Six on Saturday 07-07-2018

In the immortal words of Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning Vietnam, it has reached “hot, damn hot” and there is no sign of an end to it. My long range forecast has a 15% chance of rain the week after next. Come on weather people, what’s going on? I’d like some proper rain. I’m even OK if it happens during the day. I am so sick of watering, hours and hours of it. Time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a flower, a job to do, a failure, a pest, a completed project, a harvest, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Empty patio pots. I’d like to say I have planned this so that I don’t have the difficulty of watering pots in this hot weather, but the truth is I sort of forgot to buy suitable plants to follow the tulips. The summer patio display is therefore a bit woeful this year. I have taken steps, some plants arrived yesterday, so I shall be planting out at some stage this weekend. I have 30 each of lobelia, begonia, gazania and petunia. More planting, more watering…

2 – Nasturtium ‘Ladybird Rose’ from Suttons. Not the usual sprawling, climbing red/yellow variety, these are fairly small plants, suitable for front row seats, and have a nice understated raspberry shade to them. The don’t seem to be an F1, so no doubt they’ll self-seed about the place like their larger cousins.

3 – Rose ‘Elmshorn’. Bought earlier this year as a bare-root in an end of season sale at Peter Beale. This rose is either a large shrub that can be trained as a climber, or a small climber that can be pruned as a shrub. Take your pick. I’m growing and training it as a climber. This one has large clusters of small, bright cerise flowers and a very slight fragrance. It should flower repeatedly until the first frosts.

4 – Allium ‘sphaerocephalon’, or drumstick allium. Just flowering now, I bought 150 of these teeny bulbs late last year, planting them out in groups of 20 or so. The flowers are small but provide a welcome splash of vivid colour.

5 – Helenium ‘Sahins Early Flowerer’. The clue is in the name. A small plant, a division I expect, bought at a plant fair. It is flowering away, a good 6 weeks before I expect to get flowers on the taller autumnale version I have many more of. I’ll let this little plant establish a bit then divide it again to increase numbers.

6 – Clematis ‘Blue Angel’. A little concealed behind one of my large clumps of loosestrife, this plant is establishing well and is now flowering away quite happily. Next year I expect it to grow on even more and be less shy, coming out from behind the other plants.

Those are my Six, what are yours? If you’d like to join in, please do, it’s easy. Write your post, pop a link to it in the comments below, and maybe mention this blog in your post. You can also do twitter, facebook, instagram or by hacking the TV screens and transmitting your Six direct to the nation’s living rooms. Best to avoid the football, and probably Love Island too. OK, OK, that last one isn’t possible yet, but the Six on Saturday technical department is working hard on it. For the avoidance of doubt, you can check the brief participant’s guide.

Have a super weekend, don’t forget the suncream!

I’ll be back next week for another #SixOnSaturday.