Six on Saturday 10-11-2018

Following a brief flit over to Connecticut for work, I am back in time for a full weekend of gardening. Autumn seems to have properly taken hold while I was away, lots more leaves have fallen and what few flowers remained have lost the will to live. That is the way of things, but so be it – all part of the gardening year. Six on Saturday then – Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a job completed, a plan, a weed, a pest, great foliage, a harvest, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Bergenia ‘Sunningdale’. I recently made a list of plants I should buy or grow when I get the chance. This elephant’s ear was on the list, recommended from beyond the grave by none other than Graham Stuart Thomas. It provides good year-round ground cover, has good flowers, and the leaves colour up later in the year. This one is just on the turn. I have one plant, so will be looking to divide it before planting out in the spring.

2 – Aster ‘Star of Chester’. Bought on a recent trip to Waterperry Gardens near Oxford, this plant is obligingly throwing up lots of new growth. This is perfect for so-called Irishman’s cuttings. I’m not sure why they’re called that, I fear it may not have been intended as a compliment, but perhaps the fella that first did it was just from the Emerald Isle, name lost to posterity. In any case, if left to its own devices, when planted in the ground this plant would expand into a pretty good clump in just two or three years. I should be able to get a dozen or so new plants from this material. I’ll just peel the new growth away from the parent, roots and all. Potted up, they’ll race away. ‘Star of Chester’ is a good back of the border do-er, getting to 4 or even 5 feet.

3 – Pyrocantha ‘Victory’. I bought this plant as a baby, a pity bench bargain last winter. It was no more than 18 inches high at the time. Since then it has put on several feet of growth. Planted in a container, I am wall-training it so it will need a bit of a prune in the spring to keep it in check. This time next year, all that new growth should be festooned with berries like these.

4 – Heuchera ‘Sugar Frost’. An impulse purchase on a recent trip to Wisley. I will attempt to divide this in the spring, significantly reducing the cost per unit plant. I like the patterns on the leaves, the colours are nice and bright too. Not sure where I’ll put it yet.

5 – Rooooots! Always exciting to see roots on a cutting. This is salvia x ‘Amistad’, which seems to root very quickly. In fact this is a cutting of a cutting. These cuttings were all taken three or four weeks back, kind of late in the year to be attempting this kind of propagation, but the hydropod gizmo seems to keep them keen. The challenge will be to keep the plants alive over the winter once I pot them up. I can expect to lose a few I think, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

6 – Leaves. Lots of leaves. My annual pilgrimage to the local park is complete, I returned with a dozen bags of collected leaves with the aim of making leaf mould. Wanting to speed the process up, I borrowed next door’s petrol mower, which made short work of blitzing the leaves into much smaller pieces. I have four bags of leaves shredded in this fashion. With a bit of luck it will be ready to use in a year, two at the most.

Those are my Six, what are yours? Join in, dead simple. Publish your post, pop a link to it in the comments below, and maybe mention my blog in yours. Simples! If you’d like more details, please see the brief participant guide.

Have a super gardening weekend, I hope it doesn’t rain too much. Don’t forget to check back in as more links get added during the day.

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