It's the height of summer, there are flowers everywhere. Come winter, it'll be hard to keep this meme going as there'll be so much less going on. At least there'll be the foliage plants to fall back on. When I worked on a nursery customers would come in wanting to know what a plant they'd…
six on saturday
Six on Saturday – 15-7-2017
One. So much in flower, picking six becomes difficult. OK, a bit of lumping together: Dahlias, I grow a few, but then again... Such flamboyance, such joie de vivre. Dahlias, especially en masse, have an unrivalled capacity for putting smiles on peoples faces, even mine. Some I leave in, some I lift, then put back…
Six on Saturday – 8-7-2017
I had the bright idea of doing six plants that were self-sowing volunteers in the garden but quickly realised that I have four or five times that number, some more welcome than others. I'll mention a couple. One. Papaver atlanticum pops up where it pleases, producing a flat rosette of grey leaves then putting up…
Six on Saturday- 1/7/17
We drove up to Marwood Hill Garden in North Devon today, then on to RHS Rosemoor. So many plants, so little space! Marwood have a National Collection of Astilbes and there are pots of most of them in their plant centre. To come away empty handed would be plain rude. One. Is the box of…
Six on Saturday – 24/6/2017
One. Euphorbia lathyrus. This is an annual that seems to pop up in our garden somewhere most years. It has numerous common names, caper spurge being one of the best known but it is also known as mole plant because it supposedly deters moles. Well, I am going to try and collect seed from this…
Six on Saturday: 17/6/2017
One. We're not very good at keeping these going after the first season, so this second year performance is a bonus. Hippeastrum, no idea on variety. Two. Dianthus deltoides is something of a rediscovery for me, after about a 55 year gap. I remember growing it as a child and have come back to it…
Six on Saturday: 10-6-2017
One. A cone from my beautiful Pinus parviflora 'San Bo' that I cut down yesterday. A close up lens and photo stacking creates an opportunity to look closely at something I usually walk past with barely a glance. Two. You can pretty much work out from this picture that you are facing north. Prevailing wind…
Six on Saturday 3/6/2017
1. Conifers. I was going to run with six conifers, on the grounds that a quick tot-up in my head led me to think I had just six in the garden. When I uploade the picures to the computer I quickly saw two more in front of one of the ones I'd snapped, so I…
Six on Saturday – 27/5/2017
One) I know it's only an optical illusion, but plants are set off better by moist dark soil than pale dry stuff. After last night's deluge, which combined the most sustained lightning I have seen in my life with rain akin to the tropical downpours I've seen in Australia, moist and dark wasn't a problem.…
Six on Saturday – 20/5/2017
One. I was going to start with a picture of dead cabbages, the rootfly having munched their way through two rows. But it was raining and going up the allotment in the rain to take a picture of dead cabbages didn't do it for me. Two. Papaver bracteata. Every year this monster astonishes me anew.…
garden ruminations 