This weekend I am mostly away from the garden, a family wedding and a birthday brunch. It is no small measure of the esteem I have for my out-laws that I am ready to drag myself away! Better be a good do, that’s all I’m saying.
Time for a quick Six on Saturday before we head off to Worcestershire. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a flower, a seed pod, a tool, a success, a failure, a pest, anything at all. Join in!
Here are my Six for this week.
1 – Stachys byzantina, lamb’s ear. As is my wont at this time of year, I bought a couple of 3L pots of this on sale, good big plants, then promptly divided them. I now have 6 or 7 of theses in 2L pots. I used to have some of this, but I planted them in too shady a spot and they just faded away. Quite drought tolerant when established, they like a nice sunny spot. I just have to find one. The velvety leaves are what I most like, the flowers are so-so, as I recall.
2 – Chilli habanero ‘Tobago seasoning’. I find the gnarlier and uglier looking the chilli, the more nuclear the heat-levels. This one is probably ready to harvest, I am a little nervous about picking it, never mind eating it. My chilli plants, all of which struggled to get going in the cold spring, are finally producing some fruit. I am eying up the window sill in the office as a potential home for them for the next few weeks – it will soon be too cold for the plants in the greenhouse.
3 – Cotinus ‘Grace’, smokebush. I prefer fire to the titular smoke, so I prune this hard each year for larger leaves. I don’t get flowers, the smoke, but I do get fabulous leaf colour around this time of year. They are just starting to go, bottom up. They look like shot silk when the sun catches them.
4 – Echinops ‘Veitch’s blue’. I grew these from seed this year, not really expecting much from them aside from putting on a bit of bulk. One of the plants, however, is a trier. I have a flower stalk, but it is only a couple of inches high. I almost missed this flower then, so low was it. I spotted it while digging dandelions out of some nearby lawn (or future border, as I also call it), so this is my reward for being so virtuous. I’m not convinced it will colour up, I think the plant is a bit confused about what it is supposed to be doing. We’ll see.
5 – Geranium sanguineum ‘Max Frei’. Bloody cranesbill! That was fun. Not a curse, on this occasion, just another common name. Another of my recent buying frenzy at the local pity bench. No flowers were in evidence when I bought it, but now it is having a last hurrah before the frost. Max here forms a low clump, cushion stylie. Not sure where I’m going to put him yet. A common problem.
6 – Nasturtium. An uninvited and not entirely welcome guest. I grew these from seed a couple of years ago and they turn up like a bad penny every year now, it seems. They have been very late to flower this year, only really showing their faces in the last week or two. It is a climbing variety, but usually ends up being a sprawl variety as I never seem to get around to tying them in to anything. I pull it up when I get annoyed by it, but otherwise leave it be. No doubt it’ll be back again next year.
Those are my Six for this week, what are yours? if you’d like to dip your toe in, the water’s lovely, just publish your post then drop a link in to the comments below. For more details and other way’s to participate you can read the brief participant guide.
Have a fantastic weekend, and if you could mow my lawn, that would be great. Don’t forget to check back in as more links are added during the day.
I’ll be back next week with another Six on Saturday.
I’ve grown nasturtiums a few times in the garden but they’ve never self seeded. I’ve got big on leaf colour change and bulbs this week
Here’s mine – I added the wrong link to your blog when I posted oops… been doing too much – and not enough time in the garden…
sorry for being late.
love Bec 🙂
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Hope you & Granny had plenty of food, drink & dancing at the wedding. Glad you’re keeping us going despite the grand event. My first year for habanero, too, altho mine are more yellow than yours. After trying one of the little bombs in a sauce, I’ve decided they’re too hot & will dry them for powder. So cute, tho! Might grow them again next year just to hang around the kitchen as decoration. Look nice on the Christmas tree, wouldn’t they?
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Ha yes they would. I just got one fruit from that plant. That plant looks in good condition so i think ill try to over winter it. I’ve brought the plants indoors, they are now on the window sill in the office. Bit warmer here that the greenhouse. Hoping that will result in many more fruit there are plenty of teeny ones just getting going.
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Gosh I hope that went well. Take care.
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Sachys is a “hmmm” plant for me. Once it gets going, the foliage can make a good ground cover of silver underneath other planting; pretty good as a weed suppressant. But the light purple flowers in clusters don’t do much for me. A friend grew some that had really deep purple flowers – much more attractive. I got some plants from him but here they were the washed-out purple. There must be a secret to getting the deeper colour. Now if I can find out what it is …..
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Yeah the flowers are bit meh.
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Here’s my very late post…
https://oldhouseintheshires.com/2018/10/07/six-on-saturday-well-sort-of/
Looking forward to reading all about everyone’s gardens later. Xx
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Loving the smoke bush leaves. Such a great colour. I did plant a smoke bush a few weeks ago. When you say you give it a hard prune, how hard? I know they can grow very large otherwise and that was my worry when I bought it!
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Hard! right back to the framework.
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I just love that nasturtium photo-it’s a cracker. Your continus is a beauty too, nice description-shot silk. I am away from home for a short time also, but as I’ve not been able to do blogging on my ipad (my shortcoming, I’m sure) I haven’t done a six this week. I can still enjoy other sixes, though.
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Have a good trip, see you again soon.
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The pity bench! I love that characterization – almost as much as I love shopping there myself!
Here are my six, a little late (sorry!)
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Welcome back!
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