I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, or at least as merry as possible in the circumstances. Time for a yuletide Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. could be anything, you decide. Join in!

Here are mine for this week.

1 – Eucomis nobbly bits – I bought this plant, e. comosa ‘Oakhurst’, in a plant fair frenzy at the end of the summer. It is a purple leaved form, quite striking, I gather. It is allegedly hardy in well drained soil so I am not bothering to lift it to store for the winter. Fingers crossed.

2 – New rose growth. Look at all those! Don’t they know it’s winter? My initial thought on passing ‘Souvenir du Dr Jamain’ was ooh look, lovely new growth, almost looks like a moss rose. On closer inspection I was appalled to see that it is covered in aphids. I have squished them with due ceremony. How very dare they. This is what comes of an exceptionally mild autumn.

3 – Bulbs emerging. But what bulbs? I can’t remember what’s in this planter. I have half a suspicion they are daffs, probably ‘tete a tete’, but that’s just a guess. They mainly serve to remind me that I still have over 100 in the shed waiting forlornly to be planted.

4 – Gaura ‘Gambit Variegata Rose’. I bought this because of the variegated leaves. It is still doing very well considering the time of year. I expect a proper cold snap will see it off for a few months. For now I’m going to leave all the growth there for a bit of protection. I’ll cut it back properly in the spring.

5 – In a frenzy of cutting back last weekend I revealed these baby cabbages. They’re not cabbages, but they do remind me of cabbages. As you have probably recognised, these are the basal growth of sedum ‘autumn joy’. Only they’re not called sedums any more, hypertelephones or something is the new name. I have resolved only to adopt a new botanical name if it is easier to pronounce than the old one. Sedum it is then…

6 – Debris. Last weekend I finally got out in the garden, just for a couple of hours. I was fairly productive, cutting back most of the finished perennial growth from this year. I have shredded it all and added to the compost heap. I still have quite a bit of clearing to do but it was good to make a start.

Those are my Six, what are yours? If you’d like to have a try, just publish your post and pop a link to it in the comments below. If you also mention my blog in yours then job’s a good un. For more details you can read the brief guide here.

Enjoy the rest of the break, don’t forget to check later as more links get added during the day.

I’ll be back next weekend for the first #SixOnSaturday of 2021.