From my Garden - Six on Saturday - 26 October 2024

 Ending the week with some sunshine makes wandering round the garden even more delightful. Not all life is closing down for the winter just yet, even though the Amelanchiers have shed all their leaves.  As most plants start to prepare for the winter, others are coming to the fore and  I find little tasks, and make a note what I would like to do the following day as I put away my tools.

I am linking as usual with other SOSers over at Jim's, it is not at all an 'exclusive club', find out there the guidance for anyone wishing to contribute six items from their gardens.

Acer Wakaranai (Japanese for 'unknown') 

1. I've rearranged some of the potted plants in the garden and placed a couple on the small round table the better to be seen not only a reasonable height but also from the window's at the back of the house.

2.  Behind it is a small flowered Chrysanthemum which is of similar colour to the acer: Chrysanthemum Picasso is such a neat, tidy and well behaved supposedly hardy Chrysanthemum.  I was asking around at the HPS meeting last week about it, and some had lost it during the very wet winter.  Having lost mine, thankfully  Brenda, to whom I had passed one of my propagated plants in 2022, gave me one back.

Chrysanthemum Picasso

3. As I was admiring the small flowers, camera in hand,  I spied a Cricket.  I have seen grasshoppers in the garden before, and I was chuffed that this Dark Bush Cricket wasn't camera shy. 

Dark Bush Cricket

and as if one interesting insect was not enough a few flowers away was a shield bug

 Gorse Shieldbug, Piezodorus lituratus 

Identification is thanks to a request on the Entomology Group on Facebook. I seem to have a few different types, and found some tips online on identifying them.

4, Mahonia Soft Caress is having its best year.  I've had this plant nearly ten years found and bought at Cotswold Garden flowers when I went out on a January excursion to Cotswold Garden Flowers. 

5.  Fuchsias continue to look attractive and growing there around the perimeter of the garden and allowing them to grow tall keeping the stems from the previous year has worked nicely. Here the white flowered Fuchsia 'Hawkshead' has kept its leaves so far, as well as its flowers and has been in bloom for months.

6.  The small silver leafed Fuchsia microphylla ssp. hemsleyana ‘Silver Lining’ is another of those plants in garden with close association with friends, and was brought here in a pot from my previous garden. It has not needed to be moved, and in its ideal sheltered spot, it still has flowers, it is showing off its tiny pretty purple fruits.