Six on Saturday 17-03-2018

Winter is making a brief return to the UK with the possibility of a bit of snow and sub-zero temperatures for the next few days. This is most unwelcome! Regardless, it is time for Six on Saturday – Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Simple! Could be anything – a flower, new growth, a plan, a success, a failure, a completed project, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’. I bought this in the January sale then forgot about it until the package arrived a couple of months later. I’m afraid it is still in its pot, but is beginning to flower.

2 – Tulip foliage. The variety is lost to recorded history but these tulips come back year after year, slowly spreading. They are planted in a patio container, and if I remember rightly the flowers are cream with red stripes. Unlike nearly all the tulips I have, the foliage is attractive in its own right.

3 – Wisteria bud. When I pruned the wisteria back in February, I couldn’t resist taking some hardwood cuttings which I set up in a pot. They have minded their own business on greenhouse staging since then and are now beginning to bud up. This doesn’t necessarily mean they have rooted, but does mean they aren’t dead. Yay!

4 – Erica ‘Amy Doncaster’. Featured previously, but now she is flowering. Still in the damn pot.

5 – Prunings, future plant support. Last weekend I pruned a couple of shrubs. The tops I’ll use as twiggy pea sticks but these stems I intend to fashion into plant supports for the borders. I have an idea how to do that but will mainly be making it up as I go along. I’ll let the stems dry out for a little while, I don’t want them to root where I put them.

6 – Seedling, Echinops ‘Veitch’s Blue’. One of my supply from the HPS seed scheme. I sowed these in late January and they have been on unheated staging in the greenhouse since then. They started to emerge a week or two ago and still are. It’s a curious process to watch. The seeds seem to levitate off the surface and only close examination proves that there is a stem linking it to the compost. This is the only fully open seedling in the pot, with one of those levitating seeds next to it.

So, those are my Six for this week – what are yours? If you are contemplating taking part, really it’s very easy. Just write your post, add a comment here with a link to your post so everyone can see it, and maybe add a link back to this blog in your post. For more details, you can read the brief participants guide here.

Have a great weekend, stay warm, and don’t forget to check back here over the next day or two as more links get added.

I’ll be back next week with another Six on Saturday.