Six on Saturday – 1/8/2026

August already and as much as I don’t want to be wishing my life away, I shall be glad when this summer starts to slide into autumn. I’m managing to keep most things alive but we’ve got the garden open a couple more times, two pairs of days, and its looking so beaten down it’ll be something of an embarrassment if anyone turns up. I’ve tried to keep the things that are providing some colour going, Salvias, Penstemons and Cosmos mainly. More water storage is planned but for later in the year.
Usually there is plenty going on at this time of year and finding things for a six on Saturday is no problem, and while I’m not going to say there’s nothing, abundance is not the word that springs to mind. If you’re bucking the trend with your borehole or massive storage tank now would be a good time to come on board and, at the risk of making the rest of us insanely jealous, cheer us all up. There’s a participants guide but all it says is post a picture and a few words about six things in your garden on a blog and put a link to it in my comments below.

It’s difficult to know which way to go, to make a guess at what future weather will be and try to find things that will cope or to store water and manage soil to try to carry on with the plant palette I’ve got now. Some compromise between the two probably.

One.
I cut down Magnolia ‘Ann’. It was too wide spreading and I wanted to try to force it to grow upright. In late October last year I cut it off at about three feet. Come the spring it was supposed to grow away strongly and more importantly, upright. Nothing happened so in late June I concluded that I’d killed it and took it down to about six inches, thinking that come winter I’d try to dig it out. It now has a cluster of shoots coming from below ground. I shall give them a few weeks then remove all but two. Next spring when growth starts again I shall remove the weaker shoot. I had plans for what I was going to do there when the Magnolia grew back, changed them when I thought I’d killed it and now have to go back to them since it’s alive after all. In a couple of years if it’s going out sideways again, I’ll be changing them again.

Two.
I took this photo on Wednesday and nearly joined the wordless Wednesday gang with it. I still haven’t taken off the small female flower at bottom left. It’s an unnamed Blackmore and Langdon tuberous begonia seedling, good but not in the same league as their named varieties.

Three.
I’ve put Hydrangea paniculata ‘Early Sensation’ into sixes in previous years and I’m repeating myself by saying it is not noticeably early for a H. paniculata selection. It gets bigger and better every year so is at least growing into the Sensation part of its name to a degree, though in truth it is rather ordinary compared to many other varieties of the species. It is gradually turning white to pink.

Four.
Last year I was wailing about my Agapanthus having become infested with Agapanthus gall midge. They were hard hit with at least 50% of individual flowers affected, some heads completely destroyed and seemingly nothing that could be done about it. I had planned to spray them at intervals with the Grazers product for Lily Beetle, which I have used to good effect on lilies, but except for using up a little I had left over very early in the season, it didn’t happen. I haven’t looked very closely but I haven’t seen any obvious signs of it this year. This is Agapanthus ‘Northern Star’, which has less flower heads than last year but at least they seem healthy. Actually, looking at the close up picture I see one infected bud, perhaps they are few enough for hand picking to be worthwhile.

Five.
I was given some seed of a Zinnia earlier this year, a variety burdened with the name ‘Super Yoga Carmine’. I don’t know if they were seeds collected at home or some of the original packet but they are starting to flower and they are red, very red. I like them a lot and would definitely grow them again. (Chilterns Seeds, I’m told) It’s perhaps one for just sprinkling a few of around the place, it does rather hog the limelight, even with only two blooms fully out.

Six.
Rather more subtle is this passion flower. I planted it out last year as a struggling and leggy six foot tall plant and it has taken me by surprise with the amount of growth it has made this year. I still think it will lose the looming battle with Holboellia brachyandra so I’ll be doing a bit of selective snipping to even the odds. It’s a variety called Passiflora caerulea ‘Clear Sky’ and its label says it is more floriferous and has larger flowers than the species. A good form then, but not massively different.

As usual, next week’s forecast has rain showing on several days, I’ll believe it when I see it. It’ll come eventually, just got to hang in there till it does and try to be better prepared for it by next year. I’m trying to be highly selective with what I pay attention to in the garden, there’s nothing to be gained from despairing over the casualties.