Six on Saturday - 23 May 2026

At the start of the week, it was cool the sort of temperatures that make you want to do some heavy work in the garden , and now it is as if we been thrown under a solar lamp,  It was like that on Friday afternoon, but this morning it is cool again.  Perhaps it will warm up.  To find out what other gardeners are up to, Jim's post is the place where several of us link in. 

Here are my six for this week:

1. 

Ladybird poppy with a fine white edge to the petals

What's not to like about poppies? Last year the Wells WI 'Blooming Fun' group visited a private garden in Bristol, which was delightful.  I particularly liked that the owner went to find scissors and an envelope when I asked whether I may have a couple of seedheads from his Ladybird Poppy.  I sowed some seed in modules last autumn, and the came up rather like mustard and cress. I kept moving the sown seed in and out of the shed so that they got cold but not too wet .  I didn't thin them out, but planted the whole plugs in various places, primarily to hide the dying snowdrop leaves. I think just the fittest plant in each small section has grown up. Around 90% of the first flowers to open have this fine white edge to the petals. 

2. Last year I received some aquilegia seed from Catherine Wood who is a Six on Saturday contributor.  There are four different types, with more than enough seedlings, and some seed kept back just in case they failed, still left in envelopes. Later this week, I will need to pot them on, both for myself and I am sure there will be more than I need, to share with others later in the year.

3. Was it three or perhaps four years ago that I took cuttings from my friend's rose tree which her husband winds through their front boundary railings? Sue doesn't have the name anymore.  However it is rather lovely and someone may just recognise the rose and perhaps let me know if my hunches are right.

Even from where the squirrels nibbled the top shoots, more shoots are emerging. From Google Lense and the description of the plant, I feel it may be Rosa Alberic Barbier. Let me know what you think.

4. Last year, I grew Omphalodes Linifolia, a small plant of which my friend Alison brought when visiting.  I liked it so much, I saved seed and took care of little seedlings so that I could have several plants this year. Another name for this plant is Venus's Navelwort, I'm not sure whether it is the flower or the seed that inspires this name.

This is a view of the border with some of the poppies and Omphalodes.

5. Toona sinensis 'Flamingo' or sometimes commonly called Chinese cedar was on the point of being given away during the week, as several friends came round to pick up divisions of the dwarf bearded Iris Fuzzy, and other divisions which interested them.  It was left behind, and has been finally 'allocated' a spot in the garden. We shall see if it thrives or flounders!

Toona sinensis 'Flamingo'

It certainly wasn't happy in its pot!

6. I had to dig up my large clump of Iris Fuzzy and hence divide it.  It was ready for it really, and in addition to my replanting it, it provided plants for six other gardens.  Close to where it was growing I now have room for a recent purchase.  I love a plant that changes through the seasons and is evergreen plus I rather like Pittosporum.  It was not at all rootbound, so I hope it will send its roots nicely into the surrounding soil.

Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Bannow Bay'

It is one of the smaller pittosporums, and hopefully will get established in time to brave the winter.

I could have shown you more roses this week, but I need to keep some things for next week.  It is a small garden but I try to cram in as much as possible by spreading interest right across the year. 

I've just watched a great video about growing roses from cuttings, and since I lost one of my two Rose Grace shrubs last years, I shall prepare some more.  I do love my rose bushes and they are now coming to the fore, so it may well be a rose week next week.  More home work about choosing and growing roses I feel. 

 

Holiday - Secrets of Buckinghamshire - Day One: Hughenden Manor

 We feel that we have landed on our feet recently, having found a local coach company who organisers a wide choice of holidays that we enjoy.  With no driving except on some occasions such as this one, when we drive to their depot, we are both able to enjoy the countryside on our journeys, and I can see over the hedges. On this long weekend, we visited Hughenden Manor, Bletchley Park, Waddesdon Manor and Oxford.

