Last weekend I motivated myself enough to mow the lawn, which suddenly badly needed it. I think I’ve maybe mowed it 5 or 6 times this year? It has grown so slowly in the drought conditions it just hasn’t needed it. That era is over, it seems. Nice and green, lush even, now. I also shinned up a ladder to deal with the unruly virginia creeper. The front of the house looks tidier as a result, and daylight is once more reaching the bathroom.
I have recovered sufficiently from my injury to take on a 50 mile race today, I will be jogging my way around the Chilterns and will be incommunicado for the duration. While I’m off doing that, you can all do Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Join in!
Here are my Six for this week…
1 – Hollyhock seed capsule. I’ve acquired a few volunteer hollyhocks this year, and no wonder. Each tall stem has a few dozen of these tommy-gun magazines, and each one of those holds dozens of seeds. It’s a wonder I don’t live in a hollyhock forest.
2 – Hydrangea, no variety given, “black something” if I recall rightly. Diamond maybe? I bought this earlier in the year and it has struggled, to be honest. It’s in a pot on the patio so didn’t get enough water, then perhaps because of the dark leaves, it was munched by something. With cooler, wetter weather it has staged something of a recovery. I might put it in a bigger pot next year.
3 – Geranium ‘Wargrave Pink’. I think I planted this last year and it hasn’t exactly thrived. Geraniums seem to be like clematis for me – either they’re really happy, or they’re a bit crap. Hopefully this one will settle in and grow on a bit.
4 – Verbena bananarama. There’s a house round the corner that has a great drift of these in their otherwise rather sparse front garden. I’ve always been rather envious of the cloud of purple they have floating 4 ft above the gravel all summer. Trying to replicate the effect, I’ve planted a few and am happy to let them self-seed, a trait for which they are justly famous but consistently reluctant to do in my garden.
5 – Geranium ‘Rosanne’. Talking of happy geraniums…
6 – Rose ‘Caribbean Dawn’. Last year this patio rose had grown very wonky. In a bid to straighten it out, I pruned it hard. It’s now just wonky in a different direction. Suffering with its cell mates in a pot on the patio over the summer, it is now grudgingly flowering again.
That’s your lot! 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 triffic. For more details you can read the brief participant guide.
Have a great weekend, I hope you get more gardening done than I will!
I’ll be back next time with another #SixOnSaturday.
The Propagator 
Thank you for stellar close-up shots of flowers! I am learning watercolor painting and your pics are so inspiring. Do you have a special camera to get those close-ups so clear?
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No, just my phone, nothing special. Samsung Galaxy S21. The cameras on the modern phones are very good.
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Ah, you still have so much color in the garden, isn’t it wonderful?!
Glad you are all healed and doing more crazy events 🙂
Here’s my six: https://mominthegarden.com/2022/09/17/take-note-the-weather-has-been-amazing/
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Haha – I envy stands of that verbena too, although to be honest they don’t look as striking in my smaller and not as deep borders when they do grow… 🙄 Well done for your grass cutting and virginia creeper tackling, and please don’t overdo things in your current run and make your previous injury worse. https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/2022/09/17/six-on-saturday-the-brief/
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Your geraniums are lovely. So is the verbena and that rose! Here’s mine: https://stoneyknob.wordpress.com/2022/09/17/sos-out-in-the-woods/
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impressive geraniums, same here with the lawn mowing, lots of rain and no dry weather for mowing. ugh. thanks for hosting. https://theshrubqueen.com/2022/09/17/six-on-saturday-natives-and-friends/
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Those geraniums are great. They do not do as well here in the American South. I guess we are too hot in the summer for them.
Hope you enjoy the run.
Here is my effort for this week https://mensgardenvestavia.wordpress.com/2022/09/16/friday-favorites/
Happy gardening!
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Lovely flowers. Good luck with the run. Here’s a slightly cheeky two lots of sixes – flowers in the front garden and some veggie monsters in the back
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The purples really stand out this time of year, don’t they? Hope your race is (relatively) pain free this time!
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A lovely colour co-ordinated post this week! I love hydrangeas.
I was out at the theatre this evening, but managed to publish my post before I went out.
