The busier a week is, the quicker Saturday comes around. This Saturday came round as quickly as any I can recall. Not that I’m about to share much with you, most of it being unrelated to gardening.
Early in the week I spotted a small hedgehog out in the garden in mid afternoon, never a good sign. I rang our local hedgehog rescue place who told me to take it to the local vet who would treat it free of charge and get it to the rescue centre if necessary. I don’t know what the outcome was but hopefully I found it before things had gone too far. Beaver, our resident rescue hedgehog, has been eating heartily of the food I’ve put out for him and has been active in my trail camera footage every night since I started feeding him. A neighbour’s cat, and one of our own, have tried to get into the box where the food is but have been thwarted. It’s been interesting to see how unconcerned Beaver is about the cats, he doesn’t even bother to roll into a ball, just freezes until the cat loses interest.
My big ongoing project is to increase my water storage but I will do a post about that when it’s further along. The garden in the meantime has gone back to looking how it should at this time of year, simply autumnal. It’s a seductive thought that we are back to something close to normal but I cannot convince myself that we are, or even be sure what normal means any more. I will be surprised; pleased but surprised, if next year is not another very hot year with records for heat falling again. I intend to be as well prepared as I can be.
For now though, let me focus on what is performing in the garden today. Six performers, or six scenes, six of something happening now; that being the gist of the Six on Saturday meme. Describe your sextet in words and pictures, post it as a blog and put a link in my comments below. Simple enough but should you want more info there’s a participant’s guide here. Right, what do I kick off with?
One.
How about I start with Amaryllis belladonna, my second and later flowering form. In my opinion, much the better form. As well as flowering nearly a month later it is shorter, more free flowering, lasts longer and is prettier. I took pictures of it early this morning in shade and late in the afternoon sun; the same but quite different.
Two.
Because Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’ spent all its time when wet lying flat on the ground, and in Cornwall that usually means all the time after the beginning of September, I thought it might fare better in a pot. It was looking pretty good this morning weighed down by overnight drizzle with its flower heads bejewelled with water droplets. Brush against it and it’s impressive how much water gets transferred to your trouser leg.
Three.
Liriope muscari has long been a source of frustration to me. I have planted two or three named forms over the years, always purchased looking fabulous in full flower. For the most part they have never flowered again or if they have the buds have been feasted upon by slugs well before opening. I was given a clump by a gardening friend, no name but from the amount she has spread around the garden over many years, an old cultivar. I am including it this week even though the flowers are not fully out because I can’t quite believe they’re going to be there tomorrow. As well as molluscs I think vine weevil have hit them hard but I get the impression that the pests have mostly had as tough a time this summer as the plants they feed on.
Four.
One of the consequences of cutting down the Magnolia that was in front of Sue’s greenhouse was that it exposed the glory hole that was her potting bench and working area. I now have two overly conspicuous water butts which I am planning to render more discrete. There are four, linked by an underground pipe and filling as one from the greenhouse roof gutters. It means they all need to be at the same level, which they currently are not, and it would help if they were all the same size. Looking at the picture, I see a very unattractive hose reel, a seat that needs moving, Podochaenium (with big leaves) that needs propagating and more besides.
Five.
Just behind the bench in the shot above is a bed of Salvias that I planted out in spring to replace the Geranium palmatum that had all sprung up after I cut down the Magnolia. They were planted in early July and in spite of generous watering have sat there without growing or flowering very much at all. Now that the last of our visitors are gone and the rains have arrived, they have woken from their slumbers and are putting on a show. Most of these are a variety I bought labelled ‘Purple and Bloom’, which is all but identical to ‘Amistad’. It has breeders rights on it of course, so I’m not permitted to propagate it for sale but can grow as many as I like for my own use. I’ve done some cuttings this week but almost every shoot is a flower spike, so it’s tricky.
Six.
Another big pink summer/autumn flowering bulb, Crinum powellii, and less showy than Amaryllis belladonna so perhaps I should have put the two of them the other way round, but this was a total surprise. It certainly wasn’t flowering a week ago and I didn’t even notice a bud coming up. It’s always been my aim to have the sort of garden where I can go out on any day of the year and find something I had not seen the day before. I admit that not looking the day before has helped.
