What's up in my gardening domain- Six on Saturday 13 September 2025

Yes we have had rain, and thunder and lighting and those plants that have survived the long drought are bouncing back nicely, some are even thinking this may be spring as they come out of semi dormancy. As usual this is linked into Jim's early morning post, where you will find various approaches to six things from our gardens.

1.  This picture of one of the most successful decorative Origanums in the garden shows how it has extended a little too far across the path. and after six years it is time to dig up, divide, revive and move elsewhere, plus plenty for sharing with friends.

Origanum Bristol Cross

As plants mature and reach their full size, I often find myself wishing I had chosen a different place to grow them, and at the same time discovering a different plant to go in that place.   

2. When moving and dividing plants I often had to resort to an old bread knife.  However I have been thinking of treating myself to a tool, a particular one that I have been considering for a number of years: a hori hori. I wanted to be able to handle them to decide which would feel the most comfortable. Rather than buying online, yesterday Mr S and I went on a trip to visit Niwaki Headquarters, and suffice it to say Date Day will be remembered for a long time: each time I garden.  We then went on to visit Old Wardour Castle. 

I found several things and also my snips that had been sticking were sorted out and I learnt a few tips on maintenance. Yesterday evening I got out my old Niwaki secateurs and gave them a good clean and sharpen.

3. As we are starting to have several days with showers, many of them quite heavy, it is time to move the succulents off the conservatory shelf.  There are some in other parts of the garden too and they will all go into the conservatory. The ones by the front door under a canopy can stay out until it get much cooler, it is the daily drenching that needs to be avoided.

4. Looking back over the new plants I have grown this year I can report that the Coleus, well just two of them this year have done really well.  It seems that they grow and grow and the size very much depends on the size of pot they are in.   Coleus Flamethrower Serrano is just coming in flower, but quite honestly it has been a really colourful addition to the garden even without those.  Of course I haven't seen what its flowers look like so am perhaps a little presumptive. I shall take a few cuttings to overwinter somewhere around the house, and hopefully next spring will be able to find a couple more cultivars to add.

 Coleus Flamethrower Serrano

5. This is one of my favourite potted shrubs in the garden and it really comes into its own in low sun  when everything else starts to wind down and right through the winter too.  Last year I noticed that it was slowly shedding twigs and starting to go brown and I had to tease out lots of dead growth: it was really on the decline to the extent that I thought it was dying.  I repotted the Chamaecyparis pisifera var. filifera into a larger pot with new soil, perhaps it was last autumn or maybe even early this spring. I am happy to report that there has been a real turn around.  This was a lesson to me that plants just can't keep on growing in the same medium in pots for years on end. 

Chamaecyparis pisifera var. filifera

6.  Hands on propagation is something for which I enjoy getting my eyes and nose close to a plant which needs increasing.  As you handle plants especially during rain the smell of the earth gives an added dimension to gardening.  Petricor is the name scientists have given to this smell, and on Monday whilst I was out in the garden with large clouds piling up, I enjoyed gardening whilst there was thunder and lightning overhead until the rain started and having a good drenching was not on the list of things to do in the garden. I had gone out to divide the pot of Limonium bellidifolium.  I had promised Hilary a piece and I also wanted to remove what looked like some Rhodohypoxis growing through it.

In amongst the foliage I found a large snail hunkering down (RIP).  It is sometime ago since this plant was lifted from the gravel garden, and divided and planted into this pot.  Some divisions are now back in the gravel garden, and I am trying some at the edge of the path. I bought this plant during my visit to Beth Chatto's garden in 2021. 

I know the season is moving on as there is less gardening time in the evening.  There is less gardening time too because we have decided we were eating dinner later and later, on account of my loosing track of time on the days I decide to 'play' in the garden after tea time, then get called back in some time later, with the cry 'are we having dinner tonight'?  I like gardening and I like cooking, but my hunger noises don't kick in when I am in the garden!

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!!

Six on Saturday - End of August 2025

The hot dry weather has broken, and we have had a little rain, but nothing to penetrate the soil yet! Even when we have rain forecast it has something been no more than a sprinkling, then more sun but with some clouds. We are still taking every opportunity of being outside. Outside is the favourite place for gardeners except perhaps when they want to catch up with their fellows over at Jim's to share Six things on a Saturday. 

