Six on Saturday - 18 May 2019

Six on Saturday time again.  This post links into the clever propagator.....

This little plant brings a spot of excitement in the 'Shade Border'.  There is very little shade in the garden, and this area is being planted up on the north side of a slatted fence is being developed to put in some of my favourite shade loving plants.   Only recently bought from Graham at the Pop up Alpine Tadham Nurseries Stall, Dodecatheon pulchellum already is performing nicely.  Just look at that rosette of smooth pointed leaves, and those shooting star flowers.  I read that once the flowers are fertilised, the drooping habit changes and the flowers point upwards.  For now I am enjoying it as later it will disappear as it is summer dormant.  Now the nights are so short, I am far too tired to stay up to watch for shooting stars, instead I have these beauties to gaze on during the day.  No plough here, just mulch and watering....

Dodecatheon pulchellum

Along the border is a second little plant which I enjoy mainly for the interesting leaves, but at present it is flowering its socks off...I've no idea what this one is called.  It has been flowering well, but all winter its attractive leaves have been lighting up this little spot.  It certainly is living up to its 'common' name of coral bells.

When it comes to a heuchera well grown how about this one at the Malvern Spring Show 2019.  The patterning and colouration on Green Spice filled me with Heuchera envy!

One other shady area is in a corner by the conservatory, where some of the potted ferns are gathered.  In the winter when two of these lose all their leaves, they are tucked behind other pots.  Not counting the large pot at the back,  there are four pots here...I hope I can sneak these in as 3 to 6 of this week's Six on Saturday: Fern Athyrium niponicum ‘Pictum’ with its silver and purple leaves in  the foreground.  I originally bought it in 2014 in Frome, and have since divided it up several times.   At two o'clock Fern Athyrium otophorum var. okanum, which is lovely with its purple stems and bright green leaves, the little fern is Asplenium trichomanes the Maidenhair spleenwort, which is a lovely native (UK) fern.  Its has been so forgiving...if I forget to water it and it looks very close to a bowl of tiny green crips, a soak in a bowl of water, brings it back to life.  

The sixth plant masquerading as a fern is a small very slow growing grafted acer.  I've had it about five years.  I remember buying it from a specialist grower who came to give a talk at my previous gardening club.  It had a label, I remember it breaking in half, I remembered that I ought to write a new label out...I didn't, I hadn't put it on my blog, and I hadn't entered it in my garden log....I know very little about acers and would not know where to start!

Its hard to believe from looking at the garden, that this time last year there was very little planted up!