The Beast from the East arrived during the week, bringing bitter winds and disruptive snow. I’m alright Jack, I was in Connecticut where it was quite mild and sunny in comparison. I did have seedling anxiety as a result, being 3000 miles away and not knowing if they were surviving the winter weather was not good – I must get a web-cam installed in he greenhouse. Anyhow, time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a tool, a job to do, a flower, an emerging plant, seedlings, a build, anything at all! Join in!

Given my location this week, I have cheated a little, so Blue Peter style, here are Six I prepared earlier, from a visit to RHS Wisley last Saturday afternoon.

1 – Prunus serrula. The peeling bark of this prunus is quite attractive anyway, but even better with the sun behind it.

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2 – Rubus cockburnianus. No sniggering at the back. There are massed ranks of this plant in the winter walk at Wisley, they make quite an impact together. The stems are silvery white, and very thorny. I had cuttings of one of these but killed them. I covet this plant but could never achieve the overall effect, the area planted with them at Wisley was bigger than my entire garden.

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3 – Butterfly. Blue one. One of the glasshouses at Wisley is home to a thingumyjig of butterflies. I’m not sure what the collective noun of butterflies is. A flock? A swarm? A horde? I’m using “thingumyjig”. A thingumjig of butterflies. I can tell you it is a grave mistake to wander round a tropical hot-house wearing winter gear (it was bitterly cold outside). Within seconds we were a puddle on the floor.

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4 – Helebore army. There were helebores everywhere, thousands and thousands of them, different colours.

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5 – Bamboo, bambusa chungii. These enormous bamboo stems were in one of the aforementioned glass-houses. These were two stories tall at least, and very thick.

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6 – Cornus sanguinea ‘mid-winter fire’. A very colourful display, dozens of coppiced shrubs in their winter finery. Impressive.

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Those are my Six for this week, what are yours? Join in! Just write your post, add a comment here with a link to your post, and maybe add a link back to this blog in yours. For more details, please see the brief participant’s guide.

Have a super weekend, don’t forget to check back in over the next day or two as more links are added.