A couple of months into this weekly post, I am still enjoying it, still easily finding new things to post each week. It has become a handy way of cataloguing what’s in the garden, and the act of looking for Six things each Saturday is forcing me to look more closely at the plants I have. I’m also loving reading the contributions from other bloggers. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything! A good flower, a useful plant, a success, a failure, a pesky weed, a project, anything at all. Why not join in?
Here are my Six for this week.
1 – Buddleia. This is a horticultural mystery. I got rid of the last buddleia because I found it boring. Perhaps foolishly, I replaced it with a different variety of buddleia with a more interesting flower colour – I can only find one flower on the whole bush with the redder tone, I think it has gradually mostly reverted back to regular boring buddleia of the sort often seen growing half way up walls, or between railway tracks. A dirty great weed, in other words. I like it not, I think it’s had its last hurrah. Look forward to digging that stump out! Not.
2 – Mallow – this is a volunteer. I vaguely recall some years back having a mallow plant which often produced seedlings that I was forever digging up and disposing of. I overwintered a group of perennials that I bought as plug, and planted them all out this spring in a frenzy of planting. Among those was this plant. I expected it to be a delphinium, but it eventually became clear it was not. It’s a mallow. And now I can expect it to breed prolifically. I don’t object wildly to it, and the bees like it. I just don’t want 50 of them. Vigilance required…
3 – Pulmonaria longifolia ‘majeste‘. The flowers are long gone, and to be honest were not overly noticeable when they were there. The plant looks scruffy after flowering and benefits from a good trim which encourages a fresh flush of foliage. This particular variety is not your usual mottled green, but instead is quite a striking silvery green. Annoyingly I can’t find any of the labels, they are buried in mulch and/or disintegrated, but I think it’s ‘majeste’. I just have three plants, nestling under a couple of high shrubs in a very shady spot in Border 5. Because they are quite bright, they are holding their own in terms of garden value, although I’d like them to fill out a bit. Keepers.
4 – Potentilla fruticosa. This little shrub minds it’s own business in the corner of Border 1. It is a little crowded out by a carex and a large clump of alchemilla mollis, but it’s trying hard. It is in flower now, and if I recall correctly, carries on flowering for quite a while.
5 – Clematis ‘voluceau’ – one of my bargain clematis purchases from early this year. I am certainly getting my £1 worth of colour and growth this year and so far it seems untroubled by wilt, to which I have lost a few others this spring. I am hoping this one stays the distance and comes back stronger next year.
6 – Dahlia ‘Bishops Children’. I’ve got an oversupply of this variety after going to town with cuttings as the parent plants were coming into growth. These plants are all from cuttings taken this year, and looking pretty healthy. They aren’t very tall, but then this is a bedding variety and they are young too. This variety produces a constant stream of perky little flowers in a range of colours from yellow, orange, red through to a striking purple. Frequent deadheading is required to achieve maximum flower power, but like wot dahlias do, they’ll flower till the first frost. These are in the front garden, into which I recently planted over 200 plants, you can read about it here and here.
That’s my Six for this week, what are yours? You’re most welcome to join in, just add a comment to this post with a link to yours, and maybe add a link back to this blog in your post. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
I’ll be back next week with another Six.
The Propagator 
I’m taking cuttings of a Buddleja globosa this evening. They are hard to find, so I want to try to create a few. Sadly, I don’t have room in my own garden, but that is a cool one, for sure. And, unlike the B. davidii, it is not invasive. In my next garden, I will be sure to make room for one!
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I think I’m going to be brutal with mine and consign it to the great compost heap in the sky. It takes up too much space to just tolerate.
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Here’s another Six from Carolee over at herbal blessings. She is a big fan of garlic! https://herbalblessingsblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/six-on-saturday-july-15/
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There was a rash of Buddleia introductions a few years ago, none of which seemed much of an improvement on what was already available. Just looked at the RHS AGM list, many date from 1993, with a trickle of new varieties since. There were a couple of supposedly sterile varieties that were claimed to be repeat flowering, I think ‘Miss Ruby’ was one, which is a 2010 AGM variety. There are good ones around, but they can be hard to find.
I’m waffling. Here’s my six. https://gardenruminations.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/six-on-saturday-15-7-2017/
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I enjoy your garden updates. Thank you for them. I got into gardening when I learned about cuttings. That has been my preferred method but then I learned about ground layering recently and have had success with dogwood and hydrangea. I would like to try ground layering a spartan juniper and tall phlox. Have you had any experience with layering phlox or junipers? I would love your opinion. Thank you!
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Not sure if it would work with phlox, i think normally propagates by division or seed. Let me have a think about it.
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You’re right – the tall phloxes like paniculata won’t respond to layering (though there’s a creeping rockery type – whose name begins with “s” but that’s all I can remember – that will). You don’t need to dig the tall ones up to split them, they will almost always come nicely if you just get at (with a hand fork) and tear an emerging shoot plus a bit of root from the side of the clump in spring. When I’ve tried collected seed in the past, it’s almost always come up white which seems to be the dominant phlox colour here!
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I think you could try layering the juniper, but not convinced about the phlox, divisions, cuttings or seeds for that one. On the other hand, try it and see what happens!
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Great post; it’s inspired me to talk about 6 plants (in detail, names included) in the garden rather than chunks of the garden. I’m with you on the colour of the ‘bombsite’ buddeia. I have a dark purple but it has a sprawling, prostrate habit. Here’s my six this Saturday https://lifeonalondonplot.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/six-on-saturday-15-7-17/
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Fantastic! Will read properly later.
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Very strange and interesting that the color changed on your Buddleja. Their flower color always seems stable in my garden–it’s the lanky, sprawling growth habit that’s less than ideal. Still, they do attract a lot butterflies.
Here are my six:
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It is weird. Or, entirely possible, I’m imagining it. My only hope of that not being true is that there is one flower panicle that is the richer red tone.
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Ah, mallows. Good, reliable seeders. I think the only way to stop them seeding is to cut off the flowers before they open! My buddleia may join yours on the compost heap after this year. It’s a rather boring plant but one which I hoped would attract butterflies. I haven’t seen any of those apart from the odd cabbage white for a couple of years. Bees don’t seem to bother with it either. Anyhow I’ve pruned myself down to six which are over at https://rivendellgarden.blog/?p=2370. Cheers
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Glad I’m not the only one to swipe a few stealthy cuttings from time to time. My kids are scandalized if they catch me liberating a few stems. Think they’re expecting blues and twos and a frogmarching to the local chokie.
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That’s another rather excellent 6 fella, enjoyed reading them 😀 love the pulmonia!
Managed to get a few together , here’s mine too https://thomasdstone.blog/2017/07/15/6-on-saturday-15072017/
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Cheers. The lungworts were a lucky purchase a couple of years ago. All from shadyplants nursery, online.
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