And there you have it. Another week down. It’ll soon be Christmas.
garden ruminations 
I love the Amaryllis and Crinum and have Liriope Muscari envy. I’ve tried growing it in the border and in a pot. I’ve also tried the green and variegated varieties but have watched as each one has faded away and died. https://thequiltinggardener.wordpress.com/2026/09/12/six-on-saturday-12-09-2026/
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Your writing is superb. My work area makes Sue’s look like something out of a fancy gardening magazine. It’s a mess here. My winter project is to turn it into something better.
I love that Salvia. It does look like ‘Amistad’, of which mine got half the height this year that they did last year.
Here is my six. https://tanglycottage.wordpress.com/2026/09/12/six-on-saturday-9-12-guest-photos/
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I love the way you put things! “I get the impression that the pests have mostly had as tough a time this summer as the plants they feed on.”
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What lovely salvias. I keep saying, “next year I’ll plant salvias,” but somehow never do. Maybe next year will be the year.
I also really like that hakonechola in a pot, so eyecatching.
Life has kept me from gardening and posting as much this summer, but I have six to share this week: https://minhus.blogspot.com/2026/09/six-on-saturday-september-12.html
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Hope the little hedgehog is OK! Glad to hear yours is going strong. My baby bunny is growing and expanding where it feels comfortable going. Saw it in the front yard lately. Most often out back where my garden provides ample cover. Love all the pinks and purples this week! I also hate the physics behind water butts needing to be on the same level. I gave up so I just fill one, then the other, and then use from one mostly so I don’t have to keep moving the connector to the other barrel all the time. My paltry storage is only about 400 liters or so, but it helps! I will finish filling my water bottles that I use to water the Tillandsia and other houseplants in winter, mostly to avoid hard water marks on my planters and on the poor Tillandsias. I don’t think they would last long with how hard our water is. Here are my six:
I am not sure my link will come through, WordPress is being very fussy today, insisting on rotating images that were in the correct orientation for no reason at all, and now it is spinning when I try to add my link. Progress. I am afraid we are becoming more third world by the day.
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Of the plants that you show Jim, Salvia is the only one that we can grow up here in Orkney. For us the past week has brought its usual mixed bag of weather, sun and showers and a day when wind driven rain was near horizontal, in this neck of the woods it feels that Winter is lurking in the shadows. This weeks six is a selection of wildflowers.
https://agardeninorkney.com
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Suddenly all feels hopeful again, even if time is galloping by. The amaryllis seen in different light are glorious, and everything else here seems to be putting its best foot forward.
https://tishfarrell.com/2026/09/12/six-on-saturday-late-summer-hurrah/
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I hope that your busyness is due to family affairs.
Don’t we all have a working area in our garden? Mine seems to have migrated to two areas now the shed is no more. I really do need to consolidate.
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So true–it’s hard to remember or imagine what “normal” is. Sigh. Your Amaryllis is beautiful, in all kinds of light. And I enjoyed your Salvia show and the bench setting in front of it. Thanks for hosting!
https://plantpostings.blogspot.com/2026/09/hummingbird-haunts.html
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The Amaryllis belladonna is beautiiful and with such an ominous name. I also like the Salvia. Glad the rain has returned and the weather is more autumnal for you. Looks like we gardeners will all have to make adjustments.
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Hello!
Your amaryllis are really lovely, and it’s amazing how many plants that seemed to sulk in the dry heat are now perking up to put on some flowers. Gathering more big butts for water conservation does seem very wise.
Last week were on a long weekend away beside the seaside in Cornwall, including a wonderful trip to Heligan. Back in the garden this week I’m sharing a few seedlings successes, forget-me-nots and the greenman, and a bit more about my birdsong game.
https://doingtheplan.com/2026/09/12/green-man-and-forget-me-not-sandpiper-seedlings-heligan-and-birdsong-game/
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Oh that pink amaryllis is beautiful – I feel I might have to add them to my list for next year!
This is my week’s entry – https://thegarrett.garden/2026/09/12/six-on-saturday-12-september-2026/
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shame about the Liriope muscari because it’s really pretty…here’s hoping 🤞 I rather like your bench and didn’t notice anything other than what I would expect to see in a working garden. https://cathscamera.wordpress.com/2026/09/12/six-on-saturday-12-9-26/
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That’s a lovely bench, just right for sitting and pondering. I hope you find the perfect spot for it.
