Six on Saturday 16-03-2019

We are being treated to some of the traditional March weather. Wind! It is quite nice to have some fairly normal weather, I am not in a hurry to repeat last year’s unseasonal chill. I am fortunate not to have suffered any damage, no falling trees or missing panes, a couple of flattened daffodils is the worst of it. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I seemed to have avoided sycamore seedlings in their usual numbers. Spoke too soon! There are now zillions of them. It’s easy to imagine how quickly the country would return to forest if left to its own devices. Anyhow, time for Six on Saturday – Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything, a tool, a flower, foliage, a job to do, a failure, a success, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Rose foliage. I’m looking forward to the roses this year. I have 15 or so now, nearly all climbers. Most have been planted in the last year or two so are just getting established. A couple of weeks ago I went round all of them removing any of last year’s foliage, making sure to clear any left around the base of the plant. I think this is intended to reduce the risk of fungal disease, but it has the added benefit of tidying the plant up and allowing us to enjoy fully the glossy new leaves as they come through.

2 – Tulipa sprengeri. I got seeds two years ago and sowed them, not fully appreciating how long they take to establish and get to flowering size. They germinated a year after sowing. Last year the seedlings were all in one 7cm pot, so I moved them into modules, one seedling per. Of course the foliage soon dies down and I had assumed that they had objected to being transplanted. Fortunately I never got around to tidying the module tray away – I noticed a week or two ago that fresh growth is emerging from all but one of the modules. This is a fairly rare species tulip that is reliably perennial and is one of the few that is also happy in full shade. I might plant them in their final positions this spring. If I’m lucky I might get flowers from them in summer 2020, possibly not till the year after.

3 – Salvia, probably x caradonna. I grew these from seed last year and am pleased to say they are all coming back now. Salvia aren’t especially hardy but should be OK outdoors darn sarf. I will have plenty of salvia action this summer, I hope, there’s about 10 plants in the ground and another 6 or 7 s. Amistad to come.

4 – Crocus ‘Pickwick’. These were a 50% off bargain, 100 bought in an end-of-bulb-season sale at GeeTee Bulbs. I planted them on 19th January and was unsure if they would flower this year as it was so late to plant. I put most of them in at the base of one of my two new trees, this one is the cercis canadensis. Despite my doubting them, most have flowered nicely.

5 – Tagete x ‘cinnabar’. First seen at Great Dixter, I got seeds via the HPS scheme last year. The plants grew nicely and flowered profusely for months. They also produced an enormous quantity of seeds, some of which I collected. I sowed them 12 days ago, they are doing very nicely. I shall move them to less crowded quarters this weekend.

6 – Crocus ‘Joan of Arc’. Bought in the same purchase as Pickwick up above, I planted half of them around the base of my other new tree, the amalanchier. Like their purple cousins, they are doing very nicely. I will get more crocus this autumn, I think. They are very jolly at this time of year.

Those are my Six, what are yours? Do tell! If you’d like to take part, just publish your post and pop a link to it below in the comments. For more details and for other ways to get involved, please see the brief participant guide.

Have a super weekend, I will get a little bit of gardening done, weather and other distractions permitting. Don’t forget to check back in later on as more links are added during the day.

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