Six on Saturday - 2 May 2026

 It is Saturday, and the days are just whizzing by, but now, should I wake up at the crack of dawn I have time enjoy a saunter round the garden before him indoors wakes up and it is breakfast time.   I'm joining in with others over at Jim's and look forward to reading what others share. 

1. Living up to its name and trying to make me happier is Cistus hybridus 'Little Miss Sunshine'.  Do you remember I bought three last year?  If not,  I do, since they are still not planted into the garden but were potted up into large ceramic pots and are on the edge of the gravel area. Even without the flowers the yellow margin gives these little shrubs a certain presence.

Cistus hybridus Little Miss Sunshine

2. Yes, more yellow is coming from the rambler on the back wall of the garden, when earlier this year Mr S put up some very nice wires properly tensioned with stainless steel. Rosa banksiae 'Lutea' is looking wonderful after being first planted in September 2023.

Rosa banksiae 'Lutea'

The squirrels spent time nibbling the topmost buds, but the plant seems to have recovered from that.

3. Yes, another yellow: this time in the gravel garden, courtesy of the cuttings I rooted in 2023.  You can see that I have been checking back on my blog to find names etc and came across the little note of triumph. 

Helianthemum Golden Queen

I have some others around the seating circle and they can certainly withstand the sun and dry windy conditions, which I am finding very taxing indeed.

4. Taxing conditions indeed in the garden even in the shade, and to think this was taken on Thursday mid afternoon still in April. In the shade 24.3 C and only 11% humidity..and where does it get the forecast of rain?  The weather forecast on TV said rain in the far southwest, but perhaps there has just been a big drop in barometric pressure. We did have a very little shower on Friday, but just enough to dampen the foliage.

The plants are stressing out, spring foliage is turning brown. The evergreen oaks are shedding heaps of leaves as well as pollen and the constant breeze from the north/north east which is an unusual direction has meant the whole garden is now covered in leaves, which have to be removed as they take several years to break down unlike softer leaves. You can understand why I need to focus on detail to help lift my spirits. The male robin continues to take feed from my hand, with the more timid female just being brave enough to take food from the ground just by my feet. Yellow is my happy colour this week. 

5. Trying to focus on a few of the beautiful open blooms on Rosa Canary Bird, which again is a lovely yellow rose in the back garden....

Rosa Canary Bird

It became clear that one little Flower Crab Spider (Misumena vatia) is lying in wait to ambush  some unsuspecting insect visiting this yellow rose, the colour of which it is mimicking.

Flower Crab Spider

6.  I used to grow Auriculas in long toms and such like terracotta pots singly, and have even been known to enter them into local competitions.  Those times have past, and during the last year I was somewhat disappointed by how they were attacked by insects and also suffered with either too much heat, or too much rain etc.  The remaining ones I have grouped together finding keeping just one cultivar in a large pot more to my liking.  I suppose I really ought to bring out some little sticks to keep the stems on the flowers upright. 

Primula auricula Sarah Millington

Seedlings are up, cuttings continue to be taken, primulas are being divided and yet the leaves have only started to be collected.  Hopefully it won't be so hot next week, and I can start to clear the leaves. 

 

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's Favourite Cake - 'The Cake' which we enjoyed at a Garden Open Day at Brow Cottage

 Several of us enjoyed a drink and cake at an open garden recently. It was so good that I went to ask the ladies serving if there was any chance of the recipe.  I was told that it was called Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother's, Favourite Recipe.  Whilst still in the garden Carolyn confirmed the recipe on her phone and sent me the link.

Back home I searched and found a number of versions of what is in effect a Date and Walnut Traybake.  There is also a Queen Elizabeth tray cake but with coconut topping.  Bearing in mind that this cake was probably first issued around 1953 for the coronation, 'The Cake' most probably predates this. Compared to many modern versions of which I can recommend from Mary Berry's Baking Bible, her Date and Walnut Traybake, 'The Cake' has far less rich ingredients.  Bearing in mind that the recipe probably was around in the 1940s, whilst The Queen Mother was still The Queen, when there was still rationing for many items, it would have been considered a real treat. Various sources tell me this was published in various places such as ladies's magazines with encouragement to make it to sell to raise funds.

Here is the cake I made for when my gardening friends Alison and Julie came to visit last week.

