The weather has been a bit grim for most of this week but has brightened up nicely, just in time for me to pop out and take these photos. I am hopeful that it will also be nice on Sunday when I shall be tackling a moderately long run (27km) in the nearby countryside. This is all training for a series of longer events I have booked this year. The running and inevitable snoozing that follows does eat into my available gardening time, but I am reconciled to this. A brief dabble at the weekends is all I feel like doing at the moment anyway.

Time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything, you decide. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week…

1 – Neglected daffs. In a crime against bulb-kind I dug these up last spring and never quite got around to doing anything with them. They have sat outside in this bucket, in all weathers, for the best part of a year. Unperturbed by this they are about to flower. Bad gardener.

2 – It’s square to be a hip. I noticed a squadron of small rose hips on my garish purple ‘oh wow’ rose. It has reminded me that it will soon be time to prune the climbing roses.

3 – Hydrangea ‘Annabel’. Grown from a cutting a few years ago this plant is doing pretty well since I planted it out a couple of years back. Annabel is prone to floppage but last year two or three canes and some string was enough to keep her standing to attention. Once the danger of frost has passed I’ll prune back to some good new growth but for now she stands there, a touch of the Miss Havishams about her.

4 – Wisteria, pruned. As advertised last week, I managed to get out and prune the wayward wisteria. I have the two unmoveable prunings, one midsummer(ish), one midwinter(ish) but I find I’m often lopping annoying stems off, it is quite rampant. Doesn’t seem to do it any harm.

5 – Amelanchier bud. Of the two trees I bought a couple of years ago (the other was cercis canadensis, very stroppy tree), this one is doing much better. It’s a good shape, lots of branches and it colours very nicely in the autumn. I’m thinking of planting a spare clematis [what do you mean you don’t have a spare clematis? Doesn’t everyone?] near it to clamber up through the many branches. In the meantime we can look forward to some bronze-tinged leaves.

6 – Clematis, new growth. In a further sign of lovely things to come, when I was pruning the wisteria I was forced to prune the clematis that grows through it. There is some very nice new growth. This is my most mature clematis, ‘rebecca’. She is a big and beefy girl now, easily overtopping the 6′ trellis which if I’m not careful means that the trampoline on the other side gets the best of the flowers. Some forward flopping encouragement is necessary. I normally prune the many clematis at around the end of January so this isn’t too early. As for the rest, a job for next weekend, then before you know what’s going on it’ll be incessant tying in.

Those are my Six for this week. What are yours? IF you’d like to take part 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.

Have a fab weekend, stay safe, and don’t forget to pop back later as more links get added during the day.

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