Six on Saturday – 17/10/2026

I did my usual Friday morning perambulation round the estate expecting to struggle to find anything much to include in a Saturday six. I was wrong, I ended up with three times as many as I need and all I have to do is choose which to use. For the most part big the blocks of colour are over leaving small dots of colour all over the garden. For the purposes of Six on Saturday that’s not a problem; all that’s needed is to move in close.

One.
Let’s start with Impatiens arguta. I grew the blue version from liberated seed a good few years ago but have never planted it in the ground. It has long resided in a wide shallow pot which has been moved around from year to year. The white form has been introduced twice, in slightly different forms, and has been in the ground from the beginning. I now have blue, white and at least one inbetweeny, self sown and spreading with abandon. They are all beautiful but produce a lot of leaf for the yield of flowers. What has surprised me this year is how well they’ve coped with the drought. They weren’t happy but they survived and are now making up for lost time.

Two.
I both celebrate and lament how late many of the Salvias are to really get going. This year was particularly bad, with most of them barely holding their own even with frequent watering and only producing significant growth and flower from early September. I took a picture this morning of Salvia ‘Black and Bloom’ (groan) then noticed that the similarly coloured plant alongside it lacked the black calyces. It has a label, Salvia ambigens, which rang no bells at all and doesn’t have the nursery name on the back. It came through last winter but didn’t start growing until well into the summer, has no propagation material on it, all short shoots with flowers, has much less striking flowers than ‘B & B’ and all in all demands to be saved and nurtured.

Three.
Here’s another plant that we’ve kept going for many years by taking overwintering cuttings and leaving the parent plants in the ground to perform passably until the first frost cuts them down, sometimes as late as December. I must make a note to take some cuttings, they’re dead easy, my ex propagator would be very cross with me if I lost it by failing to do so. So would I. Oh, the name, Impatiens auricoma x bicaudata, though I’ve seen it offered under other identities. (Yes, I’ve noticed the dock growing under it, and the vine weevil notchings in the leaves)

Four.
Now here’s something completely useless, Zingiber mioga ‘Crûg Zing’. It has undistinguished green leaves, is moderately invasive once well established and not easy to get rid of, and the flowers are dull, about 3cm tall, at ground level under the plant. Where’s the zing, that’s what I want to know. I’ve been half heartedly trying to get rid of it for years, without success. I bought a variegated form last year in a moment of extreme weakness. It’s still in its pot.

Five.
Fred sent me seed of an abutilon some years back and I grew a number of seedlings which flowered in various colours. I still have one of them but most have been winter casualties. This is presumably a self sown seedling from one of them, perhaps surviving because it has been toughened up by sharing its rootzone with Melaleuca. It is heading into its third winter outside and is a much stronger colour than any of its presumed parents. I should try to get a cutting or two as insurance.

Six.
One of the few positives to have come out of this summer for me has been to discover, or perhaps rediscover, the merits of common or garden Coleus as a bedding plant. I potted five of one variety in a big pot, put it in a six two months ago. It’s still going, and growing, strong. The other was a single plant that the slugs homed in on earlier but which has now come good and seems to get brighter as the year goes on. I may have pushed their labels down the side of the pot, both were named forms, but name or not I shall try to get cuttings through the winter for next year.

There you have it. As ever I appeal to anyone who has read this far and feels they have half a dozen garden successes or failures to share to join the gang, post a blog and leave a comment below with a link to your post. It’s good to share. Still hesitating? You should read our participant’s guide, it tells you all you need to know.