Six on Saturday - Six things in the garden

Temperatures and rain could be considered normal just now, or at least reasonably benign as far as the garden is concerned.  The water butt is full, and cutting back is progressing.   Whereas the consensus in gardening magazines is to leave all the growth on, I prefer a clearer garden, as so much is packed in, and the light and also rotting vegetation would be damaging to other nearby plants that are about to do their thing, and in any case they just would not be able to be seen and appreciated.

Over to six things in the garden that are looking good at the start of October.

1. Viola altaica or the Altaica Pansy has to be my favourite new viola.  I received the seed from the Alpine Gardening Society and now I am trying to gather seed. It has keep nicely in flower over a very long period. It remains to see how it overwinters and comes back next year. It is one of the ancestors of garden pansy, and its clear colour is very appealing.

 2. Two or three weeks back I repositioned some of the Cyclamen hederifolium around the garden, I just hope I haven't planted them on top of other spring bulbs!.  This white flowered Cyclamen hedrifoloium is now flowering at the front of the variegated  Luma Apiculata Glanleam Gold, and this can be viewed cross ways from the conservatory, so make a nice little group at this time of the year.

3. Its easy for me to overlook those plants that grow easily, and considered common place: often I remove them, as the garden is so small, but this little plant which chose its own place at the edge of the gravel garden, and bordering on the curving path again with stepping stones set in a different sized but  similar stone, is quite charming. It has flowered all year, except for a week or so when I gave it a severe cutting back. Erigeron karvinskianus which starts off with white flowers which age to pink.

4. Another plant which similarly has not needed any watering and has chosen its own place is this beautifully green leaved Pseudofumaria alba subs acaulis.  It seeds itself gently round the garden, but is very easy to remove.  Its pale soft evergreen foliage looks fernlike in the dark side alley way, where it is growing and  it is equally at home in full sun.  Little white flowers will come next spring, but it the meantime I am enjoying the little hit of green.

5. Just another pretty bright green coming up when other ferns are looking a little weather worn.  These are in a pot, but I have other pieces growing in the garden and these look good in the winter time. A friend to whom I gave some, mentioned how pleased he was that Fern Polypodium cambricum Richard Kayse was coming up after the all the dry weather. 

Fern Polypodium cambricum Richard Kayse

6. With a light covering of rain drops the leaves on Pittospurum 'Tom Thumb' are looking even more polished. It was interesting to see how much it has grown in just over two years by looking back through my posts.

This weekly post joins in with others under the Propagator's cloches.