Today's #SixOnSaturday is written at my patio table as I watch the new Great and Blue Tit fledglings being introduced to our very popular bird feeder. They are noisy, needy and inquisitive. Wafting over me is the scent of jasmine which has just come into flower. It is still showing the scars of the exceptionally heavy frosts of earlier in the year but happily, has still put on a show. I've decided to give myself a little challenge this week and only write about white things. As it turns out, I've had to leave a number of plants out with that self-imposed restriction, possibly even enough to make a second white-themed offering.
1) Allium Multibosum
Standing easily a metre high, and feeling higher because it is in a slightly raised border, this beauty comes into its own just as the Ceanothus begins to fade. It is one of a growing number of aliums that I now have dotted around the garden and this year I'm scrutinising them for longetivity as well as bee magnetism and form. This one certainly makes the shopping list again next year.
2) Sweet Woodruff - Galium odoratum
I first came across Sweet Woodruff in the garden of friends. They too were surrounded by trees. Up to that point, there was little that I thought I could grow under some of our trees but when I saw the carpet of white under theirs I was delighted. They gave me a cutting and twenty or more years on, it continues to thrive.
3) Jasmine - Jasminum officiane
I love how the delicate pink tipped buds open up to reveal the scented waxy white flowers. This too, we planted at the foot of the upright concrete pillars that support the fence. One of the plants is just outside the back door and there really is nothing quite like the scent that greets you as you open the door of an evening. It feels all the more precious now because, as a result of Covid, I spent months first completely without my sense of smell and then, as it began to return, with only the scent of smoke. As I sniff the air now, I'm reminded of the gift of health.
4) Pyracantha rogersiana
Long arching spiky branches which at this time of year are festooned with puffs of bee-heaven white flowers. It is a plant that does double duty as during winter the white flowers are replaced by masses of bright orange coloured berries that are food for many types of bird, sometimes comically so as a heavy pidgeon makes an ungainly attempt to extract berries from the underside of a long and springy branch.
5) Mock orange - Philadelphus coronarius "aureus"
Philadelphus / Mock Orange takes me back to my childhood as it was one of the plants my parents had in the front garden. It is only recently that I've acquired this exquisite variety with its lime green leaves. We have a local "Open Gardens" weekend as part of our local festival. Its a great way to meet garden loving locals and to quiz them about which plants thrive in their gardens. We were greeted by a fantastic mound of scented lime green when we visited one garden. By the time we'd seen it a second time we'd looked up. On the second visit we were allowed a couple of shoots both of which survived rooting. These are the first flowers from one of those rooted shoots.
6) Lemon
I'm new to lemon trees, acquiring my first one late last summer. It very nearly didn't make it through the winter as I took it inside whereupon, inspired perhaps by the warmth, it first threw up loads of new shoots only then, despite much misting and watering, to drop most of its leaves. It is back outside again happily flowering and shooting away. As with the jasmine, the lemon flowers start off as pretty pink buds, opening up to white flowers. I'm keeping fingers crossed for some fruit.
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