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.
garden ruminations 
I didn’t realize that’s what was going on with the tuberous begonia flowers until you pointed out there’s two different kinds… d’oh, I learned something new today lol.
https://littleblueandwhitehouse.com/2026/08/02/six-on-saturday-1st-august-2026/
LikeLike
Love that your hydrangeas are doing well. Ours have really suffered in the heat and drought. I , too, don’t trust that Cornwall will get rain next week but we can just hope that the forecast is right this time.
Here’s mine for today https://mybeautfulthings.com/2026/08/01/six-on-saturday-white-and-a-poem/
LikeLike
Hello from Orkney Jim, for us, so far, it’s a typical Summer, our usual mix of sunshine & rain with the occasional gale thrown in for good measure. In a nod to our wetter climate, of the six plants you have listed, the Hydrangea is the only one that we grow here. This weeks Six on Saturday
https://agardeninorkney.com
LikeLike
You found a good selection despite the traumatic weather. Here in SW Washington we were predicted to have a dry summer but on the coast have had rain on and off. I’m opening my garden tomorrow and all of a sudden the forecast said rain. Now it says sun again but this morning it’s drizzly and I’m glad. There’s too much hose dragging when watering the whole garden.
Wish I could grow zinnias. Not enough heat here in summer. I loved them in my Seattle garden years ago.
Here’s my six. https://tanglycottage.wordpress.com/2026/08/01/six-on-saturday-1-august-2026/
How often do you open your garden?
LikeLike
I do like zinnias, but struggle to grow them, maybe I should just toss a few seeds into one of the raised beds and see what happens. Saying that, probably not a good idea as today I noticed that the flowers on my Tulbaghia have been eaten and I discovered a couple of snails in among the foliage. I have never had the flowers eaten before, except by me!
If you have a moment, maybe you could give me some advice on my fuchsia which I think has fuchsia gall mite!
LikeLike
I love the frilly begonia! The red zinnia as well. I also sympathize with the lack of rain. I lost a couple of Echinacea purpurea (I do not care, they self seed plenty and I do not even want as many as I have). My rhubarb is in rough shape, and I had to water several times with the hose to keep the vegetables going. I was delighted yesterday to find it raining when I left the vet school where I was providing radiation safety training for the new residents. It was lovely drifting of to sleep with rain still pattering on the roof. I hope you get lovely rain soon!
LikeLike
Lovely selections this week, despite all the challenges it is amazing to see the colourful gardens.
Sharing the aim to ‘accentuate the positive’ this week I have (tiny) sweetpeas that smell AMAZING and a beautiful ruddy darter posing for photos by the pond. I’ve also cheated a bit and bought some bargain blooms at the garden centre to fill a few gaps. I’m still banging on about making a British birdsong timetravel guessing game, which I’ve made much prettier and a bit less buggy, and I calculated the carbon cost of using AI to code it (roughly equivalent to a ten mile drive in a petrol car).
https://doingtheplan.com/2026/08/01/waterlily-sweetpeas-red-admiral-a-bootful-of-bargains-a-clear-path-and-ruddy-darter/
Have lovely weeks y’all and thanks for sharing your garden highlights, it’s a wonderful habit
Jen xx
LikeLike
Apologies for the enormous smile – quite literally a happy accident 🙂
LikeLike
That zinnia is gorgeous, and the blue of the agapanthus. But your magnolia story is a tale of many layers: plant plans and gardener’s plans – sometimes they all come together 🙂
https://tishfarrell.com/2026/08/01/six-on-saturday-and-another-fine-day/
LikeLike
Always nice to see Passiflora caerulea. One of my earliest garden memories is the P. caerulea on the fence bordering my grandparents’ garden in Farnborough. I think it may actually have been the neighbor’s plant, but it had spread to both sides of the fence. The intricate flowers were completely amazing to 4- or 5-year-old me.
The Zinnia is gorgeous!
I finally put together my first Six on Saturday of the year.
LikeLike
I have hope for a struggling Magnolia. I will cut it back this winter. Beautiful zinnia ‘Super Yoga Carmine’. I will look for it here.
LikeLike
Lovely selections this week, despite all the challenges it is amazing to see the colourful gardens.
Sharing the aim to ‘accentuate the positive’ this week I have (tiny) sweetpeas that smell AMAZING and a beautiful ruddy darter posing for photos by the pond. I’ve also cheated a bit and bought some bargain blooms at the garden centre to fill a few gaps. I’m still banging on about making a British birdsong timetravel guessing game, which I’ve made much prettier and a bit less buggy, and I calculated the carbon cost of using AI to code it (roughly equivalent to a ten mile drive in a petrol car).
https://bird-times.lovable.app/
https://doingtheplan.com/2026/08/01/waterlily-sweetpeas-red-admiral-a-bootful-of-bargains-a-clear-path-and-ruddy-darter/
Have lovely weeks y’all and thanks for sharing your garden highlights, it’s a wonderful habit
🙂
Jen xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you wondered why your comment didn’t show up initially it was because WordPress isn’t keen on comments with two links in them and requires them to be approved. I’m impressed that you know how to use AI to code and app, I would be clueless, and impressed that you would think to go to the trouble of checking the carbon cost of doing so. I’m surprised its so much, I would have expected it to be almost nothing, which goes to show I know nothing.
