The drought continues and the garden looks steadily more miserable. I don’t want to think about it or even go and look at it. I’ve carried on watering some things; we still have another opening to get through so there ought to be something for visitors to look at, but it’s pretty hard to get motivated to lug cans of water about. I just want it to end.
Six on Saturday allows no such luxury for the person in the drivers seat and that seems to be me. I have rounded up another six things from the garden, at least my camera makes it fairly easy to narrow the focus and reduce the depth of field, keeping the grim stuff out of shot where possible. Help me out here, find six yourself, anything will do, I just need support. You must know the form by now, post six things on a blog and leave a link in my comments below. The participant’s guide was written in an earlier epoch but some of it is still relevant.
One.
The Yucca gloriosa ‘Variegata’ had a flower spike to full height and with its first few flowers open before I even noticed it. It’s in the front garden and a combination of not going out much and not wanting to look at the garden when I did made it missable. The there’s the challenge of getting a picture. Clear away last year’s dead flower spikes and the two dead Echiums alongside it, then try to find a direction that gives it a passable background. Essentially it’s an impossibility so I’ll rebrand it as context. It’s an imposing 2.5m tall now.
Two.
Also out the front the first of my two forms of Amaryllis belladonna has burst into action. Two weeks ago there was nothing showing, now in both front and back gardens they are up and blooming. They wont last long in this weather.
Three.
Sue’s cacti are poised for another floral moment. The pink flowers opened yesterday evening and I photographed them at 11.25 this morning. (Friday). I just went out (7.50pm) and took a picture of some of the buds that will open this evening as darkness falls; you can see the pink bloom at the back, beginning to crumple. If I’m up early enough tomorrow I’ll put another shot in of the overnight openers. (added 3 images 6.55am today) It looks like there are around 40 buds that will open tonight then another bunch on a daytime flowerer will open tomorrow. Perhaps unsurprisingly this is by far the best year they’ve ever had; such a shame Sue didn’t get to see them.
Four.
I finally got the opportunity I’d been waiting for to get a better photograph of a humming bird hawkmoth. I think if I put the set of images up as a gallery you can look at them full size and in a slideshow you can’t. I may well replace the pictures with smaller versions at some point, save a bit of space.
Five.
Fuchsia ‘Hawkshead’ is growing at the edge of a bed beside a gravel path and is probably drawing a last vestige of moisture from the soil below the gravel. It’s looking a bit less stressed/distressed than most of the other fuchsias in the garden. Never mind that I’ve twice dug it out but evidently left a bit behind each time.
Six.
I put Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ into last week’s six but as is inclined to happen, hindsight shows that I jumped the gun. I spent a while trying to get the perfect shot but it eluded me.
There you have it for another week. I suppose it will rain at some point and in Cornwall when it starts it often doesn’t know when to stop. If it would wait until I have more storage in place I’d be pleased, then bring it on.
garden ruminations 
I saw six beautiful things growing. I know first hand how hard droughts are so I get the feelings. But the photos make it all look good! Especially the eclipse. Wow what a capture.
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The hummingbird hawk moth photos are fabulous Jim. (The eclipse ones as well). And Sue’s cacti are so lovely too. I can relate totally to how you are feeling about the garden. Same here. It is depressing watching everything shrivel up. I will make an effort to join in next week to give you some moral support!
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Sometimes we need to see what others struggle against. Photos can show that easily.
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It is so poignant about Sue’s cactus having their best bloom.
The moth gallery is lovely.
Fuchsia ‘Hawkshead’ is one of my favourites. Yours is way better than mine which I think is languishing in too much shade. Thanks for the reminder to take some cuttings from what there is so I can start one in a better place.
My same eucomis just laid its leaves flat on the ground with no flowers. Maybe it needs LESS water. I’m going to try growing it in a pot next year. I’m envious of yours. Mine has never put out any kind of spectacular flower. Yeah, it flowered last year but even the flower was pitiful.
Wish I could visit you and lug some water around for you before the open garden.
I read about a high fire risk alert that was sent to everyone in the Uk via phone text? One person commented she thought it was saying WWIII had started. I feel so badly for the country I have wished since I was a child that I lived in.
Lucky Monty Don still gets to water with a hose!
My six: https://tanglycottage.wordpress.com/2026/08/15/six-on-saturday-15-aug-in-the-garden/
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The people careless or malicious enough to start fires in conditions like this will take no notice of a fire alert. It put the wind up me for sure. I grow most of my Eucomis in pots so I can put them in the tunnel overwinter and keep them dry. That one is big and heavy and has been left out the last few winters, which seems not to have bothered it. It looks like the weather is cooling down now so I think I can let loose with the remains of my stored water and see if I can turn a few things round a bit before our last opening at the end of the month.
