Goodness me, December! Spring seems closer already. I have been busy ordering seeds from the Hardy Plant Society seed distribution scheme. Like the proverbial kid in a sweet shop, it’s quite a job to choose from the well over 2000 seed varieties available. Like a good boy, I have selected seeds from plants which have piqued my interest over 2017 – there’s a lot! With both mine and Mrs P’s allowance plus a lucky dip I should have 50 ish little packets of seeds to sow. Now I just have to wait until the end of January for the seeds to arrive. Taps feet impatiently….
Anyhow, time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a plant, a flower, a job to do, a project, a plan, a success or indeed a failure. Anything! Join in…
Regular readers may recall that Mrs P and I spent last weekend in Birmingham, and a lovely time was had too. We had a slap-up balti, some truly splendid cocktails, did a canal tour, took in the ballet, a museum, but the very first place we went was the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Like many British gardens at this time of year much of the garden is “resting” but there was enough to keep us (well, mainly me) interested for a couple of hours, so my Six this week comes from our visit to the Gardens.
1 – Euphorbia milii, ‘Crown of thorns’. Looks a lot like a cactus, a common schoolboy error. It is in fact a spurge, and pretty vicious looking with it. If the thorns weren’t enough to put you off, it’s also toxic. Nice! Native to Madagascar, it’s slow growing and semi-succulent. It was kicking its heels in the Arid hot-house.
2 – Winter sunshine. Well, it’s a thing, and it was in this garden. Specifically, seen through some frondy grass. It didn’t occur to me at the time to look at the label so of the variety I am ignorant, as in so many other things. Stipa something-or-other I expect.
3 – Ricinus communis, caster-oil plant. I was taken in by the strange flowers, and by the shape of the leaves. I hadn’t realised that if you so much as look at this plant the wrong way, it’ll poison you. It has a doppelganger in Fatsia Japonica to which it has a passing resemblance – occasionally one is mis-sold as the other. The ricinus is the source of ricin (clue’s in the name), a highly toxic substance. I mainly thought it was pretty.
4. Heliconia rostrata, hanging lobster claw, or false bird of paradise. What a strange looking thing. I initially thought it was a decoration or a toy that had been hung in the tropical house, but no, it’s alive! A native of Central and South America. Apparently it is pollinated by hummingbirds.
5. Acer thingummyjig. We made a bee-line for the Acer garden thinking we might just catch the tail end of the autumnal leafy show. Sadly it was almost all bare branches. This one had a few leaves left, hanging on grimly but fighting a losing battle.
6. Xantosoma sagittifolium, tannia. Bits of this are edible, allegedly. I just liked the leaves which were quite large and a pleasing colour.
That’s my Six for this week, what are yours? Join in! Very straightforward, just write your post, leave a comment in this post with a link to yours so everyone can see it, and maybe a link back to this blog in yours. Please see the participant guide for more details.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, don’t forget to check back in as links will be added over the next 48 hours.
I shall be back with another Six next Saturday.
Word Press is asking me each week to verify my follow of the WP SoSers, despite having followed the week before. Obviously, I’m missing something. Any suggestions?
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Not a scooby,sorry. Suggest asking on WP forum.
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Me too, but I figure I just computer illiterate and put up with it….
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Sorry I am late! I love your tropical theme, that has cheered up a gloomy morning. I agree with Brian, I think the grass is a Miscanthus. There are some lovely examples down at Rosemoor, they look lovely by day and when lit up after dark for the Winter Illuminations.
My Six are at https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=129893684370004&id=100020481184500.
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There use to be a lovely Japanese garden at BBG, did you see it? I think the grass is a lovely sun kissed Miscanthus.
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I don’t remember seeing a Japanese garden, no. Might have missed it,or perhaps not there anymore. Roger re grass.
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That “Hanging Lobster Claw” really lives up to its name! And it seems you will soon be just as sick of planting seeds as you were of planting bulbs! 🙂 Here are my six for today: https://thepaintinggardener.wordpress.com/2017/12/02/six-on-saturday-december-2/.
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The seeds aren’t the problem. Work of moments to sow them. It’s the pricking out, potting on, watering, hardening off blah blah that’s the hard work!
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It is hard work and it requires a lot of patience and diligence.
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Will return later today to take it all in! Busy Saturday here.
My Six: https://fromourisland.wordpress.com/
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There are some great photos here looking stunning in all that sunshire. I was battling wind and low light when I took mine for this week’s six. Here’s the link https://wp.me/p97pee-2s I too am liking the rule change!
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I’ve not been to Birmingham Botanic Garden. One for the List.
I grow Ricinus communis most years with varying degrees of success. I don’t think it was warm enough this year as the plants didn’t get particularly big and only one flowered. It was so late that no seeds set sadly. Time to start with new seed stock.