My six…
https://wp.me/p88ZiK-dMh
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The bench currently provides a grandstand view into the greenhouse but I don’t think it will stay there. The perfect spot for pondering would be somewhere I don’t immediately spot something needing doing, which rules out the whole garden at a stroke.
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The Amaryllis belladonna is a real beauty, and what a joy it must be to have this in your garden. Is it left alone by the slugs and snails unlike your Liriope?
Here are my six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2026/09/six-on-saturday-12-september-2026.html
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The Amaryllis flowers when there are the least number of slugs about but then produces masses of foliage which grows lush all winter without getting touched. Just at it starts thinking about dying back, the slugs descend in droves, I was regularly getting 20 or so each evening for a short while. Then the foliage is all gone and the slugs that are left must look elsewhere. I look on it as a bait plant.
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Your amaryllis and crinum are both showstoppers. I never knew that l like liriope, but apparently I do, I might be tempted to give it a go. Lovely six. Here are mine https://offtheedgegardening.com/2026/09/12/six-on-saturday-tip-toe/
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I want to like Liriope, having seen the very occasional really good specimen, but none that I’ve grown have ever given me much to work with, until now perhaps.
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Your Salvia are looking better than mine and I love that Hakonechloa. My head has been turned by grasses this year, as I learn a bit more about the arcane art of gardening. That one is lovely.
Yesterday, I was in the zone, weeding of all things, so I nearly didn’t manage a six https://potsandplots.blog/2026/09/12/sixonsaturday-12-09-2026/
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If I had just one grass it would be Hakonechloa ‘Albostriata’, no contest.
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The Salvias look a show and I’m going to have to look up Liriope muscari later. It’s odd how you sort of end up not seeing the hosepipe and things after a while… until you take a photo. I must put mine away – I can’t remember the last time even used it https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2026/09/12/six-on-saturday-12-september-2026/
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So true about not seeing eyesores once they’ve been there for a while. Opening the garden to visitors forces a reappraisal unless you really don’t care what people think. The hose in the picture gets very little use and could be brought out of hiding for those rare occasions only.
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It is interesting that there are different forms of Amaryllis belladonna. I would not have known if you had not mentioned it a few years ago. I thought that some just bloomed a bit later. I notice that the white flowering variety has green stems instead of brown, although I doubt that is a different form from the most common sort.
Crinum powellii is nice also. Is Orange River lily, Crinum bulbispermum, grown there?
https://tonytomeo.com/2026/09/12/six-on-saturday-white-2/
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I’m not sure that my late flowering Amaryllis isn’t a hybrid with something else. A web search only left me more confused but I must try to pin down exactly what I have. Crinum bulbispermum seems to be available in mainland Europe but I can’t find a UK supplier.
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Crinum bulbispermum is nothing special, particularly for gardens with more interesting Crinum. It is just common, like Amaryllis belladonna, because it is so resilient, and can almost naturalize. I collected mine from the wild near here. It is obviously not native, but self sows somewhat.
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The Amaryllis is stunning!
It’s interesting what you write about Liriope. I bought one about two weeks ago for the community garden as my mini plot is really shady. It looks lovely there now, but let’s see whether it flowers again next year.
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Liriope is an understory plant in the wild, so shouldn’t mind a bit of shade. I think it may just need a warmer summer than has been the norm here historically, so your conditions may well suit it better than mine.
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For sure, it’s a good day when we notice something unexpected in the garden! I like your Crinum powellii, Jim. I don’t have any autumn bulbs, so perhaps that should be rectified for next year. I’m the meantime, let’s get through Christmas! 🎄
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Today I noticed that my pot of Amarines out the front has lots of buds starting to come up, I’m quite a fan of summer/autumn flowering bulbs.
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In the photo 4 is the Podochaenium in a pot? It looks young, has it flowered yet?
Otherwise Hakonechloa has to breathe, now that there is a little more humidity and rain. I had a hard time getting mine through the very hot summer…https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2026/09/12/six-on-saturday-12-09-26/
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Your link isn’t working Fred 🙂
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oops… thank you !
here is a new one
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The Podochaenium is in the ground but was planted out from a pot in early July if I remember correctly. I don’t really have room to overwinter it under cover so will just take cuttings to keep over winter. I haven’t had one flower as a first season plant.
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