We are not long back from our holiday, and looking through the pictures I took brought it all back.  On our outward journey our first visit was to Hughenden Manor which was once the country home of the Victorian Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.  There was so much to see both in the building itself, the grounds and the church. What an amazing man: Disraeli has so many facets. It is definitely on our list for a return visit, and  I'm looking to read one of his books soon too.

Hughenden Manor - Statuary

We started with the grounds, and enjoyed the classical statuary along the main lawn, the formal gardens, as well as the walled garden. Even from when we stopped with the coach, I was particularly impressed with the apple orchard and how well the trees had been pruned over the years. 

Hughenden Walled Kitchen Garden

Looking at the estate map and the time we had before our Introduction Talk, we decided to walk down to  St Michael and All Angels which as many older churches, was restored during the Victorian Period.  Unusually for a Prime Minister,  Disraeli is buried here as he left instructions that he wanted to be buried quietly at Hughenden alongside his wife Mary Anne. When visiting the house later we came to read about their close and supporting relationship.  

Coincidentally only recently I found out that the 19th of April was celebrated for many years as National Primrose Day, marking the death of Prime Minister Disraeli, and although it was not form for the Queen to attend a Prime Minister's burial, she did visit several days later to pay her respects. Since both her and Disraeli's favourtie flower was a primrose, it was a primrose wreath which she sent from Osborne House for his funeral.

Inside the house as well as the furnishings, there was a room dedicated to Disraeli's literary endeavours, and I rather like this strapline.

May I add is that for me the best way to review things and enjoy them later is to post on my blog! With many visits to other sites for further private reading.

Hughenden Manor has been occupied over the years by a number of people. Thanks to a exhibition in one of the wings the story of  the top-secret mapping unit codenamed Hillside which only emerged in the early 2020s,  was well worth visiting and fascinating. The property was requisitioned by the Air Ministry in 1941, and over 100 men and women worked there.  There were touching descriptions of the effects of the work on the cartographers. The manor’s secret wartime role was only revealed when a volunteer guide overheard a visitor telling his grandson about his wartime service there.

Top secret unit codename Hillside exhibition 
Target Maps

The creation of these maps and the many copies printed helped to improve targeting of bombing during World War II.

Books I would like to read: Mr and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance

Plump Breakfast Buns

 We were out of breakfast buns this Friday, so for our special Friday morning breakfast I made spelt thick/fluffy pancakes with bananas in a toffee sauce zinged up with a squeeze of lime.  We are not easily deterred from 'Friday Bun Day' and that is now postponed till Sunday.

Floating around on my desk has been a printed out recipe for Perfectly Plump Hot Cross Buns by Darryn Bruton, from Bakery Bits.  This recipe was floating around in my head, and I felt they would make an excellent breakfast bun, especially as I had missed out on baking my own hot cross buns this year. I hadn't read the recipe at all,  really, until getting down into the kitchen with the sheets.  The first hurdles was that it was written with a mixer in mind, and that the Tangzhong was made with Crème Fraîche.  Did that deter me? Did I give up?

Plump Breakfast Buns

I liked the ratios of fruit, and in this batch I used chopped crystallised lemon peel, sultanas, dried cranberries, and currants.  For sure I shall use a Tangzhong when making other sweet buns.  I kept back a little of beaten egg as egg wash, meaning I didn't use more than two eggs in total, no crosses were added since the moment as passed, and I didn't glaze with extra sugar and apricot jam, since they were heading for the freezer, neither shall I glaze them when getting them out. I'll fold the printout and place them in one of the cookery books called 'The Book of Buns'! The reason is so that I can find it quickly next time I am looking for a recipe for fruited buns.

Six on Saturday - Mid May 2026

To join in or just to view what a few of us gardeners have to say about the past week in our gardens, head over to Jim's for his Garden Ruminations.

Here are my six:

1. I have just found out that the lovely pink Pimpinella major 'Rosea' is also called 'Pink Cow Parsley' but the botanical names tell me it is not a form of the white cows parsley that is edging our country lanes at the moment. It was the stand out plant for me on their terrace, when I visited Wyndcliffe Court Gardens, and now I have a clump worth showing. 