What I did like was that in one old typewritten recipe, there was the note that instead of single cream you could add the top of the milk.  Since we are on a goat's milk, butter etc diet, and have our milk delivered unhomogenised it was easy for me to draw off the cream from the top of the bottle. I don't think back in those days they had the traybake cake tin that many of us now have, and since I do not have a swiss roll tin, I used that.  These days a traybake usually measures 30 x 23 cm and a swiss roll tin 33 x 23.  I think the larger swiss roll tin would give a thinner cake similar to the one we had at the garden open day.  Also the vanilla flavour came through very nice, and next time I make this I would increase the vanilla in the cake, and put a little into the fudge topping as well.

This is a delicious cake and well worth trying.

Cake Ingredients and Method

225g ready stoned cooking dates chopped

5g bicarbonate of soda

250ml boiling water

Combine these three and set aside whilst you line your tin with baking parchment, weigh and prepare all your other ingredients. These must be cool before adding later to the mixture

Preheat your oven to 160C fan

200g caster sugar ( this is less than most recipes I found)

80g butter soften (a little more than several recipes which quoted around 50g)

1 large egg beaten

1tsp Vanilla essence...which I would increase to 1.5 tsp next time

285 g plain flour sifted with

5g baking powder and 

2g fine sea salt

60g chopped walnuts

Cream the sugar and butter together till pale.  This takes some effort first with a fork then with a hand held mixer as the ratio of sugar to butter is very high.  Then add the egg and whisk again till light.  Fold in the flour and the cooled date and water mixture, along with the chopped dates.  I lightly bake all my walnuts first as this really brings out the flavour.  

Bake in the preheated oven for about 35 mins.  Remove from the oven, then the tin, and place on a cooling rack.

Topping

30g butter

70g Soft Brown Sugar

2 Tbsp single cream or top of the milk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence (next time)

Extra Walnuts

Combine all the ingredients in a small pan, heat up and bring to the boil, keep boiling for three minutes or so, and have a spatula ready both to stir and stop any catching at the bottom of the pan, and to spread this across your cooling bake.  Scatter with more bits of walnuts (lightly baked).  When cool remove from the paper and cut into sections.  It kept well for several days, and I also froze two long sections ready to bring out at a later date.

I liked this fudge topping and will be using again on other cake recipes.

Do leave comments whether it is about this recipe that you have tried, or further information about the history of this cake.

In a Vase on Monday - Birthday Lily in the Valley

 A few weeks ago I was walking round a beautiful garden with friends, and as often happens we split into two or threes depending on the interest in different sections. Carolyn who is one of the two ladies who selects and plans our WI  Blooming Fun outings and is equally interested in gardening as I am enjoyed pointing out different features to each other.

Today I dedicate my little vase to Caroly: Lily of the Valley and blue forget me not like flowers from Brunnera Jack Frost.

As we were walking round Brow Cottage which coincidentally featured in April 2026 Gardens Illustrated, Carolyn told me the story of how her mother used to prepare a little vase of Lily of the Valley each year for her birthday, even just a very few stems of just opening blooms.  So here today although not the exact date of Carolyn's birthday, which is nearer the end of the month, I dedicate this vase to a beautiful and generous lady.

We also both had the same piece of delicious cake at Brow Cottage.  I had to go back and check if the recipe was available.  It was called The Queen Mother's favourite cake which is a Date and Walnut Tray Bake with a fudge type topping.

Each time my Lily of the Valley comes into bloom I shall now think of Carolyn. I shall not forget the precious moment of Carolyn sharing this memory with me.

The little watering, can which I have shown before, signals hot days and watering.  The Lily of the Valley are suffering but it was worth cutting the last fairly OK blooms for this IAVOM. Each week we link into Cathy's Post.  

Six on Saturday - 25 April 2026

 During the week I had my good gardening friend Alison visit and she brought another friend whom I met for the first time.  Not dissimilar to SOS where we visit each others gardens via Jim's post. 

We had a  tour round the small front and back gardens, and of course had coffee and cake in the garden.  It was so warm we sat in the shade.  It probably was not the best time for digging up little patches of plants, but hopefully with care and shade they will soon perk up and I hope Julie will enjoy them.

1. One of the plants which Julie had a piece of was Saxifraga stolonifera which is a fantastic ground covering plant for shaded areas with' if one stretches the point, purple or rather maroon and green leaves, especially as later it will have some delightful flowers.

Saxifraga stolonifera

2. Alison asked for a piece of this little plant growing very successfully in the gravel garden.  The little blue pom pom pom flowers are just starting to open which of course called out to be admired. Globularia cordifolia, commonly known as the heart-leaved globe daisy or matted globularia, is a low-growing, evergreen subshrub.  

