Six on Saturday – 18/4/2026

Thank you all for your sympathetic words regarding Sue’s passing. Many of you alluded to the solace to be found in gardening at times such as these and it is indeed where I have spent much of my time in the last couple of days. It seems to me that the solace to be found comes from the fact that the life of a garden doesn’t hesitate for a moment over the loss of a human; it is governed by the time of year and the climate and its needs have to be met whatever the circumstances of the gardener. Keeping busy is probably the best thing for me just now, so gardening by day and blogging in the evening fits the bill nicely.
Inevitably, I am a bit behind and have catching up to do. I’ve been watering, weeding, sowing seeds, potting up cuttings and seedlings and tidying up Sue’s glasshouse. It’s going to take me a while to learn which things dry out the quickest, which need attention in the form of feeding or repotting and so on.
At the beginning of the week we had a touch of frost, not enough to do damage but a reminder that it’s still quite early in the year. Nevertheless there is an abundance of growth and flowering going on and I’m eager not to miss another Saturday six, comfortable in the certainty that Sue would want me back in the saddle ASAP.

One.
There isn’t much flowering in Sue’s glasshouse, a couple of Aeoniums and this Echeveria , which is sporting a label reading ECHEVERIA RAMILETTE CRISTATA. That seems to be wrong, there is no indication that any part of it is cristate, and it seems to match a plant online called Echeveria ‘Ramilette’. The description for that says it often produces crested shoots, which would explain the confusion. The flowers are a rich orange and it is the earliest of her many Echeverias to flower.

Two.
In March 2021 I bought five seeds and five seedlings of Clivia miniata from Hoyland Plant Centre, holders of a national collection of the species. Several of them are now in flower and I should be picking out a few of the best and disposing of the rest but I never find it easy to get rid of things so will likely keep most of them for another year at least. Here are the best strong orange and a light peachy-yellow that are definitely keepers.

Three.
There is even more happening outside. I only have two Rhododendrons, four if you include my two Azalea japonica bushes, one of which is Rhododendrom ‘Merganser’. It has had its share of dieback over the years but seems quite healthy at the moment and is covered in its small primrose yellow blooms.

Four.
There are two small trees of Enkianthus growing side by side at Mount Edgcumbe which appear to be seedlings, similar but different. I collected some seed from one several years ago and gave them back three young plants, keeping one for myself. I planted it out last year and it is flowering for the first time this year and looks to be very good. It’s in ground where I’ve lost plants to honey fungus so I have my fingers tightly crossed for it.

Five.
Talking of honey fungus, my Victoria plum tree has died. It produced a ridiculous crop of tiny plums last year, which I bottled and am still eating, but there will be none this year. I’ll get out what root I can but won’t plant anything woody there for a few years. I was given a massively tall grass in the autumn, it might just be the spot for it.

Six.
Ferns all round the garden are looking lovely with their new foliage and Dryopteris wallichiana ‘Jurassic Gold’ is one of the best right now. It’s not an especially bright gold but sufficiently so to stand out from the preponderance of green. Too bad I planted it where I did, right behind a trellis post. I’m not sure what I was thinking. Perhaps I should plant another somewhere better.

I asked the hospice if I could plant a camellia that I have in my tunnel in their grounds as a memorial to Sue, a variety called Camellia ‘Festival of Lights’, and they readily agreed. I’ll grow it on for the summer and plant it in the autumn.

It might seem like back to normal but it is anything but. I’m on autopilot, going through the routines, doing what I always do on a Friday evening. All except that extra item I sneaked in there.