Greetings from the Temperate Desert Zone of the Kew Gardens hot house. Oh wait, no, it’s just my back garden. Well over a month without rain now. Still no sign of a hosepipe ban, fortunately, so while tediously time consuming, it is still possible to keep most things alive. “Most” is an important qualifier, there are some things which just don’t make it. Anything still in a pot, especially a small pot, is vulnerable to drying out. It only needs one day of neglect with the watering for this to happen. Guilty as charged yer honour. Multiple offences to be taken into account, time off for good behaviour. Still, I have managed to keep enough things alive and kicking to supply this week’s Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything! A flower, a good leaf, a pest, a completed project, a harvest, an abject failure, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Cosmos ‘White Knight’. The last couple of years have been difficult cosmos-wise. For some reason I was unable to grow successfully from seed. Germination was poor, those that did were poorly plants, and/or I neglected them. This year I have a good few of these white cosmos dotted about. I grew them from seed provided by Suttons. I think I prefer the coloured ones, not sure I’d get these again.

2 – Clematis, purple’un. The name is lost to history, as was the plant, I thought. It has staged a recovery this year, even putting out half a dozen flowers. They are a good purple colour, standing out well against the wisteria foliage. I hope it sticks around next year and puts on a better show.

3 – Lobelia tupa. Grown from seed last year, it didn’t do a whole lot, getting to no more than a few inches tall and not showing any signs of flowering. This year is a different kettle of fish. It has grown into a decent size plant, a good 3 feet high and across, with stems each bearing a flower spike. The flowers aren’t quite fully out, but they’re on their way. I’m interested to see how long they last.

4 – Zinnia ‘Queen Red Lime’. Queenie here was grown from seed this year, also from Suttons. I have a blind spot with annuals, I set them off , prick them out, then often forget all about them, resulting in frequent death by the aforementioned too-small-a-pot. A few of these slipped through my determined neglect, growing into good little plants and flowering. A moment of weakness, won’t happen again.

5 – Poppy ‘Lauren’s Grape’. Another escapee from my neglect, these are annuals I think. They should get to 3′ tall, but are more like a 18″ high just now, and a bit spindly. Still, flowers are emerging, and they are purple, so whaddayaknow.

6 – Impatiens. I forget exactly what these are. New Guinea impatiens maybe? Bought for pennies a plant in Morrisons a month or so back. They come in red, white and this pinky red one. I have them in the front row of the shady border.

Those are my Six for this week, what are yours? If not already a regular, you probably feel strangely drawn to taking part, but don’t quite know how. Fear not, simply write your post, pop a link to it in the comments below. You can also participate using twitter, instagram, facebook or by pigeon post. Just remember to use the #SixOnSaturday hashtag. For more details, please see the participant guide.

Have a super weekend, remember to check back as more links get added during the day. It’s going to be yet another scorcher here. More watering. Sigh.

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