Six on Saturday 18-04-2020

Week 4 in the Big Brother House. I am still mostly enjoying lockdown. In our little bubble things are A-OK, thank goodness. I see no early end to this situation, I think it is going to be a long ride. I will enjoy as much as I can. Not being able to buy it in, I’ve been using my own compost mixed with a bit of loamy topsoil as a potting mix. It’s great, but very weedy. I made the mistake of using it for seed sowing, now I don’t know which are the real deal and which are weeds. Rookie mistake. Oh well. Time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a flower, a job to do, seedlings, weeds, a beastier, a design, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week…

1 – Pelargoniums. I got these in the post yesterday. They are from Fibrex Nursery who specialise in pellies. These were sold as a “Coloured Leaf” collection, it’s rather clever as they have coloured leaves, you see. They arrived bundled up in shredded newspaper, a little bit squished but generally in good shape. I’ve potted them on and given a good water. They’ll stay in the greenhouse for now. I shall be keeping an eye out for suitable cuttings material. Rude not to.

2 – Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’. I have a feeling these are a bit early, they are often joined by alliums in an agreeable purple/orange mash-up. I’ve a few of these dotted around, they flower for ages.

3 – Allium ‘christophii’. Talking of alliums, this is one of last year’s. It is looking quite well stuffed as buds go. This year’s lot are still quite small plants with no sign of buds coming through. In the bottom left corner, out of focus, are seedlings from last year’s flower.

4 – Tulip ‘Hermitage. I like these, think I might transplant to the borders once they’ve finished. Most of my tulips are done or on their way out, slightly depressing. I need to do a better job of ensuring I have a good spread of early, middling and late tulips for next year.

5 – Hosta ‘June’. I have several hostas, this is my favourite, I think. It also happens to be the first out. The camera exaggerates the green tone, it’s lighter than this in the flesh. In fact, the photo looks better than the real thing!

6 – Wisteria sinensis. It is not fully out yet, just the odd raceme here and there. I couldn’t resist, I am sure there will be an encore in future Six posts. W. sinensis is the Chinese varient (the others are Japanese in origin). The racemes are longer and the flowers are more spread out. The flowers come out before the leaves, generally. I’ve had this for well over ten years, nearer 15 perhaps. It is a bit of a thug, so needs keeping in hand. I’ve been lucky so far, I’ve never lost a season to frost, I have heard such horror stories from around and about.

Those are my Six, what are yours? If you’d like to have a go, 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 splendiferous. For more details you can read the brief participant guide.

The weather here is a bit meh over the weekend. The forecast implies that water will fall from the sky. Imagine that! It won’t stop me pottering about in the garden, I hope you get some done too. Do check back in as more links get added during the day.

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