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I can very well understand that you feel v. disheartened, Jim. But you’ve still put on a show here. Those moth shots are fantastic, and as for Sue’s cactus firework display…
https://tishfarrell.com/2026/08/15/eclipsed-six-on-saturday/
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Great selections despite the difficult conditions! The cacti are gorgeous and I love the pink amaryllis. Lucky to have a hawk moth. I have seen one in my garden. The are lovely
Our drought has reduced slightly. My county is probably 80% “abnormally dry” and 20% moderate drought. My yard is moist now and the barrels are full, so I am only watering the potted tomatoes. Hope some rain comes your way!
Here are my six: https://wisconsingarden.wordpress.com/2026/08/15/august-15-2026-six-on-saturday/
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We have at least lost the heat now, but there’s only limited rain in the forecast.
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Yes, the drought is taking its toll in our Cornish garden too. Your Yucca is amazing and I do love the pink Amaryllis on their bald stems. They grow well down here and it’s time we had some in our garden. I wish we were seeing the Humming Bird Hawk Moth as you and Jude are.
Love your eclipse photos, our viewing was with a colander which produced some pretty pictures but nothing quite as dramatic as yours.
My offering today https://mybeautfulthings.com/2026/08/15/six-on-saturday-scent-and-a-book/
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I forgot to say, what stunning eclipse photos.
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Dear Jim,
Hang in there! The amazing thing about the six on saturday habit is that there’s always six things to share, even if they’re closely cropped, entirely unrepresentative of the general vibe, or kind of repetitive. Just keeping going is more than enough with all things considered.
In that spirit, this week I have a ruddy darter (again) and a marvellous bee photobombing a dahlia. Garden cinema’s film of the week is ‘Idiocracy’ and the agapanthus hangs on, just about.
https://doingtheplan.com/2026/08/15/basket-of-fire-alstromeria-pondlife-dahlia-and-bee-agapanthus-idiocracy/
🙂
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Your good humor was on full display, along with all your photos. My favorite statement was, ” at least my camera makes it fairly easy to narrow the focus and reduce the depth of field, keeping the grim stuff out of shot where possible.”
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I meant to say in my comment that sometimes photos of six grim things would be the way I would go in a drought situation. Just so folks could see the struggle.
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I almost posted photos of our six desperate hydrangeas that look as if they won’t recover. I will keep hoping that they do.
I went for the positive few blooms that we do have. 🙂
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I can assure you that there isn’t much good humor around here at the moment, I save up what little I can muster for my blog posts. Hopefully the trajectory is towards cooler, perhaps even damper weather.
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I can understand not finding things amusing. People are not “on” all the time. Still, your writing has liveliness and spark, even when the news isn’t spectacular.
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Jim, if you hadn’t mentioned ‘heat’ and ‘drought’ I would not have known, judging from your photos – wonderful job selecting and cropping and inspiring. I don’t know if Sue is looking down on the greenhouse, but, if so, she must have a huge smile. And congrats on the moth photos!
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I visited someone else’s open garden today and they have a borehole so can water freely. Their lawns were dead but the rest of it, ornamental and produce, looked like a normal season. It goes to prove that it’s not the heat but the lack of water needs addressing. I took a modest amount of encouragement from it in that water storage is something I can do something about whereas heat isn’t.
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Despite the heat, your Six are lovely. I can’t decide which I like best. Sue’s cacti, particularly the red one, the hummingbird moth, the Amaryllis, they are all wonderful.
I was rather surprised to see the Amaryllis belladonna. Is it commonly grown in the UK? Over here, it’s mostly grown on the east coast, particularly in places with a Mediterranean climate, and here on the east coast we grow Lycoris instead. Do people grow Lycoris in the UK?
Here are my Six. Some some more crazy mushrooms and a few plants this week.
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Amaryllis is quite widely grown here though I wouldn’t say it was common. As far as I know Lycoris isn’t grown outdoors here. I bought bulbs a few years back but they produced streaky foliage, presumably virused, and came to nothing.
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Thank you for the many thoughtful photos. The eclipse photos are terrific and inspiring. Thank you for the leadership of this group.
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Your eclipse photos are amazing – what camera do you use? Oddly I can only see your feature image in the Reader (which has been struggling to load this morning) it just doesn’t appear on the website post.
Sue’s cacti are also stunning and you are doing an amazing job of caring for them and photographing them for us. And the only word for the hummingbird hawk moth gallery is wow! Again what camera / lens did you use? I keep seeing them here, but only have the phone with me so my shots are pretty useless. A bit of moisture here yesterday, but I suspect it was confined to West Penwith and the Scillies.
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A brilliant post JIm. Capturing what we are all thinking. But also sharing some great moments. I didn’t manage to take a photo the Humming bird hawkmoth in my garden – well done for your great selection, and for the fabulous eclipse photos. I note that your aggies are still looking good, while mine have long since gone over. The temperatures on Thursday and Friday nearly did for me but here’s a six for another week https://n20gardener.com/2026/08/15/six-on-saturday-ouch/ feeling the pain of it all!
