Just another few feet down and I’ll have finished digging the family survival bunker. Well, I say survival bunker, really it will mainly be underground storage for several year’s worth of toilet roll. I am waiting to hear from the Chief Medical Officer exactly how this will protect us from the dreaded lurgy. Talking of lurgy, I have one. I don’t think it is THE lurgy, but it is certainly A lurgy. In the meantime, let’s do Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a flower, a flower, a flower, or maybe a flower? I mean, you decide. Join in!
Here are my Six.
1 – Plum blossom. Last year I had a small group of blossoms and that was it, and they did not become plums. this year the whole tree is festooned with blossom. I am hopeful that this will result in lots of fruit. I have pruned the tree, spring being a good time for it apparently. It is fan trained, sort of, so I took some time to tie it in to a better shape. Looking forward to lots of victoria plums.
2 – New roses. I think these were the result of envy. I saw someone had ordered roses and I found myself on the David Austin website and I’m not quite sure how it happened but these two ordered themselves. The Generous Gardener is on the left, Mme Alfred Carriere on the right. I have heard that “mad alf” can go a bit crazy. I plan to plant both at the front and train them up the house. Hopefully I will get a good show in a couple of years. First I have to create the space for them. It might involve removing some paving stones from the drive. She’ll never notice. Will she? I have just planted them up in these pots for now. There is a 3rd one on its way, Lady Emma Hamilton, which I am assured can be grown as a climber, although strictly speaking she is a shrub.
3 – Geranium rosanne. I spotted this as I was doing my rounds. It is just emerging from the mulch and will soon be covered with flowers. It richly deserves the accolades.
4 – Already?! I was admiring the new foliage on my seemingly very healthy roses and I spotted these guys. Fortunately they were resident only on one set of new shoots. I am not ashamed to say I had to go get my gloves from the shed, but then they were swiftly squished betwixt finger and thumb. Ewwww.
5 – Narcissus ‘Beauvallon’. A double daff, a bit unusual. Not convinced I like it, but I suppose it makes a change.
6 – Magnolia stellata. I was only looking at this the other day, all buds and no flowers, but now look at it! I declare it to be spring.
Those are my six, what are yours? if you’d like to join in, 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 triffic. For more details you can read the brief participant guide.
I have a bunch to get done in the garden this weekend, I hope I feel up to it. Don’t forget to check in during the day as more links get added.
I’ll be back next weekend with another #SixOnSaturday.
The narcissus is a splendid flower. Great to to see your Magnolia Stellata is blooming wonderfully, ours is still in bud but expected any day to show off its blooms. Here’s my Six on Saturday for the 14th https://wp.me/paZ8Ih-qE.
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Aphids appear out of nowhere in multitudes because they are actually born pregnant with pregnant female offspring! Later in the season they lay eggs and hatch males for mating. True! I found it amazing when I first found out, but it explains their sudden appearance.
No Six on Saturdays for a while for me, I just haven’t got it in me!
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Wow, now this I didn’t know!
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I have ‘Teasing Georgia’ and ‘Molineux’ and just this morning I saw that they were both covered in very nourished-looking aphids. Sigh.
Is the magnolia fragrant? It’s very pretty.
https://hodgepodgehall.blogspot.com/2020/03/six-on-saturday-springtime.html
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Yes it is, very nice, but does require a close sniff.
Covered in aphids is bad. I just had one shoot with em, bad enough. I need to inspect the other Rose’s….
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Can I have your aphids in exchange for the nasty white spotted rose beetles we have? Can’t believe we have these things again and can’t find a way of preventing them! Anyway, here’s my SoS, have a good week and stay healthy!
https://dizzydelights.blogspot.com/2020/03/six-on-saturday-14032020.html
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No you can keep those!
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Love the Magnolia, don’t love the daffodil (sorry). Hope you’re well soon.
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Yes, Mme AC is a big girl – but very lovely and always the first (and possibly last) of my roses to flower. Hope your lurgy doesn’t linger long. My six are here https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2020/03/14/six-on-saturday-the-pace-quickens/
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Apparently I am not allowed to dig up the drive so now I have to build an extra big planter. Tssk.