1. We were having coffee in the morning in the garden, when we spotted a number of pretty Small Copper Butterflies, yes that is the name of this butterfly,  with the favourite food source being the Asters. One with a large mound of flowers is Aster pyrenaeus 'Lutetia' and I wouldn't have time to count the number of bees and butterflies on it at any one time.

 

2.  I bought half a dozen of little Cosmos from the Bishop's Palace and planted them in a couple of different beds.  They have grown tall, well over a metre, and no flower!  Even in the sunniest beds they have behaved just like this one.  It does make quite a nice green bush, but I want flowers!  In fact it reminded me of the 'Burning Bush' Kochia scoparia which my in laws used to grow back in the seventies in their garden.  Such a blast from the past are those, and funnily I don't see them around these days. 

Tall Cosmos that refuses to flower

3. I sowed some Cosmos seed directly late, and transferred three seedlings to the same bed, and here is one of them feeling quite relieved that it is starting to rain. They were Dwarf Purple Picotee Cosmos from Thompson & Morgan.  

4. Just emerging through the Aster pyrenaeus 'Lutetia' is the Miscanthus nepalensis, or is it that the Aster has draped across  the Miscanthus's space?

 Miscanthus nepalensis

5. I have been battling the watering, and Mr S came up with something that will make it so much easier for me.  This is of course supplementary to the waterbutt when it has water in it and water collected as part of savings from indoors.  Firstly he fitter a small splitter to the outside tap so that I can keep the hose connected and am able to turn it on and off, without having to disconnect the timer and its various finer pipes that go to the larger outdoor pots.  I was finding rolling up the heavy hose a little too hard and now I have a new expanding snake hose. It is so much lighter and easy to coil up and hang.  The timer is now near the floor rather than coming out of the tap.  The whole thing will of course be put away for the winter.  

6. And why do you think I am showing my old but favourite pair of secateurs?  It is because after looking for them, they were lost for a whole 24 hours and then they were found. I felt full of thanks and rejoiced.  However this was not before I had emptied the shed, sorted out the tools, thrown out lots of old bits of string, and worn out gloves, etc, swept out and cleaned other tools, scoured the garden, and emptied the green bin.  I had resolved to allow a week to pass and then order or perhaps even visit the Kiwaki Show Room. This would be an excursion, what gardener doesn't love an excursion with perhaps a garden visit etc thrown in as well? 

 

It was not till I cycled into town, and locked up my bike, that I found the secateurs nestling right at the bottom of my panier.  It has been there for three or four days from when I had cycled out hunting for elberries to harvest from the hedgerows on the levels ready to make Elderberry Cordial. I don't normally phone home whilst I am out, but to save poor Mr S from continuing the hunt, I had to share my find and my joy.

In a Vase on Monday - 25 August 2025

Neither the garden nor this arrangement bears close scrutiny but it does give a colourful accent to the end of the mantlepiece. For more lovely vases of garden flowers the place to visit is 'Rambling in the Garden' by our leader Cathy.

Growing the nasturtium plants has been a bit of a challenge given the amount of watering they are needing.  The variety was unknown and have come out very varied, I guess that they were grown from home collected seed.  They have clubs up at the Bishop's Palace to teach children about growing and I surmise these were from such an activity.   The Dahlias were from plants bought recently whilst on a visit to East Lambrook Manor.  Some Aster Monch, a few twigs of a marjoram and Pseudodictamnus acetabulosus.

I've learnt a lot lessons from this year's gardening, and can now understand 'Fail to prepare, prepare to fail'! My orepartion this year also needs to be scrutinised, lessons learnt notes, and timely plans for sowing, growing, planting etc put into place. Visiting some splendid gardens last week whilst we were on holiday gave me several ideas to add to my plans as well.

Tagging on this post here are two books not yet completed...

