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, I shall be getting out the deckchair to sit in the shade this weekend!   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. 

 

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.