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Thanks for being there Jim, and for keeping up our spirits. Of course my meagre offerings show there can still be something to draw us into the garden in the earlier cooler hours. Your pictures are stunning, and the ones of the HHM are the best I have seen. I am enjoying viewing Sue’s fabulous cacti did she hold a national collection? They are stunning.
https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2026/08/six-on-saturday-15-august-2026.html
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Back in nursery days a national collection holder of two or three genera of succulents, getting old, gave away several sets of his collection plants to individuals and nurseries, including the one where we both worked. Sue had a lot of them at home too but many were very miffy and not very ornamental and I don’t thing there are many of them left now. I come across the odd collection number on a label, usually attached to something dead.
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I realise that leading us SoSers can be a burden and to be honest the only reason I have posted this week is because we need to support each other at this time. I feel just the same as you about going out into the garden, I don’t want to do it! Still you have some fabulous photos, the HBHM is amazing and loving a salvia, I am going to lurk near mine just in case. Sue’s cacti are incredible and you are doing well keeping them in fine fettle. Here is my depressing post https://offtheedgegardening.com/2026/08/14/six-on-saturday-rumours/
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One of the consequences of being a professional horticulturalist is being acutely aware of just how dire things are getting for plants, while also being acutely aware of our dependence on them. I suspect that for a great many people, the needs of humans would seem far more important than the needs of plants, gardening something of an indulgence. Yet take the humans away the plants would be far better off, take the plants away and the humans don’t survive very long at all.
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Those photos of the hummingbird hawkmoth are smashing and Sue’s cacti are really putting on a show. The recent eclipse reminded me of the one that took place around this time back in 1999. It was a few weeks before I was due to leave home in North East Wales and move down to Truro, Cornwall, for my first job as a fully trained archivist. You’ve done a grand job of hosting Six on Saturday since taking it on from the Prop https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2026/08/15/six-on-saturday-15-august-2026/
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I was working on the nursery during the 1999 eclipse. Everyone else upped sticks and rushed across to Restormel Castle for their (cloudy) eclipse experience. I stayed behind and listened to the birds. As I recall, some were fooled and some weren’t. This time, even though not total, was better for it being a clear sky. How long were you in Cornwall for?
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14 months, living in a bedsit at Bosvigo, Truro (they had gardens that were open to the public a few days a week). I ended up landing a job in Somerset. The plan was to make my way back up North, closer to home, but I met my wife at work, got settled and stayed here.
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Echos of my life in there, a phase of bedsits early on, then fetched up in Cornwall and met Sue at work.
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The only comfort I can take from the current situation is there are so many other people equally distressed about what the heat and drought is doing to the gardens they’ve tended so carefully.
I saw my first hummingbird hawk moth a few weeks ago and your photos are amazing.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a few days of steady, persistent rain for all of us who need it.
My six https://wp.me/p88ZiK-dEu
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Splendid Six, especially considering the situation. They are certainly better than mine, and there is no drought here. https://tonytomeo.com/2026/08/15/six-on-saturday-degradation/
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You almost certainly get less summer rain than we do even in a year like this, but you don’t grow the things that die in these conditions and up to now that’s most of what we grow.
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Also, we irrigate just about everything.
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Do people have tanks and store water much or is it coming from somewhere else?
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Coming from somewhere else. A few people harvest rainwater, but because of the seasons here, that is not very practical. Huge tanks are necessary to hold as much rain as possible, but, because there is no rain between spring and autumn, then the water is used up halfway through summer. It would be more efficient if there was at least a little bit of rain through summer.
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Lots of things this week! First of all, amazing photos of m hummingbird hawk moths—a real success (just like the eclipse shots: bravo!). As for me, my eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ haven’t bloomed yet, but they are only 5 years old—grown from seed—so it shouldn’t be long now. The Amaryllis belladonna are lovely; I saw plenty of them in Brittany. Here is my post for this week: https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2026/08/15/six-on-saturday-15-08-26/
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I must check my Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ for seed, I don’t usually bother because you’re always told they wont come true and wont be as good as the parent, but you don’t know till you try. I should try doing leaf cuttings of ‘Pink Gin’, it’s a really robust form.
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The eclipse pictures are amazing, as are the hawk moth pics, I’m very envious that you managed to get those! Sue’s cacti are stunning, such a tribute to your continuing care for them.
After a few weeks away my six this week is here: https://mysanctuarygarden.wordpress.com/2026/08/15/six-on-saturday-15-08-2026/
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Some of Sue’s cacti have set seed and two of my sisters are joining me in seeing which of us can get one to flower first. Getting the seed to germinate would be a good first step.
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Keep us posted, I love sibling rivalry!
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Well, drought or no drought, the show must go on. Sue’s cacti are looking fabulous. That’s a magnificent yucca, very stately. I forgot to check to see if my amaryllis is blooming, yours is looking great, as are your eucomis, none of mine are blooming this year. The humming bird hawkmoths are becoming a common sight this year, previously I only ever saw them in my French garden. You have got some great shots of these lovely moths.
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