While you are reading this, feet up of a Saturday morning, I will be running. Even if you don’t get round to reading it until mid afternoon, I will be running. If you save SoS for bedtime reading, very rock and roll, I will still be running. In fact, if you prefer to read over your Sunday breakfast, yes, you guessed it, I will still be running! Well, I say running, by Sunday morning there’s likely to be more shuffling than running. This weekend I will join about 250 other idiots on a 100 mile foot race across the Oxfordshire and Berkshire countryside. I predict zero gardening will be done.
While I’m doing all that, you can do Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything, a flower, a pest, a disaster, a project, a job done, anything at all. Join in!
Here are my Six for this week.
1 – Echinops, spent bloom. Echinops go through as scruffy phase, after flowering, when the seeds burst forth untidily, blurring the spherical outline of the flower. Rotundity has been restored on this one, the birds have picked it clean of seed.
2 – Amelanchier x grandiflora ‘Robin Hill’. Chlorophyll has decided the party is over, has said his goodbyes and is just looking for his coat on the pile in the spare room. He might have one more drink for the road, but he’ll soon be gone, back for the Spring party.
3 – Rose ‘Danse de feu’. Not many flowers in my garden (well there’s the asters, of course), but this rose is still going strong, putting out new buds like it’s still June.
4 – Hosta. Some gardeners strive for years for this lacy look on their hostas, but never achieve it. I’m lucky with the conditions in my garden, just the right combination of slugs and snails, it never fails to impress. Look, you can see straight through the leaves! For the perfect minimalist look I just need to wait a matter of days and I’ll be left with just the skeleton, the stem and the veins.
5 – Geranium psilostemon. Not its first SoS rodeo, but included here again for the shocking pink joy of it, still flowering in abundance.
6 – Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’. The ubiquitous but rightly popular sedum, or hypertelephone as I believe there are to be known these days. They come readily from cuttings, I have several of these dotted about the garden now.
That’s your lot for this weekend, what are yours? If you would like to have a go, just publish your post and pop a link to it below in the comments. If you also mention my blog in yours that would be triffic. For more details you can read the brief participant guide.
If I survive the 100 miler, I’ll be back next weekend with another #SixOnSaturday.
Morning all! I’ve got a new step and some more roses this week. https://doingtheplan.com/2021/11/20/six-on-saturday-another-step-more-roses-bird-table-and-hedgerow-history/
Have a super weekend everyone.
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That geranium is a stunner!
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#2 description had me chuckling and as I read this Sunday morning from the States, I find I’d much rather be running across the Oxfordshire and Berkshire countryside.
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Gosh – I’m impressed by all that running. I’m a rock n roller, it seems!
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All the best for your run! I hope it goes brilliantly; perhaps the word “brilliant’ came to mind because of that Geranium psilostemon? Dans de Feu is lovely in the wonderful way autumnal roses have.
Here are my six, three of which are planted together in one container…: https://smallsunnygarden.substack.com/p/six-on-saturday
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Don’t make me regret taking out my Danse de Feu!! I agree echinops don’t retire gracefully – most of mine have been cut down now, otherwise I will have borders full of seedlings. Haven’t been able to add a link to your blog yet but will go back and try again; meanwhile, here is mine https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2021/10/16/six-on-saturday-snip-snip-snip/ Thanks for hosting, as always
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Good luck with your 100 miler (very impressive). Love your Rose ‘Danse de feu’.
More six here – https://murtaghsmeadow.wordpress.com/2021/10/16/six-on-saturday-16th-october-2021/
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Whoops, I don’t think I did my link properly. https://wordpress.com/post/thebloominggarden.wordpress.com/16825
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Goodness, I feel tired just reading about it. Good luck. I love the geranium, one of my favourites.
six-on-saturday-autumn-bounty
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I cannot contemplate running 100 yards never mind 100 miles! That’s like running from here to Exeter which takes me 2 hours to drive! I wish you well. My hosta has been dumped, finally. Having hummed and hawed about it for the last 5 years I decided enough was enough. I still feel a bit sad though as before the molluscs get to it the plant is rather beautiful.
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Forgot the link:
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Love your positive outlook! Good luck with the running. My daughter was to run in the Rock n Roll marathon in Savannah GA first week in November, but new job cancelled that idea. However, the Mayor says the race is on! Covid numbers declining, so run ON!
See my blooms on http://www.jayneonweedstreet.com
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Wow! good luck with your run. Hypertelephone??https://theshrubqueen.com/2021/10/16/six-on-saturday-tea-for-two/
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Good afternoon/evening/night/morning depending on when you read this. I hope you enjoyed the experience and are not going to do it again! Your red rose is doing the same as mine and looking good. I fave up on hostas about 30 years ago. Anyway, look after yourself.
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Respect!!! Hope you’re having a great run, and hope you remembered the anti-chafing ointment…:)
Although we’re having a rainy weekend, it’s still relatively warm here and the garden continues to produce flowers and veggies…
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Plenty of vaseline! Works a treat, no sire spots today.
