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. 

Six things from my garden - 28th March 2026

Arriving home yesterday, after a few days in Cornwall, I just had to get into the garden and was able to do some gardening.  We were so pleased to see large patches of the lovely wild primrose growing to the very edge of the coast and I start with week with similar yellows. Next week after the clocks have changed there will be more time in the evenings to get out there.  With six things from the garden to share, I am joining in with Jim and several other gardeners.

1.  Primula 'Treborth Yellow' which I bought in 2024 from Pottertons is doing very nicely.  It is quite a small flowered in comparison with those bright things currently being sold in garden centers, but it is a beautiful yellow in the garden.

Primula 'Treborth Yellow'

2. For a pretty lemon, I couldn't fault Primula vulgaris Belarina Lemon Chiffon when I saw it on Long Acre Plants  stall at the Snowdrop Festival earlier this year. It has a green ruff and double flowers.

3. Looking far more natural is Primula Elatior, again one I bought last year from Long Acre Plants.  It looks lovely amongst all the other spring flowers in the conservatory bed.

4.Again in the Conservatory Border is another spring beauty, called Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare'. The original plant was a gift from Brenda.  It came as a small plant and I have been lucky that it is settling down nicely now in the garden.

 Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare'

5. Another blue in that same border is this little blue flowered bulb: Scilla Sardensis.  I planted them as bulbs which first came up in 2023, so they too seem to have settled down.

Scilla Sardensis

6. In the front garden the Amelanchier is out in full bloom.  I believe it to be a week or so early.

From my small back garden - Six on Saturday 21 March 2026

 Our current leader for this weekly six things from our gardens was on Gardeners' World yesterday and everyone who watched the programme saw the Camelia specialist Jim.  This morning as we come together for our weekly chinwag, we know he will still be the kind and generous host that he has been.  So I shall be linking this post to his.

1. Last year I bought these lovely tulips as plants rather than bulbs just for their lovely rich golden yellow form, planted them and didn't expect them to come up another year and yet they have.  I didn't even show them last year or noted their name.  However they may well be Tulip Praestans Shogun.  Later I shall scrabble through the bed and check to see if there are any labels. Yes it was T Praestans and I did write about it last year!

2. Not all bulbs do well or shall I say they may not have been planted in the right place or given the correct attention.  Out of the beautiful White Thalia daffodil bulbs just this one remains.

White Thalia daffodil 

It still has thoroughly charmed me, and having read a little further about it, I have a little planting combination ideas and hope to set that up for next spring.  

3. A short distance from Thalia in the shady border and some seedling of the original white Dicentra Spectabilis trying to grow through the Fatsia japonica Spiders Web.  When I planted out the Dicentra the Fatsia was smaller.  The Fatsia will continue to grow so this is another moment when I need to think of when and where I shall move the Dicentra to: a problem of gardeners of small gardens who have too many plants!

4. A star on the far edge of the gravel garden is this Ipheion 'Alberto Castillo' planted a few months ago.  It is bigger and brighter than the others in the garden,

Ipheion 'Alberto Castillo'

5. I have a few Euphorbia dulcis 'Chameleon' and find each spring as the soft purple leaves emerge to form a low dome, it gives me such pleasure and is finding some attractive combinations as it does here at the foot of the Cornus Midwinter Fire.

6. I have a number of violas in the garden and as they self seed, I tend to leave some to see what form the flower will take.  This garden hybrid resulting from insect pollination is a little gem in the gravel garden. I can see a cross perhaps between Viola 'Bowles Black' and Viola Corsica.

I did go to the Plant Fare at the Bishop's Palace in Wells, and after a few windy days maybe Gill's message got blown away, but I left an gardener's halo for someone else to find.

I didn't buy much: a pot of Allium Millenium, a pot of purple sage which I have already but wanted a fresh plant 'immediately' to plant in the back garden as it is my favourite for cooking with, and an impulse last minute plant which I will perhaps regret: Persicaria campanulata, should I plant it or should I bin it?

A Vase of Nodding Tulipa Sylvestris

This morning I picked all the lemony yellow tulips from a pot and decided to also use the clippings of the maple which had been slowly opening in this very vase.  As I walked back with the tulips wondering what else to include,  my notice fell upon the green and yellow foliage of just the right hue on the Chamaecyparis a dwarf threadleaf cypress. 

We have enjoyed looking out at the two pots I planted out with Tulipa Sylvestris on the garden tables for a couple of week.  The Tulips have swayed in the wind but remained unscathed by the hail storms but with their sinewy stems they would look far better in a more natural planting scheme, so this week, I shall relocate the bulbs.

I'm linking this post to Cathy's blog for the In a Vase on Monday get together She talks about clouds and books on clouds.  I too am a  lover of clouds and very much enjoyed the book she mentioned 'The Cloud Spotters Guide'.

Six on Saturday - 14 March

 It is going to be a trot or more likely a gallop through six things from the garden this week.  As I write this after 4 p.m. having spent the morning busy in the garden after coming back from the market, and the afternoon walking out into the countryside. Rules and guidance should you wish to note things from your garden too and join in is over at Jim's where I shall be linking this post to.

Well it was a surprising start start to the day as I looked out at the blue skies, but down below there was a frost and I had not taken anything in.  

1. Last autumn I planted a few Snakes Head Fritillary in pots and a few weeks ago once I could see where other spring beauties had been planted, into the borders they went. I have both the white and purple checkerboard varieties.

Fritillaria meleagris

2. Nearby the dark leaved  Irish polyanthus with  burgundy-striped pink flowers Primula 'Dark Rosaleen' has survived the winter.

Primula 'Dark Rosaleen'

3. Canna Tropicana came out of the shed a couple of weeks ago and braved the frost, but with another one possibly on the cards for this evening, I am going to have to move it back.  Also it looks as if next week during one of the sunnier days, I shall have to empty out the post and divide the many shoots.  I'm going to have a go growing in straight in the soil this year.

Canna 'Tropicanna'

4. A few years ago I was delighted that this little violet Viola labradorica had perched a ride in one of the pots from  my last garden.  There are quite a few around the garden now.  The richly coloured dark purple leaves make for a great little plant, whose seed is spread by ants.  They are already active in the garden.

Viola labradorica

5. Another violet which has been full of bloom is Viola odorata 'Kim'  I have now have several good clumps minus one which I removed from the conservatory border as it was outgrowing its space, which I wanted for some different plants.  This one seems to have selected its own spot along the edge of the path, where it does not have much shade.

Viola odorata 'Kim'

6.  I have a little dwarf Forsythia which really needs to have a different sort of year, any suggestions as to what I ought to do to increase flowering next year would be really welcome.

Tomorrow it is the Rare Plant Fair in Wells, the garden is full, but being just a short cycle away, I will not be able to say no to a visit!