If you’d like to see my six they are at https://thequiltinggardener.wordpress.com/2017/12/2/six-on-saturday-2-12-17/
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Can’t reply to your reply to my reply to Thomas’ reply to your reply to my reply to your post so I have to start a new thread here (damned nesting limitations). Totally agree that now or nowish is the spec – something in the (loosely defined) garden now or nowish, yes? Well the house is in the middle of the garden, the photos are in the house, therefore they are also in the garden. And they’re here now. And still will be when I run out of other ideas soon ……. Keeping this meme going is the primary goal, wot?!
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Totally fine, your blog. We are a broad church.
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Here’s my Six on Saturday! I’ve bent the rules on the ‘garden’ bit but I did ask permission first. https://www.mypottingbenchblog.com/six-saturday-2nd-december-2017/
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No permissions required. Your blog!
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Nice six, always great to see a new contributor. I have a harts tongue fern in the garden. Hope to see you again soon!
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Just wundrin. Has anyone else tried to leave a nice welcoming comment in this blog? WP bloggers commenting on WP blogs is usually straightforward; my comment seemed to go thru ok but then disappeared into the ether. Second attempt the same. No trace of it at all. And I notice now (8.45 pm) the total lack of comments which is unusual. Maybe I’m not the only one to try but fail?
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Replying to myself cos of mess-up. I was referring to the Potting Bench blog.
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Might be Craig has it set up to moderate inbound comments.
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Damned limits again, Jon. If a comment goes to moderation, WP displays a “your comment is awaiting moderation” message. Not in this case.
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Hi John – my WP puts all comments and ping backs into spam – not sure how to stop that.
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It’s worth googling that or asking the WP forums. Have had a few niggly thing a solved that way.
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I think I found the problem – had a spam plug in – deactivated for now to see how it goes
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I saw that you had a good time in Birmingham! And in this Six, my preference goes to Xantosoma (beautiful photo for a beautiful leaf!)
Here is my contribution for the week : https://fredgardenerblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/02/six-on-saturday-01-12/
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I like your Xantosoma – where did you get it?
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Not mine. Birmingham Botanical gdns.
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I always take a picture of the label before I take pictures of the plant when I go to gardens where stuff is labelled. Which tells you something about the sort of person I am. I’m a systemizer, according to the O.H. I just like to know what things are, according to me.
Even though permission to use other gardens is in the rules, I wouldn’t have wanted to be the first to go there. You may have opened the floodgates.
https://gardenruminations.wordpress.com/2017/12/02/six-on-saturday-2-12-2017/
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I did a lot of that but some weren’t labelled.
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I’m glad to see you’ve come round to my way of identifying plants/trees. Their beautiful acer thingummyagig has more & less wrinkled leaves than mine does at this stage. Lovely photo of the stipa something or other. The castor oil is already on my list of plants & I’m pleased to learn I can kill people w/it. Wish I had a place to grow the hanging lobster claw, too. So glad you shared your visit w/us!
Here’s my six for the week, which I’ve spent mostly indoors. Hate snow. https://lorahughes.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/critturs-thangs.html
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Yes I’m just waiting for the august body in charge of naming to get in touch. I think i can help. Or i might start a few paying plant id service. “Ah Yes, that there is your do-dah thingy-bob.”. Can’t fail.
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Well it looks like you had a great time away fella👍 would love to visit the gardens there, on my wish list.
Anyway here’s my little addition to the party https://thomasdstone.blog/2017/12/02/six-on-saturday-2-12-17/
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Now there’s a novel idea. I’ve been thinking about the horticultural career that never was and how some lucky Sixers have a range of gardens from which to build their weekly donation. But it hasn’t occurred to me to just visit a garden with the same intent. But I struggle on and my ragged six is over at https://rivendellgarden.blog/?p=2877.
I’m glad you and the boss had a happy anniversary weekend. Hope the house was still in one piece when you got back and that the mini-Ps had diligently tended to anything in the greenhouse, or not, as per instructions.
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Oh, very much permitted under section 2.1 sub section 8b of the rules, paragraph 2.
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Isn’t the propagator allowed to make his own rules up 😉 sounds good to be though 👍
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I’m not challenging the choice of garden, merely saying that I hadn’t thought of doing the same myself. I have a collection of pics of other gardens that I can use to fill the winter gap. The rules don’t say that the choices have to be this week! Birmingham in May maybe,
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Now or nowish is the spec. Although i have loads of pics from lake garda in the summer thst i have been tempted to put into bat. Go for it.
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Lol he has opened up the flood gates, off to Eden Project next week so you know where mine will be coming from 😂😂
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Ok with me!
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