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You need sunglasses to look at your geranium psilostemon, but it’s a great flower! I don’t do hostas any longer, because in the past mine haven’t even got to the unfurled leaf stage. Yours are doing quite well really!
Here are my six – https://wp.me/pM8Y1-8rz. I’m battling vine weevil squatters in the greenhouse 😦
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Good luck, good luck with all that running! I hope your toes and knees don’t take too much of a battering, and you can relax in a chair for quite a while at some later stage of the weekend.
Here it is more herding cats than a running challenge (though there will probably be a pootle round the Common tomorrow with one or other child — an interesting development. It’s much harder to skive off my run when someone else is champing at the bit…)
There’s a little bean action, a little succulent action, and a view of the scarlet ribbons for those who like leucospermum: https://onewordhere.blogspot.com/2021/10/six-on-saturday-2021-10-16-southern.html
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Hope you have enjoyed your wee stroll today Jon. Hope it went well. Here is my Six.
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I think you may have lost two days with the date on your post? Great succulents though
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Oh blimey I have. Thanks for pointing that out.
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Race? Run? Alien words to this feeble specimen! But each to his own and I wish you (and your fellow runners/racers) well with it all. Very sensible to schedule in zero gardening! A great rose in your six and the amelanchier perfectly sums up the changing season. Here’s my six https://n20gardener.com/2021/10/16/six-on-saturday-more-or-less/ as I debate next year!
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Your run sounds like total madness to me (mind you, I’ve never been known to run anywhere).
My Amelanchier doesn’t seem to colour up particularly and has dropped most of its leaves already. Some of the seed heads in our gardens are as interesting as the flowers. Here’s my offering
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You are crazy but I admire your energy! Like your selection, the rose is a beautiful colour as is your geranium, that must stand out from everything else!
My six are here https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com/
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Blooming heck that sure is Type 2 fun, the sort that’s not actually fun (apart from the bragging rights, improved health, and life-enhancing experience).
This week I have been mostly getting round to overdue tasks and appreciating autumn leaves.
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I don’t know what to say about the running except that it’s more than half way to Sydney from here, and I can’t get my head around wanting to run that far. Good luck!
Gorgeous colour on the geranium.
http://janesmudgeegarden.com/showery-flowery-bowery/
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I don’t know about shuffling by Sunday, I’d be crawling by Saturday lunchtime. Give me type 1 fun any day. I seem to have had a fairly bad slug year but less damage to Hostas than usual. That is some colour on the Geranium, I don’t seem to be able to keep psilostemon or its hybrids going for long. Here are mine:https://wp.me/p6bCCa-33o
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The echinops, roses, flowers and other autumn leaves will be waiting for your race to return! Good luck with those 100 miles… crazy man 😅https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2021/10/16/six-on-saturday-16-10-21/
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I don’t think your link is working, Fred.
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Oops … https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2021/10/16/six-on-saturday-16-10-21/
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Thank you ! 😉👍🏻
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Gee, I had problems with links on my post. They just were not showing up, and still do not stand out as such. Oh well, I might edit them in a few days.
Cool hostas you got. Quite cool; they are well air conditioned. Some of ours are defoliating already; not because of the weather, but because of deer.
We tried growing saskatoons, but could not sell them. No one here knew what they were. They seem popular in most other regions with cool winters.
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I’m slightly amazed that they can find 250 people fit enough and willing to run 100 miles, but I hope you enjoy it. I’m glad to see your Hosta ‘Lacey leaves’ is looking good still, but no leaves are changing colour in my garden yet. Autumn is not here. I refuse to let her in until next week.
https://www.hortusbaileyana.co.uk/2021/10/planting-bulbs-and-another-great-rose.html
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My hosta looks the same! The slugs hadn’t discovered it for several months until recently 😑.
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The sought after lacy hosta look made me chuckle. I hope the run goes well. The last time I ran it was a ten minute sprint to the station to catch a train. It nearly finished me off https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2021/10/16/six-on-saturday-16-october-2021/
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Hearing that you will be doing this distance just makes me realise what man is capable of. You would have been a hero or something like a Centurian across the country in ancient times. I like that you have captured the autumn glory of your fine hostas 😉 Here are my Six this Week: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2021/10/16/six-on-saturday-16-10-2021
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Thanks to Jim for spotting the wrong link. Here are my six: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2021/10/six-on-saturday-16-october-2021.html
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Funnily enough the race organiser is called Centurion Running!
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Hope we get an update next week as you maybe want to get plenty of sitting down to allow your feet to heal.
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Go John go.
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I’m reading this on Saturday evening NZ time and am in awe of your running! Hope it goes well. Lovely geranium, and I always love to see roses. Here are my spring six
https://basia329.wordpress.com/2021/10/16/six-on-saturday-16-10-21/
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I might be finished by the time you sit down for Sunday tea!
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I hope you enjoy your run. That’s possibly the wrong phrase: I hope you endure your run!
Blimey, the Geranium is still burnt on to my retinas – shocking pink indeed.
Here’s my Six:
https://kindheartsandcorydalis.co.uk/six-on-saturday-16th-october/
All the best.
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It’s Type 2 fun, enjoyed in retrospect!
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