Earlier in the week it got down to just 5c above freezing. Not quite a frost but a few of the more tender plants are looking a bit grumpy. First frost date here is typically mid-October so I have a bit of time before things start dying off due to frost. Signs of autumn abound, a few leaves beginning to turn, cooler weather, darker evenings, dew on the grass and whatnot. The other signs of the autumn, or rather of a busy summer, are the dreadful state of the working end of the garden, where I have discarded or worse, neglected, pots and other detritus. Dead or dying plants, broken plastic stuff, plant labels, old compost bags, bits of wood I thought might have come in useful, that kind of thing. I started the big autumn tidy-up last weekend but still have plenty to do. I’m afraid to say that I found many dried-out husks of plants, mostly transplanted seedlings, that didn’t survive the hot spell earlier in the summer. It’s probably my garden telling me I don’t have room for them all. What does it know?
Still, tidy or not, time for Six on Saturday – six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a plant, a flower, a plan, a failure, a critter, a pest, a mystery, anything at all. Join in!
Here are my Six for this week.
1 – Last year I dug up a volunteer mallow growing in among the other plants. I don’t mind the flowers but find the plant to be untidy. Besides, I didn’t plant it there, such cheek! Anyhow, it has had the last laugh, I either didn’t get it all, or it dropped some seed before I removed it. It’s baaaaack!
2 – Japanese anemone ‘honorine jobert’. Some anemones are prone to spread, but honerine is pretty well behaved. Which is annoying, I wouldn’t object to it spreading a bit. They don’t seem to have enjoyed the dry weather so the flowers have been a bit lacklustre.
3 – Allium seed heads. Some of these have survived being knocked over or accidentally pulled up. I think they look quite architectural so I’ve left these in. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
4 – Potentilla ‘monarch’s velvet’. I grew these from seed last year or the year before and have quite a few dotted about. It starts off well, the foliage is quite attractive, then lots of flower buds appear, then I am underwhelmed. The flowers keep coming but are very small, so the overall effect is limited. The spent blooms and the spindly stems they sit on look a bit untidy. But who am I to talk. Up close, the flowers are pretty.
5 – Linaria ‘springside white’. A supposedly white form of toadflax. I grew from seed this year. Some are indeed white, but some are the more normal purple. Those bees, never consistent.
6 – Heuchera ‘purple palace’ – flower. I grow these for their leaf form and colour. I bought a couple of large plants then promptly divided them. This one is in a planted down the side of the house. I thought it would be quite shady but in fact it is in full sun more or less all day. The heuchera have protested a little at this but a good drink normally sorts them out. They have been flowering delicately for a couple of weeks now.
Those are my Six, what are yours? if you’d like to join in, just publish your post, pop a link to it in the comments below, and if you also mention my blog that would be fab. For more details and other ways to participate, please see the brief participant guide.
Have a great gardening weekend, don’t forget to check back in as more links get added during the day.
I’ll be back next weekend with another Six on Saturday.
So lovely to see how much colour there is in our gardens right now and here is my contribution. https://londoncottagegarden.com/a-little-touch-of-colour-in-the-garden-six-on-saturday-september-15th/
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Oh, beautiful flowers. The anemone is just beautiful. https://angiebaer.com/blog/september-blooming-garden
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Ooh, some lovely flowers! I do love peeking into other people’s gardens. Quite excited at the prospect of an autumn tidy, and I’ve also spotted plenty of neglected things in pots that I just didn’t have time to water. My weeks is here:
https://notreallyafarm.weebly.com/blog/six-on-saturday-feels-like-the-end-of-summer
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Hello again Jenni, yes it’s fun to have a good nose around. Nice to see you again.
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Bit late on parade, but I got here in the end. I like Monarch’s Velvet, I think next year, when it is a bit more grown up, you might enjoy it more. The white linaria is lovely, not seen one before. Hope you have a good week. Here is my contribution, hope you enjoy it https://offtheedgegardening.com/2018/09/15/six-on-saturday-disrupted/
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Hello Gill, not late, very much still Saturday! I think I just need to give the MV a good tidy up, cut it back.
