Six on Saturday 20-07-2019

Rain!  Some nice, light but persistent rain Thursday morning. The sort of rain that doesn’t look like much, but in which you get very wet very quickly. Then yesterday there was heavy rain which will have given the garden a good soak. It will also have flattened a few plants and shown me up to be a slapdash supporter of taller plants.  Oh well, so long I don’t have to water much this weekend.

Time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a flower, a disaster, a harvest, a pest, wildlife, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Physalis alkekengi, chinese lantern.  This plant popped up in my front garden. I did grow a few from seed a couple of years ago but thought they were all duds.  When this started appearing a few months ago I didn’t recognise it. My initial identification was Japanese knotweed! Fortunately the second in the list of possible matches was this, which did at least seem plausible as I had previously grown it. A quick search online quickly ruled out the former, the emerging shoots of that unwelcome visitor are very distinctive. Anyhow, back to Phylis, the flowers have mostly been and gone, leaving a soon-to-be lantern of the oriental variety.

2 – Eryngium, sea holly. I forget exactly which it is, I suspect e. planum. The result of a root cutting experiment 18 months ago, and last featured here a while back, they are now all in the bluest finery.

3 – Poppy seed head – from the ‘Lauren’s Grape’ that did so well this year. I’ve removed most of the plants but have left a few to go to seed.  One of these is probably enough to sprinkle next year’s plants about the place.

4 – Dahlia ‘Café au lait’.  I confess I’ve fallen a little out of love with dahlias this year.  The slugs have had an absolute field day on mine.  Whilst the bedding dahlias, the ‘bishops children’ I grew from seed a few years back seem to have made it, all the nicer ones from tubers I bought over the last couple of years have been mullered. This one is an exception to the rule. The plant is a little moth-eaten but will be presentable enough.  I’m beginning to understand why they went out of fashion for a long period…

5 – Verbena hastata ‘pink spires’.  Bought as small bare-root plants last winter, they are proving to be very robust. I have another dozen or so plants from cuttings, and I gather they do seed about the place too. I shall not be short of these plants next year.  Anyhow, they are just beginning to form flower heads, so will soon be providing a bit of interest at medium height in the border. I have most of them planted towards the front, as although they are not as wispy as their bananarama cousins, they are still fairly airy plants.

6 – Hosta ‘Lakeside ChaCha’. Also bought as bareroots last winter, these are doing very nicely in a shady container.  They remain, touch wood, unmunched,

Those are my Six, what are yours?  If you are contemplating dipping your toe in to the friendly world of Six on Saturday, couldn’t be simpler. Just publish your post and pop a link to it in the comments below. If you also mention my blog in yours that would be awesome. For more details and for other ways to participate you can read the brief guide here.

Have a lovely weekend in the garden, don’t forget to check back in during the day as more links get added.

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