LikeLike
I’d likely have no annuals or veggies at all were it not for my 2,500 litres of roof runoff rain water…now half gone but we’re expecting rain tomorrow…as you say, I’ll believe it when I see it! Interesting about your Magnolia. Two of mine died to the ground this past winter but they also have new shoots coming up. Picture next week perhaps.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have some experience of hard pruning a Magnolia so I knew there was a fair chance it would shoot again. It took its time though.
LikeLike
As you say that zinnia is a stop in your tracks pop of colour. Always good to have. Fascinating work on the magnolia. It will be interesting to see that one progress. On we go, waiting for rain, watering where it’s needed. What a summer. Here’s my link https://n20gardener.com/2026/08/01/six-on-saturday-waxing-lyrical/
LikeLiked by 1 person
The BBC weather forecast for next week has in the last few days ranged from rain on every day to the current version which has a day of thunderstorms, which usually miss us, and a day of drizzle, which is good for nothing.
LikeLike
Wow! That’s a bright Zinnia. I haven’t had much success with them in the past. There are many things in my garden that look like they won’t be there next year but do I replace with plants that can cope with excessive winter rain or ones that can cope with summer drought? A conundrum.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve had mixed results with Zinnias in the past but mainly have never warmed to the quality of their colours, they always seem a bit jarring to the eye to me.
LikeLike
Your last sentence sums it up so well – selecting the survivors and ditching the strugglers. Your passionflower is gorgeous and I love the dahlia. I hope you do get some rain this week – I hope we all do!
LikeLike
I’m definitely putting more water storage at the top of my priority list. It’s the one thing that might have made some difference this year. I hate to think how much we’ve contributed to Thames Water’s coffers in the last month. We have a smart water meter but I haven’t been able to bring myself to look online at our usage…
My six https://wp.me/p88ZiK-dAi
LikeLiked by 1 person
The main problem with water storage is the volume you need to be really useful, but if you have space it seems the way to go. I was going to write a blog about my plans and I will get around to it sometime.
LikeLike
gosh, the Magnolia really does have a strong will to live! the tuberous begonia is beautiful….I love them but find them difficult to grow here. I don’t know why….and aren’t the passion fruit flowers unusual….almost alien, I think. I never know if I can rely on pingbacks or if I should add my link…anyway, here it is https://cathscamera.wordpress.com/2026/08/01/six-on-saturday-1-8-26/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I lose tuberous begonias to vine weevil all too often, another reason I’m not going to be getting very expensive named forms.
LikeLike
I similarly was warning myself not to wish my life away in this week’s six https://potsandplots.blog/2026/08/01/sixonsaturday-01-08-2026/. That zinnia is lovely. I have told myself I’m not allowed to visit Chiltern Seeds for the foreseeable future. It’s website turns me into some sort of green fingered Colombo – “Just one more packet.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
I may be a similar sort of green fingered Columbo, my seed sowing spreadsheet ran to 95 lines this year, which is probably fairly typical. That does include veg. I find myself wanting a couple of things from Real seeds, one or two from Plant World, a few from Derry Watkins, then making it worth the postage by adding six more to each.
LikeLike
I like your approach. As it’s my first full gardening year, I’m still very much in ‘despair’ mode, but I’m coming round to the idea that I need to accept that not everything will survive in this climate and focus on the more successful species.
Your magnolia strategy is interesting. I got a dead-looking olive tree from a friend, and it has now made lots of shoots at the bottom and some shoots about halfway up the stem. Not quite sure how to handle it yet, but maybe I need to do the same and trim away some shoots so that it can focus on the healthiest ones.
LikeLike
I have a Magnolia ‘Vulcan’ that fell over and is now 12 feet or more from a basal shoot it produced, so I wasn’t entirely flying blind when I chopped ‘Ann’ down. Nothing is guaranteed though. Judging from the Olives I’ve seen that have been ripped out of the ground in Italy and shoved in pots for the export trade, they must be nigh on impossible to kill. They do tend to make long whippy shoots though, which will be more so if there’s a cluster of shoots together. I should think that, like Camellias, they are malleable enough to be trained into whatever shape you want.
LikeLike
‘Ann’ magnolia was not grafted? Those that we grew were. That begonia is glorious! Actually, you have a few exemplary blooms here. These are my six.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, ‘Ann’ was always on its own roots, as were all the varieties that rooted easily from cuttings.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I share the same hope for a good rain… the forecast calls for it every week, but nothing ever comes…
No Six for me this week. I’m off to the sea in Brittany to discover some beautiful gardens.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I think I’d given up on the garden this time last year – although it seems even crispier this summer. Your Hydrangea is doing well, despite the dry weather, and I love the Zinnia https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2026/08/01/six-on-saturday-31-august-2026/
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Cornish hedge (soil bank) behind that hydrangea acts as a bit of a reservoir for the things next to it. In the rest of the garden the Hydrangeas are really suffering.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, you certainly taught that poor magnolia a lesson. I didn’t realise you can grow tuberous begonias from seed. I love your Passion Flower. I grew a lovely deep blue one called ‘Silly Cow’ but it proved not to be hardy in my garden.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Once more we are thinking on similar lines about the garden; which to water, which to leave to their fate. And I am as distrustful of the promise of rain as you are. Its a tough challenge and my plot is tiny! Your zinnia is in-your-face in a good way, fabulous agapanthus and your hydrangea is holding up very well in this weather, beautiful. Here are my six https://offtheedgegardening.com/2026/08/01/six-on-saturday-tricky/
LikeLiked by 1 person