Six on Saturday – 19/9/2026

Somehow the garden is going in two directions at once. There is a gradual seasonal winding down but at the same time there are things perking up and making new growth having shrivelled during the summer drought. Astilbes that had appeared to go dormant are putting out new leaves, as are some of my ferns. Fuchsia buds are opening instead of aborting. Salvias are the best they’ve been all year and there was still a humming bird hawk moth on them this morning. Dahlias the same, the best they’ve been all summer.

Picking six for Six on Saturday not too much of a problem for me, hopefully not for you either. As ever, we’d be delighted if you’d join in with sharing the highlights of you garden this Saturday. A picture or two of six things looking good or being interesting, plus a few words. Put a link in my comments down below and Bob’s your uncle. Want to know more? There’s a guide here.

One.
I sowed seed of Iochroma fuchsioides in March 2023 and have grown on one seedling in a pot since. It lost all its leaves in the heat, I think mainly because of red spider mite but it has recovered quickly in the last few weeks and is flowering. I should plant it out but am unsure whether it would survive. There’s only one way to find out and there will likely be a few gaps needing replacement plants this winter.

Two.
Impatiens sodenii ‘Ravishing Ree’ is another of the summer survivors that is looking better than it has all summer. No amount of watering seemed to make much difference, it looked miserable until the rain arrived then turned around in just a few days. It could be looking good until late November, so still giving me 3 months of performance even if it’s not wen I’d planned it to do so.

Three.
The Fuchsias around the garden have had a bad year. I thought I was going to get little or no gall mite this year but with cooler damper weather it has struck some plants with a vengeance. ‘Margaret Brown’ and ‘Tom West’ are looking like they may not be worth keeping. This one is F. magellanica ‘Genii’, which always gets nobbled by capsid in summer but usually rallies and starts performing earlier than it has this year. Even so, it could flower for anther couple of months and seems gall mite free for now.

Four.
I moved Solidago ‘Fireworks’ from its prominent position in the middle of the garden and banished it to the bank up behind the greenhouse. It has a very short flowering season and comes too late for the open garden season so I replaced it with choicer plants that have failed miserably this summer. The Solidago is happy in its new home, which is good, not much else has coped where it now is.

Five.
I have several Dahlias looking good at the moment and should maybe just show one so I have the others for later. I’ll compromise on two, ‘Colour Spectacle’ and ‘Red Velvet’.

Six.
The hot summer has really not suited the Begonias I have planted out at all well. Begonia sutherlandii made very good growth early in the summer when there was still plenty of moisture available, getting 30cm or so tall. It then paid a high price for its lushness and struggled to keep its stems off the ground until late August. It’s come round now and is providing some late colour. These plants seem reliably hardy here now, they have come through several winters without losses.

It really is impressive how well the garden has come back from the withered state it was in a month ago. It shows how tough most plants are. It still leaves a question mark over the things that have survived but didn’t perform as they should have during the summer. There may well be more casualties as drought damaged root systems fall victim to winter wet and root rotting fungi. I’m going to sneak in two more pictures, an overall view of the garden since I don’t think it looks too shabby and as the header picture, Amaryllis belladonna when its fully out, which it wasn’t when I included it in last week’s six.