Globularia cordifolia

3. Nearby the Thyme 'Jekka' is looking glorious, and as it extends, it roots itself into the gravel and pieces of that too were easily prepared.

Thymus 'Jekka'

Loved by the bees and also frequently used in the kitchen, it is the most floriferous and easy going thymes in the garden.

4. Early this year I took one of the biggest of the Polemonium 'Lambrook Mauve' and refreshed it by pulling it apart and replanting the most vigorous sections in a piece of 'improved' soil, and therefore it was easy to pass on a good young plant onto to Julie, with the strict instructions to cut off all the flowering stems just this year so that the plant could re-establish itself nicely.

Polemonium 'Lambrook Mauve'

5. It looks as if the theme for this week could be purply blue especially if I showed you one plant that I had been seeking out for years, ever since I saw it in 2016 in the Birmingham Botanic gardens.

I moved it to the shade this week, and I think I may even have to move it to a plastic pot as it is not coping very well in this hot dry weather. It is a tricky one and this time I will not be dividing it as I did with my blue one, which I lost.

Viola Pedata bicolour

Luckily another little blue one is soldiering on, but it is in intensive care right now, and no visitors allowed!

6. The Scilla Peruviana are in full swing..including these newly divided ones sheltering close by the Viburnum plicatum ‘Mariesii’.

The rest of the gang are rather raucously enjoying the sun on the dry southern side of the front garden amongst other plants that enjoy this position.

Scilla Peruviana

Extra Growing Angels Fishing Rods (Dierama) from seed

My seedlings are up, it will be ages till they are large enough to flower.  I shall enjoy watching them thrive and hopefully not falter.  Please do not make me admit to where I obtained the seed from!! They were only falling across the path and being trodden on my lord!

In a Vase on Monday - Small spring vase

For this In a Vase on Monday I give you this spring mini arrangement featuring the beautiful Primula Treborth Yellow.  The lovely soft mauve flowers are from Polemonium ‘Lambrook Mauve’ which contrast beautifully with the yellow of the Primula.  Anna recommended this Polemonium to me, and since getting it in 2021, each late winter I have taken pieces and simply pushed them in the ground such that I have several plants across the garden.  The third little flower is a diminutive pansy Viola Tricolor which seeds itself gently around the garden.

The little vintage brass snail often slithers across the photographs, and helps to give a idea of the scale for some IAVOM. It was the idea of the imaginative Cathy to start this series of get togethers each Monday with flowers from our gardens. 

Six on Saturday - 18 April 2026

This is a very sad time for our leader Jim, but he has valiantly and bravely decided that his garden is to be his refuge and I am sure his personal friends and family will be supporting him as well.  His garden was shared with his wife Sue who was I am particularly fond and knowledgeable on cacti and succulents, so it is a fitting tribute that Jim's first plant this week was one of Sue's Echeverias.  I am linking this week's post on Jim's blog. 

1. In the conservatory border I have a number of primroses and other spring specials. 

Primula Garryarde Guinevere

Primula 'Guinevere' or 'Garryard Guinevere' came to me via Broadleigh gardens and is quite late flowering for me.  With dark leaves and a polyanthus form quite a beauty. 

2. Also from Broadleigh Gardens is this Scilla hughii in the front garden. It is yet to produce any offsets unlike the Scilla Peruviana which is growing well elsewhere in the garden.

Scilla hughii

3. Another favourite which makes this the third from Broadleigh Gardens: a little violet which is just starting to flower. There is a charm about it. Viola cucullata alba, with its large flower all white with mauve guidelines poised above its recently emerged leaves.  

4. Toona sinensis is still in its pot. I have yet to decide where and whether it will go in the ground. It was quite a vibrant pink a couple of weeks back, but it taking on a more silvery hue now.

Chinese cedar

5. As the light fails in the evening the newly emerging leaves on Fatsia 'Spiders Web' look like so many waving hands. I've never had so many white leaves, I wonder what has caused this?

6.  This may or may not be Primula Maisie Michael, it should be more yellow. But my pledge not to buy has been broken, I've found a few different ones including another 'Maisie Michael' from someone else, and it will be fun to compare them.

The garden seems to developing along the lines of a spring garden, let us see what happens in the weeks ahead.  This coming week I am going to have a block of time that I can be in the garden just as much as I like...I hope I have the right weather it is forecasted.

 

In a Vase on Monday - Beauties and Thugs

A larger vase than normal is needed this week had me hunting around the house.  Most had arrangements of dried flowers, but I spied amongst my Pewter collection in the kitchen the deep and wide pewter biscuit barrel.