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😁
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That’s a bit unreasonable of her. Is the former site of the forsythia not suited?
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There’s no call to use the F word, especially on a Sunday.
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Good luck shaking off the lurgy. Are you being glared at a fair amount as a result? Hope that you get plenty of plums. Victorias are the best! I’ve just purchased a rose from DA too, a Gertrude Jekyll. Here are my six: https://wp.me/pM8Y1-7Jb
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There is a certain sense of anticipation when I read your posts from down south. A couple of weeks and spring will have reached the Midlands!
Here are my six for this week:
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Today is a particularly nice day to be outside here, so I am just taking the time to catch up on SOS posts. Your blooms are beautiful, and I absolutely agree with you on the nasties. Ewwww. There is at least one insect hiding in a forsythia bloom in my offering for the day, https://aftereden.blog/2020/03/14/six-on-saturday-14-march-2020/ .
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Thank you as ever for sharing your SoS, and good luck against the aphids. I hope you’ve managed to subdue the blighters before they munch away soft new growth with the increasing light levels! You’re fuelling my Magnolia and rose envy by the way, but fortunately my bank balance won’t let me steam into buying any for myself just yet…
Here’s my belated Six on Saturday for any readers interested: http://www.kevinwgelder.com/six-on-saturday-14-march-2020/
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Every now and again a bit of British slang gives me pause. Lurgy? I had to look it up and feel it should be introduced here. Also did not realize the toilet paper thing was international – so odd. The M. stellata is wonderful and spring is certainly arriving. I feel it here. I hope you get over the Lurgy and the aphids go away. Here is my six. http://theshrubqueen.com/2020/03/14/six-on-saturday-primavera-no-pasta/
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So lovely to see flowers blooming somewhere in somebody’s garden this time of year.
Here is my SOS -it’s my first time participating so I hope I got it right. https://yourhomegrownharvest.com/2020/03/14/six-on-saturday-march-14-2020/
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Can’t say I like the Double Daff but it is pretty colourful some things take a bit of getting used to by next year you may have grown to like it. Here are my SOS
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Are we comparing symptoms? I’ve been laid low too. But not so low as to let SOS pass by. Your Rosanne is a couple of emerging leaves ahead of mine, you have more greenfly, and I am also suffering from rose envy now. Here are my SOS https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2020/03/six-on-saturday-14-march-2020.html
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Spring has definitely sprung with you. Hope you are feeling better soon. Here is more Six on Saturday from me –
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Just ordered some of Uncle Tom’s tonic for my roses, hope it is as good as you say! How do you use it? We were caught out by the run on toilet rolls this week. The shelves in our local ASDA were completely bare! As were the pasta shelves and a lot of tinned beans and tomatoes. I guess everyone is eating pasta and tomato sauce for dinner or beans on toast. Makes it a nuisance when you genuinely just want a pack of loo rolls and a tin of tomatoes…
Anyway, stay safe, keep calm and carry on gardening.
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First feed is a drench, mix in watering can and water base of plant. Then every two weeks spray on as a foliar feed. Instructions on the bottle.
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OK, that sounds doable!
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Squeamish about greenfly squishing? You’ll be telling me next that you’ve never sliced a slug open or decapitated a lily beetle with your thumbnail. Sorry you’re lurgified. Now please follow the official advice: (1) check the weather forecast for the next seven days then (2) based on the results of 1, decide whether wot you have is DEFINITELY not number 19 or to self-isolate and (3) remember there is evidence that alcohol kills it.
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7 days in the garden is tempting…
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Love the Virus Advice! Humour is all!
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Love the stellata. It sings of spring. Here’s mine for this week. http://pruebatten.com/2020/03/14/sos-14320/ Cheers all.
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Jon, Madame AC is the big arching thingy on my veggie garden fence. Thinking it wouldn’t grow, I planted it there and it LOVES it. Trouble is, it shades veggies from the sun. But the flowering, even through the 18 month long drought, was spectacular!
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Yes I hear good things about it. I need to hurry up and build a decent size planter for it.
