From the Garden - Six on Saturday 6 September 2025

Having been away for a few days and returning yesterday, the garden is looking so much better for the rain.  My friend had no need to come and water this time.  For other Sixes from gardens pop over to Jim's.  

1. Clematis Olympia had a really good flowering earlier in the year, and a few weeks ago I decided to cut down the foliage.  With a good soaking it decided to push up new growth, and at the end of this a fresh flush of blue blooms is a bonus.

2. In the bright sunshine today the Pittosporum 'Tom Thumb' is looking attractive.  I clipped it quite hard in March and it is looking so much better for this. 

3. I do like a dark block of purple and I had been looking up Cotinus.  I've admired this shrub in many gardens over the years, and have finally bought one.  I had done my research, and have quite a wadge of torn out gardening magazine pages on the topic.  You would think that I had therefore gone to the trouble of carefully sourcing my first and perhaps second choices.  It wasn't exactly on a shopping list, but when I went up to get my veggies this morning, a tour of the gardening outlet at Rocky Mountain was of course on the agenda.  I was admiring some nice specimens of Cotinus coggyria 'Royal Purple' and then found one in a smaller pot at the bargain price of £8.95.  I like the way the leaves are not just an even purple colour but have a paler pink margin that in my opinion really is an asset.

  

Cotinus coggyria 'Royal Purple'

4. The front garden is already planted out with a number of different Cistus, and felt it would be enhanced by this lovely variegated green and gold evergreen Cistus x corbariensis 'Little Miss Sunshine'.  I liked it so much I bought 3!  At £4.95 a plant well worth it.

Cistus x corbariensis 'Little Miss Sunshine'

5. Over in the gravel garden the prostrate Rosemary is having a second flowering.  I had given it a good soaking about four weeks ago when it was starting to flounder.  The bees are all over it.  A few weeks ago I took some cuttings and am delighted that they have taken, and will be ready for potting up, though I think I shall not plant them out until the springtime.

Salvia rosmarinus

6. A little late last year I took a couple of Fuchsia Upright Delta's Sarah.  In March they were such sad specimens that I nearly threw them out, but instead finding that they had a few tiny roots, I potted them on.  Then they were potted up into a larger pot, and seeing them now, I think it was definitely worth while. 

Fuchsia Upright Delta's Sarah

I'm rushing through my post as my lunch goes down, having been busy this morning shopping, washing etc., and now I want to get out into the garden!!