Six on Saturday - 6 April 2019

Continuing on the theme of picking six themes/items/ plants etc from the garden, which The Propagator leads, here is my contribution this week.  Isn't it soothing to know that other gardeners are working hard.  The propagator has raised at least three items this week which have been on my mind too...and there is far more when have a look at what other contributors will be posting.  
The first of this week's six is a Lunaria Annua Chedglow....Honest(l)y I think it is Chedglow.  Last week the leaves were the deepest purple, bu after several days this week of heavy dark skies, and more rainfall than we have had for months, falling in the space of just a few days.  With bright sunshine this morning, the plant may darken up over the next few days.  Three little seedlings, passed on from a friend at about this time last year, were carefully planted.  All except this one was eaten by slugs or snails.  Comments on whether this is Chedglow will of course be most welcome.

Close up the leaves do show some green with spots of purple, overall the camera is not showing quite how dark the plant is.

The second item is this little Pulmonaria...sure most of you will recognise 'Sissinghurst White'.  This again was a well loved plant from my last garden, given to me by Kaye.   I love Pulmonaria and had started to assemble a few varieties.  I was really happy when this appeared in the tub.

The third item is a shrub planted out in the garden last year.  It is Exochorda Macrantha The Bride.   This is a shrub I am constantly attracted to when it is growing in front gardens....  I would have liked to have had Exochorda giraldii var wilsonii, which I had left in my previous garden.  Its flowers are much larger and more prominent, but since it grows into a much larger shrub, perhaps I am better off with 'The Bride'.

The fourth item is my newly planted Dicentra Eximia.  I bought this plant only a couple of weeks ago at the HPS plant sale down at East Brook Manor.  The leaves are a little greyer than the strain I had in my previous garden, however I look forward to seeing it fill out in the shady border. I read that it is probably the most heat tolerant of the Dicentras, so it would be helpful to hear is anyone has grown this in sunnier locations in the UK.  When it bulks out, I shall try some in a sunnier position.

Two other favourite plants were bought.....

The fifth item(s) is tulips.  Here is a bright tub of Tulip Greigii Czaar Peter, which arrived as a little packet of bulbs from my neighbour last year.

Acting as an 'insurance' to the small plants dotted in the ground around the garden, here Tulipa Sprengeri Trotters Form is bulking up in several pots.

On the whole I have not been particularly successful over the years with tulips in the garden.  Perhaps I have not really tried.  Next Autumn I hope to get some different species planted up and will start a list if any suggestions are forthcoming.

Finally my sixth item is this little native cowslip. It came up where I tipped the remainder of pot of plants with garden soil, brought from my last garden.  I was delighted that seed had come with the soil, and that having been simply strew between plants rather than buried deeply, it has managed to get a toe hold.  Ever since the flowers have started to open, about two weeks ago, the local bumble bees have been making a bee line for it.  I first grew these from seed many years ago, and have just enjoyed the way they stake their little space in the garden.  They keep on flowering for a long time, and I shall be noting the length of the flowering season this year.