charles Colbert’ is a beauty and snap with ‘Jetfire!’ https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/six-on-saturday-28-february-2026/
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Your carpet of hellebores is very effective. Jetfire is one of my favourite daffs, I much prefer the small ones, although I am partial to a pheasants eye which, of course, is one of the biggest. Camellias always a joy, but I wouldn’t expect anything else from you. Here are my six https://offtheedgegardening.com/2026/02/28/six-on-saturday-inspired/
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I feel the same, small and pheasant’s eye are my favorites.
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Your garden is always so beautifully in bloom! Well done. I’m afraid I won’t see any flowers from my Euphorbia mellifera, as this year’s stems are so unsightly and have lost all their colour. Perhaps it’s the cold and rain? I think I’ll have to cut them back in a few weeks. Here’s my link for this week: https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/six-on-saturday-28-02-26/
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