It really does want to grow: I moved it last year and I must have left a little bit, as it has come up flowering in its original place as well, and of course that will have to be cleared away at some time as it is a little too close to the Ginkgo.

2. Another plant which I thought I had dug up and moved to the back garden, must have had some smaller bulbs left behind.  This is from the original patch: a fair few Tulipa sprengeri 'Trotter’s Form' flowering on the shady side of a shrub.

Tulipa sprengeri 'Trotter’s Form'

The larger bulbs that I moved and dotted around the back garden are somewhat taller and sturdier, and I hope they get to self seed around.

That self seeded poppy is hardly the plant to establish scale as it is growing larger than any poppy I have ever seen.

3. A more demure little plant. that self seeds around. is the short lived perennial Semiaquilegia ecalcarata.  It comes up nicely, hiding the remaining snowdrop and crocus leaves, but at the stage when the spring bulbs are flowering, their pretty low rosette of leaves are hardly noticeable. Next week the foliage from those early spring bulbs will be withered and ready to be cleared away.

Semiaquilegia ecalcarata

Close up of the dainty flowers

4. Although we have no lawn, this beetle was found on a leaf of the ivy that we are currently cutting back.  I have read up and believe it to be The European Chafer Beetle.  

5. Deadheading little spring flowering plants: a lovely spring flowering plant which is easily increased, such that there are now four clumps in the garden is this pale purple Polemonium 'Lambrook Mauve'.  It has a fairly long flowering period if you take the trouble of dead heading it. It also holds itself nicely in little vases of spring flowers. 

Polemonium 'Lambrook Mauve'

6. Another plant that benefits from deadheading, is also n that same conservatory bed, This Heuchera which I acquired as a little plant on a charity stall had no name, but it sure is living up to its alternative name of 'Coral Bells'.  There are so many different varieties of heuchera that unless someone can name it for me, I rather not spend the time trying to identify it.  

Even though we have had forecast for rain, during the past few days here, as the clouds passed by and from time to time it grew very dark, the potential for rain moved on and  we have missed any meaningful rain. Next week it is supposedly going to get warmer and drier.  The most notable effect on the garden has been the strong winds, which has meant a lot of picking up of leaves blown from the Holm Oaks. 

This week I went to visit Erika who I have recently met.  We share a similar interest in nature and gardening, she very kindly gave me a bowl of  the mouse tail plant (Arisarum proboscideum), and a piece of a beautiful pink hardly Chrysanthemum  'Dulwich Pink'. I also learnt from her about soaking of mealworms for birds.  The male robin is still coming to my hand to be fed, with the female being happy to come fairly close on the ground. We haven't seen the juveniles but they are close by as the female mainly goes off with food just over the garden wall.

Snittsidan Bullar

 It is over ten years since I first baked this bun.  I had any number of buns I was going to bake this afternoon. I had a picnic in mind and Mr S reminded me of the delicious Stone-baked Semolina Rolls I made a few weeks ago.  These were from the Bake with Jack Home bakers' club, but I didn't have sufficient semolina.

Here are the buns out of the oven.  I increased the listed ingredients by 50% as I wanted some larger buns this time. I used a mixture of Matthews stone ground spelt, and Stoneground strong bread flour a Traditional White from their Regenerative Farmed Wheat, and a whole wheat Rye flour.  

It just shows that when following a recipe it is important to real the whole recipe right to the end...this time I forgot to brush olive oil to glaze the hot buns.

Snittsidan Bullar is a Swedish bun where the dough with rye is cut from a long roll, and the sticky side is then pressed into mixed seeds. The recipe is from The Book of Buns by Jane Mason. 

One other person has posted about Snttsidan Bullar and when I look through some of Rose's recipes I found a lovely one for a roasted cauliflower and hazelnut pesto pasty, which I am hoping to try soon.

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.