Six on Saturday – 20/6/2026

Day one of 2026 garden opening done and dusted. Weatherwise an iffy day so might get a better turnout tomorrow with the forecast return to heatwave conditions. The garden club came Wednesday and were very complimentary. This week’s six is a bit of a case of what they all might have been taken with when they came. I quite often ask people what they would choose if they could take just one plant away with them.

One.
Hydrangea serrata ‘Shojo’ is not the showiest of my several hydrangeas but was the one getting most attention today, partly because it’s further on than most but it’s also quite distinctive, a bit different from what people are used to seeing. The foliage is heavily pigmented with dark red, to the point of being nearly black on a lot of leaves and the pale blue flowers, not yet fully expanded, contrast strongly with it.

Two.
Leptospermum scoparium ‘Nana Kiwi’ or something like that, has been in the running for inclusion for two or three weeks but it’s a scruffy bush and didn’t make the cut. Just because it’s been trying so hard I think it’s earned an outing. It’s looking a bit less dwarf than I really want so a pruning is scheduled in the next week or two.

Three.
It can be pretty annoying when you have a good form of a plant and it gets admired and people want to know its name and you don’t have a name. This rich purple Iris ensata is a really good performer as well as looking fabulous but I don’t know the variety. I never did, we acquired a bit of a collection back in my nursery days and not all were labelled. The poor old ‘Moonlight Waves’ below it has been massacred by the slimy assassins.

Four.
There are things in the garden that I am at risk of missing. Digitalis parviflora is a plant I’ve had for several years but in most of them it hasn’t flowered. This year it has quite surpassed itself and I still very nearly missed it. I wonder how many of our visitors noticed it. Hopefully it will set seed and I can get more to try elsewhere, see if I can find somewhere that suits it better.

Five.
I have two plants of Dryopteris erythrosora and both are looking striking at present so I took a quick snapshot of it then noticed the lily poking up just above it. Closer inspection revealed a second survivor from the 15(?) bulbs of this martagon lily that I planted here. Moist shade is what martagon lilies want but it’s where the slimy ones hide out and fatten up. Lilium x dalhansonii ‘Guinea Gold’ is the variety. I grow a number of lilies, almost all in pots so I can protect them from slugs when they start into growth in spring. Why I have possibly the most vulnerable one in the ground is a bit of a mystery.

Six.
Did I mention that Polgooth garden club visited on Wednesday. They managed to time it to perfection for the cacti, which no open day or group visit has hitherto pulled off. Most of these were flowering Wednesday and are now collapsed but some stick around a bit longer and some were pictured later and are still out.

This was the garden at 8am Friday morning, the mist cleared later but we didn’t see the sun all day.

A very indulgent six on Saturday, flouting the rules as laid out in the Guide for participants. Am I bovvered? Nah, not so much.