The White Centaurea Montana Alba is a 'low effort plant'. I was reading an article by Jack Wallington In the April 2026 Gardens Illustrated, and it struck me immediately that White Centaurea Montana Alba falls into the group of surefire plants that grow in many conditions, don't need pruning and don't need staking. I just cut it right down and it pops back up with more flowers throughout the year.

Slightly more effort is this double white Hellebore, which is now green and forming seeds.  With only one flowering per year it is a slightly different league to the Centaurea. The stems keep firm at this stage and I rather like the detail.

The thug this week are the Spanish Bluebells, which I have been in constant battle with since we moved here.  I try to cut the flowers as early as possible in the season as well as pulling up and trying to remove the bulbs. Otherwise the garden would be overrun by them.

As usual I'm joining with in Cathy to celebrate the act of cutting a few flowers from our gardens, and talking about them on our blogs. 

Six on Saturday - 11 April 2026

We had two days of very warm weather and now the temperatures have dropped again.  I have a few more seeds to sow, and yet the garden remains the same size, the question as yet unanswered is where will they fit in. Several of us are linking in this weekly meme together.

1. I've grown several Phlox to date, but currently have only two. Phlox bifida 'Ralph Hayward' I have shown several times over the past few years is doing well.  I took cuttings last year and have put them in bowls this year.  The Phlox bifida 'Alba' looks very smart on one of the tables.

Phlox bifida 'Alba'

2. We found a local wood to walk to this week where the white wood anemones were growing in large swathes under the mixed woodland deciduous canopy.  I learnt this week that the little yellow plant that I bought in 2024 from Long Acre Plants at The Bishop's Palace Rare Plant Fair needs similar conditions, whereas it is growing in the sunny rose bed.  The bronze of its emerging leaves is a lovely contrast for the flowers that have already emerged.  The sad thing is that the slugs are rather partial to the blooms. 

Anemone x lipsiensis Pallida

3. As well as Anemones in that wood, there were loads of the simple lesser celandine, and that leads me nicely to show this lovely double form of Ficaria verna. Like the Anemone, this one is summer dormant.

Double form of the celandine

4. I was very fortunate to receive a fine clump of the hose in hose Primula vulgaris' Mount Juliet'. With a little careful slicing I have three plants, and have learnt both from Caroline and my old copy of Primulas Old and New by Jack Wemyss-Cooke that these need a soil made hearty by the addition of manure! If anyone would like to recommend any other publications which I could get second hand, please leave a comment below. This week I was lucky to find three sacks of horse manure. Mr S has a bad back at the moment, and I was so elated to find the manure just round the corner, that I even managed to lift the sacks and stack them in the car boot.  It is the first half a mile the car has done in over a month!

Primula vulgaris' Mount Juliet'

5. I was sent the wrong bulbs!! I ordered and was invoiced for 10 Fritillaria michailovskyi but, from the picture, I can tell was sent the wrong ones.  Instead they look very much like Fritillaria acmopetala which Pottertons also sells. Only half of the bulbs have come up, but that may well be the wet conditions this winter. I think in future for  small bulbs such as these, I shall buy them at the fairs in the green, when I can see them in flower. It is starting to grow on me and I like the 'common' name pointed petal fritillary.  

Fritillaria acmopetala

6. Of the dwarf Irises I had, only one of those is left.  Blame me for sure, as I probably allowed other plants to crowd them out.  Iris pumila Dark Purple Fuzzy DBI has the most purple of purple flowers on its stout short stems.  I still yearn after Knick Nack, and ought to make a call out to friends that I shared many divisions with. 

 Iris pumila Dark Purple Fuzzy DBI

That's the end of this SOS, the garden calls to me: I have seeds to sow, divisions to make and plants to move....

When you go down into the woods today - Park Wood Wells

Earlier this week, along with a good sized contingency from the Wells Tuesday WI, I went on a memorial walk which was planned as a circular walk from The Bishop's Palace in Wells.  Some members chose the shorter version, and I along with a few decided to make the whole circuit, but found that we had to made a short cut and took a path through a little piece of woodland.  We were in a hurry at that stage, but I could tell that it would be well worth a return visit.

Mr S was easily persuaded that for this week's date day, it would be a walk out from home via The Bishop's Palace to view their primrose bank, and enjoy a drink there and then to these woods.  The previous week we had had a muddy walk through Tor Hill woods but had been disappointed that we could not find any wood anemones. To think we have lived in this area for several years and had walked and cycled many times along the Strawberry Line, but had not been aware of the beauty these woods hold.

