Six on Saturday 12-01-2019

Things are afoot. A quick tour of the garden tells me that growth is happening. After a brief slumber, recuperating plants are sending out new stems, fresh greenery for us to admire. It might all get knocked back a bit if we get some proper cold weather, but for now it is all good to see. Much as it can be a bit drab, I love this time of year, each week there is something new going on, something else breaking through the mulch in the quest to photosynthesize. Time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a flower, growth, a success, a failure, a project, a tool, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Crocus, emerging.  Very exciting. I bought 100 cheap bulbs, just your basic crocus, back in the autumn. I’ve not grown crocus before, this is part of my ongoing effort to extend the period of interest in my garden. They are still small, the giant boulders in the picture are 10mm gravel.

2 – Clematis ‘Rebecca’, emerging.  I haven’t yet pruned the clematis, I’ll do that in a few weeks.  This plant is probably the most established I have at present, Becky here is raring to go, putting out quite substantial buds.

3 – Lobeila tupa, emerging.  ‘Tis the season for emerging, apparently, lots of that going on. This is quite an architectural plant once it grows back.  I grew from seed in 2017, last year was quite good, I am expecting bigger and better things this year.

4 – Hellebore.  After a couple of years of not quite getting around to it, I finally bought a few hellebores.  I bought three from my local garden centre, half price, frankly they are a bit bedraggled. I also bought three from Morrisons, at full price still cheaper than the others, and in much better condition. They are plain white as you can see, I would like to get some other colours. That said, the white flowers are quite striking and highly visible from the house.  I have planted three at the base of each of the two newish trees. Hopefully they will spread themselves about a bit.

5 – Sempervivums.  In a move almost guaranteed to ensure that they are no longer cool, I have joined the trendy hipsters on the succulent bandwagon. I was unable to resist the temptation when confronted with a few trays of mostly-OK semps at B&Q the other day. I’ve planted them in a loam based compost with plenty of grit for drainage, top dressed with gravel.  I am expecting them to fill out the box pretty quickly.  I may well look out for some more, might have caught the bug.

6 – Alliums, emerging. I bought 3 dozen allium bulbs a while back, three varieties. Not quite sure where I wanted to put them, instead of planting out into the borders I potted them up in 7cm pots. Later in the spring I can pop them in the borders when things have grown on a bit and I can see where alliums would be gainfully employed.  They are nearly all through, an encouraging sign of spring to come.

Those are my Six, what are yours?  Join in!  Just publish your post and pop a link in the comments below. If you can also mention my blog in yours that would be fab. For more details and other ways to participate you can read the brief participant guide.

Have a super gardening weekend, don’t forget to check in later on as more links get added during the day.

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