Greetings. I’m pleased to say I not only survived my second covid jab, I got away with being just a bit sleepy the next day. Limited gardening was done but the world is a very slightly safer place, so I suppose I won’t begrudge that. It has been rather grey here all week, but the sun has come out to play, although the forecast for this weekend involves a bit of rain too. The joys of a British summer. Time for Six on Saturday then. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything – a flower, a job to do, a pest, a success, a failure, anything at all. Join in!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Clematis ‘Mme Julia Correvon’. One of my more vigorous growers, this reliably covers a fence panel. In fact, I spend quite a lot of time tying it in to ensure at least some of the flowers end up on my side of the fence.

2 – Linaria purpurea, purple toadflax. A bit of a seeder-abouter, but I don’t object. I like the foliage when the plant is coming into growth, less so when it gets to full summer. The bees are very happy about the flowers. This one is 3-4 feet tall and at the front of the border. I’ll either dig it up and compost it when it has finished flowering, or cut it back and move it to the back somewhere.

3 – Rose ‘A Shropshire Lad’. Bought as a bare root earlier this year, in a David Austin sale if I remember right. I’ve planted this along the fence in the front garden, part of Operation Cover the Fence. I wasn’t expecting much of it this year but there are several flower buds, plus this one fully out. I’ll let it grow however it wants this year then start to train it in over the winter.

4 – Lychnis coronaria occulata. I have the more common magenta version, loads of them in fact, and have had white flowered plants in the past, and now I have a couple of these which are somewhere in between. They go rather well with the geranium next door.

5 – Poppy ‘Lauren’s Grape’. A summer regular in my garden the last few years. An annual, I sprinkle one seed head’s worth of teeny seeds about the place and that is more than enough to keep me in poppies the following year. I love the rich purple of the flower, and the seed heads are quite attractive too. I have to pull them up eventually because the slugs have a field day once the foliage starts to go over.

6 – Clematis ‘Blue Angel’. Improving with age, this clematis is flowering quite profusely. Not in Julia C’s league, but not bad. I had big plans to train this one so it would mingle with said Julia C which is planted nearby, but that never quite happened. Shame, as the colours are a nice combination.

Those are my Six for this week. 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 tip top. For more details you can read the brief participant guide.

I have loads to do in the garden this weekend, the jobs are backing up. As a matter of urgency I need to provide support to the floppers and I really need to get the irrigation system up and running. I have seedlings to prick out, plants to pot on, plants to plant out (where!?) and and and and.

I hope you have a great weekend in the garden, don’t forget to check back later as links are added during the day.

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