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon,  I would recommend, though it is a little long. The suspense is good, and sometimes I have to put it down, then read on but not at bedtime!  I can't understand why the cover picture of a woman in red running along the river has someone in modern dress when the book is set in the late 18th Century! I read some of the reviews on Good Reads where I log my reading, when I remember, and came across a poor review.  I am not saying that the reasons the person did not like it are not valid for her,  but from what I gather the person has listened to the book rather than having a hard copy in her hand.  From the book, where there is a map of the various settlements at the front, and an authors explanations at the end, which I always read before starting the book, this would have helped understand the story and its origins.  There are a great many characters, and as usual I have some scraps of paper where I write down the name of the person, their relationships and the page they appear on, as I cannot hold all this in my head these days.  When I was working and had overview of more than one site as head of Personnel, I was forever designing and using organisation charts, so maybe that is a system that works for me.

The general discussion at our WI book club has often commented on the different ways of accessing a book, and the value and use of each type colours our understanding for example those listening to a book are often doing other tasks and miss things, just as those who skip or speed read. When we come together it is interesting to hear how some audio books cope with different accents which in their turn enhance understanding.  Some of our members have busy lives, and travel or drive for many hours, and wouldn't otherwise have time to sit down and read a hard copy. 

I am currently reading two books: one novel and a book about Creepy Crawlies, which is excellent though the turn of phrases a little dated, but given the age of the book not unreasonable. I picked this up in the NT second hand book shop at Barrington Court a couple of weeks ago.  Mr S picked up the book, only a couple of days ago, and read a little and praised the style, pictures etc.  

My books almost always have slips of paper at different pages, with notes for further reading, or re reading etc.  

Hauser & Wirth - First Visit

Hauser & Wirth towards the Radić Pavilion

Hauser & Wirth 

For our Friday 'day out'  just over a week ago, we headed out to visit the gardens at Hauser & Wirth near Bruton, which they call the 'Oudolf Field'.  I can't fathom why we haven't been before, as we have driven past them many times, and of course had a stroll round Bruton which is a lovely small Somerset village where we often stop off at 'At the Chapel': a lovely bakery cum café cum restaurant with their wood fired ovens. I can't believe I have not posted a blog about Bruton yet, as we visit quite regularly.

I suppose it may have been that I had wondered when the best time to visit would be, or maybe even whether it would be worth the admission fee if it wasn't quite the right time to visit.  I now would say that anytime would be worth visiting to see what appealed in the gardens and just to enjoy the location of the gardens. Also on arriving we found that access to the gardens and the gallery are free, and at ten in the morning we almost had the garden to ourselves.  Watering was taking place which explains how the gardens were looking in tip top condition, and luckily they have their own water reserves.

As we walked around the beds, our eyes were drawn upwards towards the Radić Pavilion, which is quite a size set on large blocks of stone.  It is a large space internally and very enjoyable to walk on its sloping deck.

Sitting in the cool out of the sun this is the long view over the surrounding countryside.

I took photographs just for my usual notes on plants etc., and it is far more interesting than what can be seen here.  We shall certainly be visiting again soon.

The spent flowers added interesting textures and forms.  Seeing planting in groups like this was a revelation and whereas a single specimen having gone over is probably best removed or cut down in my garden, blocks of plants offer the possibility of keeping the whole block to enjoy its development from flower through to seed and seeing its form in the winter.

I couldn't see names for all the blocks and have ordered the book about the planting of the gardens from our library to learn a little more.

I hadn't seen this plant growing before, and using the Google Lens found it to be Datisca cannabina.. It certainly had a wow factor.

Datisca cannabina

I could finally appreciate the value of growing plants in clumps, and with quite a good range in my garden I have the idea to follow this trend more so.

One bold clump of colour is probably even more effective than many close together, and the foil of green clumps or others with form and texture taught me much. I can understand that careful design and choice of plants is paramount to achieving this effect, and is a signature of the designer 

In places I think two or three different varieties of plants were used together, something that I hope to learn more about from the book.

The waterlilies were lovely as well as the floaters and marginals would be an inspiration for anyone wanting to create or improve on their pond.

I guess planting distance with the clumps of plants helps to get this pleasing cushiony and very pleasing effect.

At the end of our walk we enjoyed a delicious brunch in the courtyard of their Roth Bar. 

The sculptures from the Niki de Saint Phalle & Jean Tinguely looked vibrant in the sunshine and against the clear blue skies. 

There are lots of activities going on that I will be looking over these to perhaps time our next visit to the garden so as to be able to sample those, but then the gardens would probably not be as quiet!