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Beware! Both the David Austin website and the Mme. will steal your heart. My stellata is a bit behind yours but just about ready to pop. Take care of yourself and feel better!
https://pruneplantsow.wordpress.com/2020/03/14/sixonsaturday-march-14th-a-little-alliteration-to-brighten-the-situation/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
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The Magnolia Stellata is just magnificent! What a way to herald in spring!! I do hope you feel better soon! Here is mine for the week:
https://hairbellsandmaples.wordpress.com/2020/03/14/six-on-saturday-w11-2020-seedlings-and-cuttings/
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What beautiful magnolia! Kind of like those diffs too, Glad you have enough toilet paper 🙂
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Forgot…my six of the day https://basia329.wordpress.com
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Wishing you a speedy recovery. I spotted tiny aphids in the greenhouse, any advice fellow SOSers for those nasties? Plum blossom! Lovely, I think mine is a week away. The roses will be beautiful. My Alf is in it’s second year and has climbed at a good pace. Get digging up the front garden quick! And m. stellata is a reliable stunner. Very nice indeed. All is good in the garden at least. Here’s my link https://wp.me/p97pee-wG
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Thanks I’m feeling better today.
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Have you tried garlic candles? (For some info, checkout https://www.greengardener.co.uk/garlic-greenhouse-candles.html – other places sell them too, of course). I’ve found them more than capable of ridding the greenhouse of all those nasty bugs and it’s said, though I can’t say for certain myself, that they actually help plant growth too.
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I got all excited then Mr K! I thought you were posting a SoS.
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Stellata has to be one of the most beautiful shrub/trees in an English garden, I think. Until I see something else like a Victoria plum (that photo is rivetting). I do hope yours steps up to the plate this year. Is there anything so wonderful as eating Victoria plums right off the tree? O, & roses. Nope, I’m not going to go looking, no matter how wonderful you say they are. I’m still reeling from the Thorncroft madness. O, here’s me => https://lorahughes.blogspot.com/2020/03/discoveries.html I think one of my daffs might be a kissing cousin to yours.
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Haha! I also succumbed to the DA website this week, but those pics will be next time when I’ve got them into the bed. Greenfly – uuurgh! Stop feeding the birds – they will soon make short shrift of pests at this time of year.
My six are short and sweet this week – https://theoptimisticgardener.wordpress.com/category/6-on-saturday/
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Love your Six on Saturday – thanks for raising a smile with your intro. I’m very jealous of the mangnolia stellata. I’ve planted a weeny one in our garden but I then stepped on it and broke off one of its main branches😢. David Austin have just sent me their catalogue so I’m trying to resist but I think it might be in vain. I’ve planted The Generous Gardener and Mme Alfred C and they are both beautiful. The Generous Gardener was sold as a shrub rose when I bought it – but it’s a large one. I did have Lady Emma too, but they were eaten by the (wild) rabbits. It’s a gorgeous colour.
Here’s mine for this week.
https://www.hortusbaileyana.co.uk/2020/03/the-garden-in-mid-march.html
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That stellata is glorious. How big is your tree? It must look amazing. Commiserations on the cold and the greenfly.
Troubling times but today I’m reclaiming the word Corona for its botanical usage! Daffodil trumpets are coronas after all.
https://www.teabreakgardener.co.uk/yellow-coronas-six-on-saturday/
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It’s a dwarf variety so about 5′ tall, next to the front door. Lovely at this time of year.
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I forgot to put in my link to my six for this week. How silly. Here it is:
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The toilet roll bunker made me laugh – it’s hard to find anything humorous about the current situation at the moment, but you did it. All you need now is a cartoon to illustrate it.
Your Magnolia stellata is beautiful – that, I have to admit, really does give me garden envy. As for your David Austin Roses, I reckon you can’t go wrong with them. They’re always in pristine condition when they arrive and I’m always surprised that they’ve managed to survive my really awful pruning attempts.
Aphids – I spotted some in my garden last week, I expect they’ve probably multiplied by now.
You’ll have a feast this year with the plums! Follow your first summer BBQ with a big tray of American-style Plumb Cobbler! Enjoy!