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Phew! Managed to get to view most of the posts. Even now there are a lot of lovely plants out there. I have spent the day cutting back the jasmine. Again. I shall have another go at it tomorrow to try and thin out the stems and give it one more year. if it misbehaves again that’s it. Poison!! I too have a mallow that I cut right down after it went rusty following the spring flowering, it is now in bud! It will be interesting to see if it actually flowers. Then it is coming out altogether. They take up a lot of space! Have a lovely rest of the weekend Prop. Hope it stays nice and dry so you can carry on with the clean-up 😀
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Well done, i am only 5 in, been busy all day. I have a jasmine that I will never be rid of, it is a right thug. I do battle with it every year.
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That makes me feel a little better.
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I’ve put off the autumn tidy but it is lurking, but things are still flowering so maybe I’ll wait until our first frost.
On Wednesday I took a day coach excursion to the Isle of Wight and here is my Six on Saturday showing my visit to the NT garden at Mottistone.
https://hurtledto60.com/2018/09/15/six-on-saturday-15-09-2018/
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Linaria is a new one in my garden and I love it!
I have company now, so this will be quick!
My SOS: https://fromourisland.wordpress.com/2018/09/14/six-on-saturday-september-15-2018/
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Hello,enjoy the rest of your weekend.
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Testing… My post is not showing up…
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Here are my SOS! Brought to you this week from Monte-Carlo, Monaco…….https://thecadyluckleedy.com/2018/09/15/six-on-saturday-in-monte-carlo/
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Sounds very glamourous!
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Oh get you with your party shot of the Anemone!
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😎
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Here are my six. Looks like Hurricane Florence will just give us some rain.
https://doesthisfontmakemelookfat.com/2018/09/15/six-on-saturday-waiting-for-the-florence-september-15-2018/
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Ok. Hope not too much rain.
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Love the allium seed heads – great in a vase indoors as well! Here’s my Six for today.
https://thepotter973907073.wordpress.com
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Yes I’ve heard that. I’ve seen them sprayed gold or whatnot too.
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Love the red Potentilla! Is it the shrub version or the small perennial? I have tons of the yellow Potentilla (possibly P. norvegica) – gorgeous when in bloom but then I cut it all back because it self seeds prodigiously and looks kinda horrible mid to late summer. A return to heat and humidity for our last week of summer! Here’s my Six:
https://countygardening.wordpress.com/
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It’s a hardy perennial. The flowers are nice enough but a bit anonymous I think. I am weighing up whether they earn their place.
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Here’s my six. https://wp.me/p97pee-i8 I’m with everyone hoping for HJ to spread herself about a bit. Mine are a bit sulky but it could be the hot summer. I also have some September Charm – first year in the garden and still sitting very quietly. Does the linaria spread everywhere?
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I’ve grown linaria from seed a couple of years. I haven’t noticed it being badly behaved. Yet.
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Nice to see Honorine Jobert in your six even if she has been a bit lacklustre this year. Impressed you still have your allium seedheads – I got bored of them in the dry weather!
Here’s my six for this week:
https://carrotsandcalendula.co.uk/2018/09/15/six-on-saturday-second-coming/
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Most of the bulb detritus has come out tbh, a few stragglers knocking about still.
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Joining in this week https://digwithdorris.wordpress.com
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Hello! Welcome to the gang.
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Hi!
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We certainly love Japanese Anemones at this time of year but we struggle to grow them in our garden for some reason. Here are my six for this week with a harvest time theme:
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I’ve had these clumps for over 10 years. Come back every year.
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Good morning. Another good Six-on-Saturday, Mr P. I was concerned that I wouldn’t have enough to make up the quota, but I managed! Here is my Six-on-Saturday.
https://grannysgarden229242407.wordpress.com/2018/09/15/six-on-saturday
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There’s always six things Granny. Always.
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Mallow: seeds everywhere. Get rid! It is strange what we have and value. I love Honorine Jobert, but have got shed loads of it that I am about to dig up and divide. And give away. I was embarrassed that I mistook One Man and His Garden Trowel’s Linaria for Snapdragon last week, then saw a massive patch of it on my way to work. Here’s mine:
https://timhewittgardener.com/blog/
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Agree on the mallow. It shall be gone.
