Six on Saturday - 23rd July 2022

Some like it hot

Phew, what a scorcher that was! I imagine I'm not alone as I wander around my garden to see what has survived and what has been fried to a crisp after those record temperatures earlier in the week. It was as though someone had taken a huge hairdryer to some of the plants. But not all is lost and, indeed, some seem to like the heat so here are my #SixOnSaturday in the series inspired by The Propagator.   

1) Canna "Wyoming"

Well look who likes the heat! This is this plant's fourth year and third location. Only last year did it flower for the first time and it is promising a good show again this year. It sits well with the blue geranium, hemerocallis and salvias in the same bed but I'm thinking I'll place it further back in the bed next year. .  

2) Rudbeckia

These were grown from a packet of seeds acquired from one of our garden club members. They've been very floppy and I feared that the slugs and snails would devour them as soon as I planted them out. But no, they've survived and like the Canna, seem to like the heat and have now started flowering. I love that the yellow petals look like they have been dipped in chocolate, or is it that the chocolate petals have been dipped in yellow?

3) Zantendeschia

Another heat lover, apparently. These are in their first year and have produced lovely soft yellow blooms. They are not hardy so will have to be brought in at the first sign of frost. Just right now that is pretty hard to imagine!  

4) Another sunflower

Yes, for the third week in a row I give you a sunflower, another from he seeds acquired from one of our gardening club members. This one has a double row of more rounded petals and the flower head is more palm sized than dinner plate.  

5) Salvia guaranitica "black and blue"

Another first for me and one acquired in a moment of spontaneity. We have a lovely local independent garden centre just opposite the station entrance. Occasionally I'll pop in on my way home from work, if nothing else for the gorgeous scents and the calming background jazz that is often playing. It is a teeny bit of paradise in south east London. On this occasion I had a mission - to acquire a late flowering clematis. They had none. Instead, this salvia grabbed my attention with its distinctive deep blue flowers and black stems. The leaves are larger than the other salvias in my garden. It has survived the heat and is throwing off a succession of blooms. It is in the same bed as the hemerocallis and I like the contrast of the orange and the blue.      

6) Spider plant flowers

Having had spider plants for most of my adult life, I honestly don't ever remember one flowering. This is one of several plantlets that I harvested from a  mature one growing in my office and I've started them off outside. I popped this one into a larger pot a couple of weeks ago and it promptly threw off its own new clutch of youngsters along with these two pretty white flowers. I quick look on t'internet confirms that they don't actually flower at all regularly and that when they do, the flowers are short lived so I'm right not to remember them and glad that I captured these ones in their prime.

That's all for this week. This weekend I'll be deadheading and possibly planting out some of the more vigorous inhabitants of the greenhouse. Check out the participant guide if you want to join in. 

Six on Saturday - 16th July 2022

Back after a break

As we brace ourselves and our gardens for some blistering UK heat in the coming days, here are my #SixOnSaturday in the series inspired by The Propagator. This week's six includes a houseplant. There are some things which you'll have seen before as this blog is now more than a year old. I'll start, though, with a new one for me.  

1) Passiflora caerulea: blue passionflower

My second attempt at growing a passionflower. The first was munched beyond survival. This one was more mature when planted and has fared better. Initially I thouhht it wouldn't survive but after about six weeks it has climbed up the arch, in and around some sweet peas and is now flowering.  It is lovely and exotic.  

2) Zantendeschia

I managed successfully to overwinter my Zantendeschia and it has just begun to bloom again. At the moment, it is a pot of white flecked leaves with this single bloom reaching for the sky. I'm hoping that the other plants in the pot will bloom again as I recall that some were deep purple and should contrast nicely with this one.  

 

3) Sunflower

Yes, another sunflower. Last week's had a darker inner ring to the petals. This one is uniformly yellow. It is another one grown from seeds acquired through our local gardening club.  

4) hemerocallis fulva: daylily

Another gardening club acquisition which has come back very strongly this year. This one is in a very sunny position and seems to like it a lot. Each flower lasts a day, followed a day later by a new bloom. This plant has been going for at least three weeks now and is still producing new flowers-in-waiting. Interestingly, the leaves don't seem to have been chewed as much as they were last year.    

5) A revived gift

I was given this orchid for my birthday last September. It was laden with blooms most of which promptly dropped before opening. I was resigned to staring at its glossy leaves for the remainder of its life. Imagine, then, my excitement when it threw off new stems. It is now flowering strongly and bringing joy to the bathroom.    

6) Platycodon grandiflorus: balloon flower

Mum's platycodon is flowering vigorously again this year. This is one of three potted plants of hers that I acquired after her death in 2014 so, as you might imagine, it holds a special place in my heart and in the garden. You can see where it gets its common name from as the bloom starts as a closed balloon before opening up to reveal the delicately veined almost blue flowers which are much loved by the polinators. 

That's all for this week. This weekend is about staying cool and hydrated. Check out the participant guide if you want to join in.

