Six on Saturday 08-07

Saturday again already?  Six things, going on in the garden, this Saturday.  Could be anything, a good flower, an interesting plant, a pest, a disaster, a triumph, a project.  Anything.  Why not join in?

Here are my six.

1 – Nandina domestica.  I’ve had this shrub, also known as sacred bamboo, for years.  I’m fairly sure that it just said “Specimen Shrub” on the label when I bought it, so I have been ignorant of its true identity until set straight very recently.  It has been minding its own business, gradually getting larger, but generally behaving itself. I’ve never pruned it, which is a happy accident as it needs little or no pruning.  The leaves are a reconisable bamboo shape, and the shrub also produces large panicles of white flowers followed by bright red berries.  At this time of year, both are visible, the berries from last year’s flowers alongside this year’s flowers.

2 – Potentilla ‘monarch’s velvet’.  I grew these from seed late last summer.  They spent the winter outside in 7cm pots, then were potted on into 1 litre pots and finally planted out in the various border planting I’ve been doing this year.  They have grown on quite nicely and are now flowering away.  To be picky, the flowers are a little small, you have to get pretty close up to fully appreciate it.  From further than a couple of feet away they are just little blobs of red/maroon.  I like the foliage too, fortunately, which is the normal 5-leaflet shape associated with potentilla, also known as ‘cinqefoil’ for that reason.

3 – Echinacea.  I don’t recall planting or sowing these and yet I have a bunch.  I must have bought them as plugs then forgotten about them.  Anyhow, they are flowering away now, accidentally looking quite good with the few cosmos ‘rubenza’ that survived my mistreatment.

4. Cornus alba – a shrubby dogwood that I have for its bright red winter stem colour. It’s about 10 years old, and I’ve let it grow into a small tree. It had got pretty unruly, plus the winter stem colour was getting to the brown end of the spectrum.  Early spring this year I cut it right back to the framework, a properly hard prune.  I was a bit worried that I’d finished it off, but it has come back with a vengeance.  I should have lots of lovely red stems this winter.

5. Dwarf hop – this gets cut back to the ground each winter, but grows back vigorously during April and May.  It’s job is to cover the north facing fence panel which it does perfectly. It gets a little over enthusiastic, growing through and around things I didn’t want it to, but generally it does good duty.  At about this time of year it starts to get nibbled, I’m not sure by what, and it eventually looks a bit bedraggled, by which time the leaves start to go anyway.

6. Rose ‘Oh Wow’ – this is a bit of a cheat as I haven’t planted it out yet.  I indulged in a bit of retail therapy the other day, ordering two new climbing roses. They arrived today.  Of the two, this purple stripy one is the more striking.  The other is ‘Golden Ladder’, a yellow/apricot rose.  I intend to plant along the fence at the back of Border 2.  This should provide some reinforcements to the clematis and the two other roses, with the objective of hiding the fence.  Both flower from spring to autumn.  I should get some useful coverage this year then I can think about what pruning/training treatment they need next spring.  I shall also be increasing stocks of these two ladies by taking hardwood cuttings, end of November-ish, reducing my cost-per-unit-rose.

That’s my six for this week. What are yours?  If you’d like to join in, please add a comment below with a link to your post, and maybe a link back to this blog in yours.  Look forward to seeing them!

I’ll be back next week with another Six.