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Surely the anemone have another way to, eh, um, er . . . propagate? I’ve not had anemone for several gardens, now, so I don’t remember if they have lovely seed heads or not. What’er yours doing in that department? I’m w/you, wanting my plants to reproduce. Here’s my paltry Six. https://lorahughes.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-scant-autumn.html
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I’m going to try root cuttings.
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I love the white Japanese Anemones – so beautiful. Mine has spread a bit but as you say it’s fairly well behaved – like a little ballerina dressed in white, waiting to be invited on stage.
I would have featured one in my six BUT this week is dahlia week for me. I’ve tried to choose my favourite six…
https://www.teabreakgardener.co.uk/my-gardening-week-six-on-saturday-15-09-18/
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I shall try not to be too jealous of your dahlias. Mine have been poor this year. They have a month to sort themselves out or Jack frost will get them.
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Careful what you wish for with H. Jobert! in a small garden you can have too much of a beautiful thing (sharp intake of breath). I put a small cane up the large Allium stems and ‘planted’ them again. Thought it might help remind me where they are plus, as you say, they look very architectural at this time of year. This is what is happening in my garden this week –
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That would be a nice problem to have!
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A GARDEN VISIT
My SixonSaturday is a selection from a visit yesterday to Howick Hall Gardens
http://fromanortherngarden.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-visit-to-howick-hall-garden.html
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A GARDEN VISIT
My SixonSaturday is a selection from a visit yesterday to Howick Hall Gardens
http://fromanortherngarden.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-visit-to-howick-hall-garden.html
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Hello, lovely, look forward to reading.
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The good thing about underwhelming plants is that when something better comes along, you can turf them out with minimal angst. Then you see a beauty somewhere else and wonder if you did the right thing; perhaps if you’d just put it somewhere sunnier…
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No room in my garden for underwhelming. Out they’ll come. Probably.
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Frost already (nearly). Here it’s usually late November. I feed a bit of a fraud today as already my six is down to five-and-a-half (plus Granny bonus). Coffee break at 9 (well we’ve been at it since 7.30). It’s at https://rivendellgarden.blog/?p=3764.
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Welcome back to the fold Mr K. 7.30? I was half way round my run at that time. Tssk.
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Visitors this weekend, so I’ll be back to read the sixes later on Sunday.
Here’s mine: http://janesmudgeegarden.com/noble-narcissi-sos-september-16/
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Have fun!
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Hi Jonathan. I had the same feeling with my potentilla (that is yellow). Discrete even invisible but up close the flowers are pretty though . I prefer almost yours …
here is mine : https: //fredgardenerblog.wordpress.com/2018/09/15/six-on-saturday-15-09/
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I don’t think your link has worked, Fred.
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ah? yet it seems to work. Try with this one . https://fredgardenerblog.wordpress.com/2018/09/15/six-on-saturday-15-09/
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I have to decide if the potentilla is worth keeping…
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A great Six. My white Japanese anenome hasn’t flowered this year. The pink ones have but I prefer the white and, like you, wish it woud spread a bit. My linaria are still going strong (I almost included it my SoS). Alas, I’ve never had that much luck with alliums, I think the heavy clay is too much for them https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2018/09/14/six-on-saturday-15-september-2018/
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The whiteones can be propagated by root cuttings. Going to give that a go this year I think.
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Thanks for the tip. I saw some for £3.50 in town yesterday so I might cheat!
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Hello, hello and happy Saturday! I like the mallow and think it should be allowed, but I have a penchant for magenta flowers. The seed heads add interest, so they should be allowed as well! I am getting in lots of pink before the fall parade of colors begins — https://gardensatcoppertop.com/2018/09/15/six-on-saturday-september-15/
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The flowers are ok but it is rampant.
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Morning…..Hi Ho Hi Ho it’s off to work I go…..first autumnal colours in my garden…
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Mine is mainly still looking summery. A couple of things are going over but no leaf colour yet.
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