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Doesn’t Roseanne just sing out. A wonderful colour. I’m wondering why I don’t have any… I was marvelling at the VB in this garden, they flower all summer but somehow look at their very best at this time of the year. I hope your garden does get going and allow a few seedlings. Try throwing some seed heads on the compost – or maybe not, I am inundated by them! And yes, definitely you have some weird miniature dinosaur lurking in your hollyhocks! Have a great weekend. Here’s my link https://n20gardener.com/2022/09/17/six-on-saturday-blue-sky-thinking/
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Hope the run went well.
I like the look of verbena bananarama but cant find it on line. Any suggestions?
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Sorry, my fault, not its real name! More of a long standing SoS joke. It’s actually verbena bonariensis.
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Good luck with the run. Lawn mowing is on my to-do list for the weekend. The flowers on my Hydrangeas were all crisped but there’s quite a lot of other colour to keep me going.
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Beautiful hydrangea and good luck with the run
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Pretty colors! My geraniums has lost its flowers since the heat wave started. It’s a hardy plant that should stand up I guess. I’m surprised to see that you’ve only mowed 5 or 6 times this year! Here, half the grass has burned out; I hadn’t mowed since May until last week, but now it’s every week. https://fredgardenerblog2.wordpress.com/2022/09/17/six-on-saturday-17-09-22/
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I think my grass hasn’t needed cutting just 4 or 5 times, the joy! of heavy clay! Glad your injury has improved, take care today. Geranium Rozanne has been wonderful here too, flowering non stop in spite of the heat and lack of rain.
My six are here…..https://www.leadupthegardenpath.com/
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Like you, the floating haze of purple promised by Verbanerama appeals to me and they do succeed here, self seeding everywhere, flopping over the paths, barring access to anything else I might need to get too. I’m glad when they go over and I can cut them all down. Here are min, with V.b. gatecrashing one item. https://wp.me/p6bCCa-3wk
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Why don’t you just do a few, pathetically short marathons, for a change? Anyway, I hope you enjoy your run. Lovely flowers and when I saw your garden this week I thought it certainly looked very lush after a few episodes of rain.
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Haha… this made me laugh GG. Pathetically short marathons indeed. My daughter is doing the London one next month and I’m not sure she would agree with you 😉
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Good for her! I’m sure you realise I was making a slightly sarcastic remark to my “long-running” son-in-law. She will have a great time. I was lucky enough to take part 18 years ago (slowly) but enjoyed the whole experience. Do tell us how she gets on.
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I will. She is determined to finish – did the half marathon warm up last week.
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Nowt wrong with wonky, a very pretty rose flower. Sorry, I missed your injury, glad you are mended. Love hollyhock seed heads and I love flicking the seed out. Have a fun run, here are mine https://offtheedgegardening.com/2022/09/17/sick-on-saturday/
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Now that I have seen yours, I realize that I neglected anything floral within my Six. Well, I enjoyed the process that produced them.
Does hollyhock naturalize easily? Like phlox, campion and campanula, it appeared in one of our gardens a few years ago, perhaps seeded from a home garden up the hill. Although it does not naturalize, it appears somewhere within the same garden annually. Generally only one, two or perhaps three appear annually to replace one, two or perhaps three that finished and died out during the previous season. It seems to me though, that in other regions, hollyhock seeds more abundantly, as if it has potential to naturalize. It noticed that it seems to be common in the Pacific Northwest.
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I got the motivation up for doing the lawn last week too. I think I’ve maybe had to do it 4 times. Easier now I’ve cut it down in size by half. Geranium wargrave pink is an absolute thug. I think I’ve largely hacked it back and out of my garden as it spreads and seeds everywhere. Quite a nice one but it was dominating and claiming large areas of the border. It was needing digging up several times in one season. I’ve kept lace time which is similar in leaf and growth habit but doesn’t seem as vigourous. Bought a few smaller varieties too recently for front of the border cover that will probably feature in mine over the next few weeks.
This week’s six features treats I bought last weekend as a reward for my RHS course.
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Great that you recovered so quickly from your injury, enjoy your run. Living in a hollyhock forest sounds nice!
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I do like the purple geranium and the verbena colours. I have struggled to grow Verbena although I have it in a pot, perhaps it would be better in the ground? Good luck with the run. Here’s my six https://wp.me/p2Eu3u-ixX
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The Hydrangea is a cracking colour. I pictured a fossil of a dinosaur or snake in that hollyhock seed head.
– weird! Goodluck with the run/jog https://onemanandhisgardentrowel.wordpress.com/2022/09/17/six-on-saturday-17-september-2022/
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