Six on Saturday - 2nd July 2022

Back after a break

Yes, my first #SixOnSaturday since way back in November 2021. Many flowers have been and gone since then, a new larger greenhouse has been constructed, and a bed that I'd not tackled for the 38 years I've been at this address has been dug and replanted. It did, as I predicted, give up some of the huge chunks of glazed bricks and concrete which some previous owner burried throughout our garden, wheelbarrows of them. I need to tackle more before I get too much older and creakier as each is a huge and exhausting project. This week's #SixOnSaturday, in the series inspired by The Propagator, starts with a major success.  

1) Hydrangea macrophylla "Zorro"

Zorro featured on 10th July last year and was stubbornly pink alongside Mum's pompom hydrangea. I have been on a mission to see if I could get both to revert back to blue as I'd seen both blue when I first "met" them. Even though both were in pots of erricaceous compost, and only being watered with rainwater, both were pink. I resorted to a product which claimed to help restore the blue colour. It has worked beautifully with Zorro but mum's plant remains pink, possibly very slightly less pink than the last few years. My present theory is that Zorro was blue more recently than mum's, and that therefore there may yet be hope for mum's if I continue the treatment. I'll be back next year with the news. Meanwhile, Zorro is putting on an absolutely fabulous show with its blue flowers and striking black stems. My only challenge with it being in a pot is that it is now taller than me and I'd need stilts to appreciate its full spleandour. Hey ho.  

2) Oxalis

I acquired my first oxalis a number of years ago. It was outdoors in the garden centre so I put it outdoors in my garden. It did that perennial thing - flowered, died at the end of the next year, returned the following year and, most importantly, didn't get eaten by slugs and snails. So I bought some more. This one sits on our exceptionally sunny kitchen window sill - completely the wrong place according to the experts - and is a gorgeous mound of dark purple shamrock leaves and pretty pink flowers. I gather it is usually grown as a housplant in the UK, so I guess that's global warming for you. 

 

3) Sunflower

Here I am in my sixth decade and this is the first sunflower that I've grown from seed and which has not been eaten, decapitated or otherwise destroyed by unknown forces. I'm sure this one, too, is at risk, but it has been in the garden bringing jolly joy for a fortnight now. It is a record. The seeds for it and, yes, others, came from a gardner's club seed swap. Knowing that the parent was grown locally gave me hope which has been rewarded. 

4) Unlikely survivors

Purchased as bedding plants in 2021 and inserted into just about the most high maintenance - small hexagonal frame, needs watering regularly - space, these have nevertheless overwintered only to come back for a second year. Words fail . . .   

5) Lemon in waiting

I acquired my first lemon tree in 2020. I overwintered it indoors - bad mistake as the dry heat resulted in significant leaf loss. It survived, went outside last year and produced a few lemons. Last winter I over-wintered it in a greenhouse by the house. Leaves remained attached, as did the unripe lemons. Then, after I thought that it was safe to put it out, I put it out - bad mistake n.2 as the shock of the outside resulted in near total leaf loss. I did not give up. Right now it is covered in lovely new dark leaves and very many headily-scented flowers. I am hopefull that fruit will follow.   

6) Propogation central

The challenge with the bottom half of the garden is that it is surrounded by very mature trees. Anything I plant directly into the ground immediately competes with tree roots for water and nutrients. Add raised beds and compost and what you get is a raised bed full of tree roots! I've gone from feeding expensive plants to slugs and snails to feeding local trees. Meanwhile, my tiny greenhouse by the house was overflowing with cuttings and has been a very successful location for maturing tomatoes. I decide to clear one of the raised beds down the bottom, get it level, and install a second larger model. I'd originally thought I'd treat myself to a very fancy new greenhosue but after a frustrating exchange with a potential supplier, went very low budget with a larger version of the zip-up one by the house. A "feature" of our garden is that nothing is level, Telegraph Hill is, well, a hill, and we are on the side of it. Job one - see if you can create a level surface in a sloping garden. Even though what I'd purchased was a very cheap model, I decided I'd try to protect its frame. We try to re-cycle things and to do that, we store things that "might be useseful". In amongst the stash we had the wood that had been used as shuttering when we had our front path laid, and some offcuts of stone from when we had the steps replaced. We also had some old radiator bricks, and the slats from some old wooden venetian blinds. I created a frame for the greenhouse base (to stop it rusting) which itself is laid on the radiator bricks and infilled with gravel (to keep the wood from rotting any time soon) and the greenhouse frame is attached to the wooden frame using pipe clips. Two of the stone offcuts form the centre floor and gravel fills all the gaps. And those venetian blind slats I hear you ask? I've used those to form shelves for the lowest level of the greenhouse. Oh, and the whole thing is now rammed full of cuttings and some of this year's tomatoes.

That's all for this week. This weekend is deadheading and shrub pruning. Check out the participant guide if you want to join in.