Six on Saturday - 24 January 2026

 These are six things from my garden, noted yesterday and posted this Saturday to join in with other gardeners over on Jim's blog, where if you are tempted to join in you will find guidance.

1. Let us start with a plant that caught the sunshine even if it came out very briefly this week.  It has quite surprised me as I don't recall having moved it to what was the old vegetable bed. 

Eranthis hyemalis 

Could it be that a squirrel dug it up from the Conservatory Bed, and reburied it and forgot about it? However I have read that  Winter aconites contain cardiac glycosides, making the bulbs, roots, and foliage poisonous to squirrels and other rodents.  That must be a plus for this plant, and maybe I ought to get more or grow some from seed collected from this one as it is such a good doer.

2.  If I was to single out from amongst the several snowdrops currently in bloom in the garden, for this week it ought to be Galanthus Lapwing. Since receiving one bulb from Anna in 2019, it has now made up a good clump in the Conservatory bed. A lovely snowdrop named by the late Gloucestershire plantsman Phil Cornish in 1997.

Galanthus Lapwing

The variety really liked this garden and therefore rather than dividing the clump I bought another pot and placed it in the larger bed not far away from the Cornus controversa 'Variegata' which I planted out last January.

3.  There are different form of Cyclamen coum, and this one with silver leaves and the darker Christmas tree center and pale pink flowers is a little treasure. In winter the leaves I feel give a worthwhile ground cover.

4.  Evergreen plants are a definite plus in the garden, and this year so far Fatsia japonica 'Spider's Web' has been quite resilient.Certainly in the days with poor light, it shines out.

 5. Another shrub that for me lights up the garden are the Euonymus fortunei 'Blondy'.  These were ones I took from cuttings so feel quite chuffed with these.

Euonymus fortunei 'Blondy'

6. The Oncostema 'Peruviana' bulbs have done well since I planted them, to the extent that last autumn after they had gone completely dormant and all the leaves had died back, I had a go at dividing the largest multiple one and moved them to the far left of the drive in the shared border.  These are the ones I replanted.

Oncostema formerly known as Scilla

The Oncostema hughii was also moved to the front garden but I hadn't reckoned with the problem of it being sited near to the utilities cover.  since with its amazing rosette of leaves, it draws the eye, I think it will get relocated somewhere different next summer, also should any workmen want to have access to the cover and work down there, it would be trodden on .  The flower bud is just forming on this one. 

Oncostema hughii

I gave the Pittosporum a bit of a trim on Friday following Jim's post, but I may just have given it a bit too much of a short back and sides, and front!  Time will tell if I have been too harsh!

The rain it has rained, the wind it has blown, and the sun has hardly made an appearance, but we keep asking Alexa what time is sunrise to to check that days are indeed getting longer!  You get my drift I hope.