We haven’t quite entered peak tulip in my garden, but there are plenty out, and I still have quite a lot of the later and longer lasting daffodils out, so there’s quite a bit of colour which is quite a relief after the relentless brown of the winter months. I’m out running a fair bit this weekend but do carry on with Six on Saturday regardless. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything, you decide. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week…

1 – Camellia ‘Nuccio’s Pearl’. It has a very pleasing flower shape, does your camellia. Mathematical, even. I planted this shrub last year, it seems to be doing fine. I don’t have acid soil so I planted it in a load of added ericaceous compost, and last week I topped that up as a mulch around the plant, also giving it some specialist camellia plant food. Having been in bud for quite some time, Pearl here is now getting ready to flower her socks off.

2 – Tulip ‘Slawa’. I frequently bemoan the unreliability of tulips, many of them giving up the ghost after one season, a trait which leads me mainly to treat them as annuals in pots and planters. I should, however, give credit where credit is due. This group of ‘Slawa’ was planted 3 years ago, this is their 3rd spring appearance and they seem to be going strong still. I bought a couple of dozen more last year, but they are in the aforementioned pots and planters. I may retrieve them from there once they are done and plant them in the border somewhere. The front garden, perhaps.

3 – Tulip, pink’un. I’m not sure which this is, ‘Elegant Lady’ perhaps? At the risk of being the boy who cried wolf tulip, this is another that has been in the ground over three winters and doing just fine, thanks very much. My soil does drain well, and I always plant much deeper than advised, around a foot down. Perhaps that helps. That said, I do have evidence for the defence, similarly planted tulips that were never seen again after year 1, or not in useful numbers anyway.

4 – Tulip ‘Portland’. I think these tulips cause my camera actual pain, they are such a neon bright red. I would show you a side on view too but the camera on my phone cannot cope, it just looks like an enormous blob of red, like it looked at the sun for too long. Certainly you can’t miss them.

5 – Amelanchier x grandiflora ‘Robin Hill’. This tree is now covered more or less tip to toe in lovely white (with the faintest tinge of pink) blossom. It makes a nice contrast with the bronze leaves. I’m really pleased with this tree, planted a couple of years ago.

6 – Hosta ‘June’, emerging. Possibly my favourite hosta, this one is forming a good size clump. She lives in a planter down the side of the house. I’m toying with the idea of moving her to a more prominent position, perhaps in a pot on the patio. Or……maybe I’ll just get some more hostas!

Those are my Six, 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.

When I’m not running or snoozing, I will be in the garden this weekend, I have plenty to do. Have a fabulous gardening weekend, don’t forget to check back as links get added during the day.

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