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WordPress is playing Silly What’s It’s again. Grannysgardenhimindoors says that the re-blog has worked. 🤬😇
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Well I like the double daffodil! I am not building a bunker we are just going to re build Hadrians Wall. https://sedumsdahliasandhayfever.com/2020/03/14/six-on-saturday-14th-march-2020/
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The David Austin website is obscene, it should come with warnings. You, already weak with lurg, had no hope. Three was restrained. Does that help.? The stellata is wonderful, and the plum blossom. I know what you mean about these fancy daffs, but I think I might like this one, the colours are so rich. Hope you feel better soon, and I hope it doesn’t mess up your training regime too much. Here are mine https://offtheedgegardening.com/2020/03/14/six-on-saturday-celebration-2/
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Not really, no. I originally ordered two, then chased them down and forced them to add a 3rd to my order. I am feeling better today, should be able to get out and run tomorrow. Mind you, quite likely that the marathon will be cancelled anyway.
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I hope your lurgy doesn’t upset your training but will the race be on? I hope so. I am off out to the garden to stain the other one*.
*You need to read the post to find out the other what………?
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It may well be postponed or even cancelled. I am supposed to have a 24 mile run tomorrow, we shall see. Feeling better today.
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Granny, you are so fresh every week. Love your derring do and wit!
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I was going to buy a climbing rose this winter to go on my new trellis but the space got filled with something else, so much for long term plans. No blossom on my plum yet, you’re ahead of me there. Love the Magnolia, such a good plant. Here’s mine: https://wp.me/p6bCCa-2bI
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Lovely selection this week. I hope your roses work out I’m contemplating taking out another of my underperforming roses. Working at the garden centre I’m finding the magnolias very tempting currently but they don’t really suit my conditions.
This weeks six featuring sparrowhawks, lawns, blossom and summer bulbs.
https://30daysofwildparenting.wordpress.com/2020/03/14/six-on-saturday-14-3-20/
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That’s interesting. Roses are usually pretty bomb proof. Mind you, I have one that is not doing great. Might take that one out.
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It got damaged when first planted and hasn’t quite recovered it’s shape. I’m going to see how it goes this year and then I may prune it right back and see if I can get it into a bushier shape. Or I might try and turn it and grow it as a climber as it’s got one spindly branch doing well.
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Mme Alfred Carrière is a very pretty rose. I saw your pics that you proposed a few days ago and I can’t wait to see yours in bloom … the aphids have arrived here too, unfortunately, and we will have to start to get rid of them. I like your double narcissus; obviously the magnolia is superb ! I take advantage of mine from my office window right now. Here is my link : https://fredgardenerblog.wordpress.com/2020/03/14/six-on-saturday-14-03-20/
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Yes I’m looking forward to seeing them bloom. Next year or the year after for a nice show I think.
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Thank you for some much needed humour! I like the idea of your toilet roll bunker – we may all be digging them soon. On another note what a beautiful Magnolia stellata! I also have new rose envy as I have not bought any this year. I have Mme. Alf and also Lady Emma although neither are doing very well for me so far. Will give them a good feed and hope for a better year. Good luck with yours – be interested to see how they get on. Here’s my six:
https://carrotsandcalendula.co.uk/2020/03/14/six-on-saturday-sanctuary/
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Give uncle Tom’s rose tonic a go. Brilliant stuff.
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Ooh I shall try it!
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The bunker made me chuckle. I’m thinking I need to grow plants that provide nice big, soft foliage as toilet rolls are in short supply round here.
I’ve got a new rose – just the one though! I like the idea of having one growing up the front of the house, hmm… Great magnolia and I like that narcissus. It looks a bit like Tahiti which I wasn’t sure about initially but it grew on me.
Right, off to work as soon as I’ve finished my cup of tea **grumbles*** https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2020/03/14/six-on-saturday-14-march-2020/
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Dock leaves? Definitely not teasle…
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There are only two species in my six. There would have been only one if I had found two more colors of African daisies.
That sux bout the aphid. We were supposed to check today, but there are none so far. I sort of wonder if they are hiding and plotting in secret.
Star magnolia is rad. Mine is quite unhappy. We needed to move it in the summer a year and a half ago, and it never recovered. It has not gotten any worse, but is not doing much. Anyway, yours is splendid.
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