I only got out my phone during the last few minutes in the wood, and saw many different wild flowers. These are just a very few.

English Bluebells in patches

and in swathes

Greater Stitchwort

Wood anemones

Wood Spurge 

Euphorbia amygdaloides

and Yellow Archangel

Lamium galeobdolon

I am sure we shall be returning and enjoying this small patch of woodland.

Six on Saturday - 4 April 2026

Happy Easter to you all.  Saturday is the day when a few of us garden bloggers join together to share six things from our gardens, and join together over at Jim's, where should you choose to join us you will find guidance on how we go about it.

We have had a couple of glorious days this week when spending time gardening, or even just sitting with my beloved enjoying coffee in the garden wearing just a couple of layers has been possible. 

1. Each time I go into the garden I am drawn to Ribes × beatonii, to admire its flowers: they remind me of the colours of the centre of a ripe peach when you remove the stone, colours ranging from peachy yellow to red.

Ribes × beatonii

If it was good enough for Broadleigh Gardens it was certainly going to join the few shrubs I have.

2. I moved this clematis right up onto the gravel by the conservatory so that I can watch the many large bumble bees that seem to effortlessly fly straight to each hanging bloom. Clematis alpina Blue Dancer in its pot is a real beauty, and it came to me and grew from a tiny plant .

Clematis alpina Blue Dancer

3. Henton Gardening Club gave members three daffodil bulbs donated by the Wessex Daffodil Society, and we don't yet know the name.  If it remains cool and remains in good condition it may make it to the show on 12th April.  Even so the club is having a little competition, and we are to enter a picture.  Tomorrow I shall try and take a picture against a neutral background.

4. The Galanthus ‘x valentinei’ in the front garden are particularly good at forming large seed pods, and there is a little patch that catches all the Amelanchier leaves in the autumn, through which the little snowdrop seedlings emerge each year, and this variety seems to grow to flowering size within two years.  As they ripen I shall move some of the seed pods there. From planting the first little pot of maybe two or three bulbs around nine years ago, a now have a good number of clumps.

Snowdrop seed pods

5. In the front garden I also have some species tulips and this little grouping is a delight.

Tulipa Whittalii Major.

6. This week, we have had a lovely variety of butterflies and moths such as the Peacock, Brimstone, Orange Tip Butterflies, and surprisingly a Hummingbird Hawkmoth.  This pair of Ladybirds are enjoying the softest of leaves on the Phlomis fruticosa Bourgaei and they were not the only ones!

Several SOSers may from time to time like to ask, to offer or to share seeds and bits and pieces from their gardens.  This past week I was delighted to send and then receive packed in the same box a few choice additions to the garden, which have now been planted out.  Many thanks to Phlomis Chloris for the  Viola sulfurea, R. Brazen Hussy, a little piece of Veronica perfoliata and a bit of her precious dwarf iris from the Gargano in Italy. I look forward to caring and bringing on these choice little plants. This week I have planted seeds received such as Aquilegia and Marigolds and Rudbekias received last year. 

Six things from my garden - 28th March 2026

Arriving home yesterday, after a few days in Cornwall, I just had to get into the garden and was able to do some gardening.  We were so pleased to see large patches of the lovely wild primrose growing to the very edge of the coast and I start with week with similar yellows. Next week after the clocks have changed there will be more time in the evenings to get out there.  With six things from the garden to share, I am joining in with Jim and several other gardeners.

1.  Primula 'Treborth Yellow' which I bought in 2024 from Pottertons is doing very nicely.  It is quite a small flowered in comparison with those bright things currently being sold in garden centers, but it is a beautiful yellow in the garden.

Primula 'Treborth Yellow'

2. For a pretty lemon, I couldn't fault Primula vulgaris Belarina Lemon Chiffon when I saw it on Long Acre Plants  stall at the Snowdrop Festival earlier this year. It has a green ruff and double flowers.

3. Looking far more natural is Primula Elatior, again one I bought last year from Long Acre Plants.  It looks lovely amongst all the other spring flowers in the conservatory bed.

4.Again in the Conservatory Border is another spring beauty, called Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare'. The original plant was a gift from Brenda.  It came as a small plant and I have been lucky that it is settling down nicely now in the garden.

 Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare'

5. Another blue in that same border is this little blue flowered bulb: Scilla Sardensis.  I planted them as bulbs which first came up in 2023, so they too seem to have settled down.

Scilla Sardensis

6. In the front garden the Amelanchier is out in full bloom.  I believe it to be a week or so early.