Six on Saturday - 4 April 2026

Happy Easter to you all.  Saturday is the day when a few of us garden bloggers join together to share six things from our gardens, and join together over at Jim's, where should you choose to join us you will find guidance on how we go about it.

We have had a couple of glorious days this week when spending time gardening, or even just sitting with my beloved enjoying coffee in the garden wearing just a couple of layers has been possible. 

1. Each time I go into the garden I am drawn to Ribes × beatonii, to admire its flowers: they remind me of the colours of the centre of a ripe peach when you remove the stone, colours ranging from peachy yellow to red.

Ribes × beatonii

If it was good enough for Broadleigh Gardens it was certainly going to join the few shrubs I have.

2. I moved this clematis right up onto the gravel by the conservatory so that I can watch the many large bumble bees that seem to effortlessly fly straight to each hanging bloom. Clematis alpina Blue Dancer in its pot is a real beauty, and it came to me and grew from a tiny plant .

Clematis alpina Blue Dancer

3. Henton Gardening Club gave members three daffodil bulbs donated by the Wessex Daffodil Society, and we don't yet know the name.  If it remains cool and remains in good condition it may make it to the show on 12th April.  Even so the club is having a little competition, and we are to enter a picture.  Tomorrow I shall try and take a picture against a neutral background.

4. The Galanthus ‘x valentinei’ in the front garden are particularly good at forming large seed pods, and there is a little patch that catches all the Amelanchier leaves in the autumn, through which the little snowdrop seedlings emerge each year, and this variety seems to grow to flowering size within two years.  As they ripen I shall move some of the seed pods there. From planting the first little pot of maybe two or three bulbs around nine years ago, a now have a good number of clumps.

Snowdrop seed pods

5. In the front garden I also have some species tulips and this little grouping is a delight.

Tulipa Whittalii Major.

6. This week, we have had a lovely variety of butterflies and moths such as the Peacock, Brimstone, Orange Tip Butterflies, and surprisingly a Hummingbird Hawkmoth.  This pair of Ladybirds are enjoying the softest of leaves on the Phlomis fruticosa Bourgaei and they were not the only ones!

Several SOSers may from time to time like to ask, to offer or to share seeds and bits and pieces from their gardens.  This past week I was delighted to send and then receive packed in the same box a few choice additions to the garden, which have now been planted out.  Many thanks to Phlomis for the  Viola sulfurea, R. Brazen Hussy, a little piece of Veronica perfoliata and a bit of her precious dwarf iris from the Gargano in Italy. I look forward to caring and bringing on these choice little plants. This week I have planted seeds received such as Aquilegia and Marigolds and Rudbekias received last year.