Six on Saturday - 18th October 2025

We are so lucky that it is past the middle of October, and days have still been mild, washing has dried outside, and the garden is still a place to enjoy and to spend time in, even to sit and enjoy a cuppa in the sunshine.  I'm joining in with a few blogging friends writing about six items from the garden, we congregate over on Jim's blog. 

 1. Autumn colours have started in the back garden, whilst in the front garden the Amelanchier trees are now totally devoid of leaves.

The little Acer 'Wakaranai'.  Its 'Godmother' is my gardening Sis who came up with its name as its label was lost.  It has grown very much over to one side but is far too long in my opinion.  Advice gives the dormant period as being the best time to prune the acer, so one not frosty day I shall have to pluck up courage and decide how to approach the task.

2. There is still a lot of colour and other plants are just starting their flowering.

Out in the front garden, despite the drought, the Nerine bowdenii are in flower.  Last year I was given this big clump by my friend Hilary. They were so hard packed together it was impossible for me to divide them, so they went in just as they were.

3.  Bulbs full of promise?

This week I potted up the bulbs I had received from Pottertons:

2 pots of Fritillaria Michailovskyi, 5 bulbs in each

4 pots of Fritillaria Meleagris alba aphrodite, 5 bulbs in each  

2 pots of Fritillaria Meleagris, 5 bulbs in each

5 pots of Tulipa sylvestris, 5 bulbs in each

You may well wonder why not plant straight in the garden?  Good question, I can't exactly say where the snowdrops and other spring flowers are, so I have put the bulbs in plastic pots and in the spring when spring beauties are coming up, I shall be able to guage where best to site them.

4. More autumn colour

Ginkgo biloba 'Mariken'

5. This is the season of spiders and spiders webs, but I saw no webs yesterday when I spied these two sunning themselves on Chrysanthemum blooms.

Pisaura mirabilis

6. Yesterday morning during breakfast Mr S started to enquire about the flowers growing just outside the conservatory window, 

I bought these as very little plants and could not have known how tall they would grow.  Here there are different coloured flowers on separate stems. Further along the bed is a much taller plant, even taller than me with Magenta coloured blooms:

Then over in the bed alongside the gravel garden this is the first of three large Cosmos plants that is yet to flower:

It just goes to show that for less than a cup of coffee ie £2.00, half a dozen little seedling plants from a charity stall can give one such late beautiful colour, blooms and so much pleasure, in a garden. From a seed to flowers in one season, the wonder of annuals.

Last weekend as I sat after a pleasurable spell of work in the garden, I took a rest and listened to the Twin Doctors Chris and Xand van Tulleken discuss the scientific findings regarding the question: Is nature good for us?  It included some interesting aspects regarding being out in nature and gardening and was well worth a listen. Of course those of us whose happy place is outside in the garden would have already felt the benefits they were talking about with Baroness Kathy Willis, Professor of Biodiversity at Oxford University.

Six on Saturday - 20 September 2025

The garden has finally started to recover with the rain, so it is with a lighter heart that gardened this week, and according to custom Six items from the garden are being posted, and linked into Jim's post.  Lots to see there from several other SOSers.  You are welcome to join in if you wish, with Jim explaining the guidelines.

1. When I posted this  Allium senescens ssp. glaucum growing in the gravel garden in 2023, I wrote that I intended to divide it.  I didn't and now it is even wider and full of flower.  It may flower late but all summer it has still been attractive with its curling grey green leaves. Yesterday the sunshine brought out the butterflies and they just loved this, but could I get near enough to photograph clearly...they certainly were camera shy.

Allium senescens ssp glaucum

2. One of the trees I have enjoyed particularly in the autumn when visiting other gardens is Cercidiphyllum japonicum -   I love scents in   garden and The Katsura Tree as it is called in Japan gives off a lovely toffee apple scent.  Of course the garden is far too small for such a tree, but I could start to grow one and keep it small, and to my delight found that you can buy very young trees.  I got this one from Jurassic Plants, and it shall get lots of tlc and we shall see how it develops over the years.

Cercidiphyllum japonicum

3. Since I found the tree that I really wanted on line at Jurassic Plants, I had a look to see what other little plant caught my fancy and I decided to give Corylopsis sinensis a go.  Its common name is Chinese Winter Hazel and again with its fragrance in the spring, and good autumn colour. I hope to bring it on for a few years till it starts to flower.  The planting instructions were clear and straight forward and very detailed.  They were very well packed, and planted up as per the instructions within an hour of their arrival.  It seems strange to plant the pot with its pot into the larger pot which I shall use, but knowing the reasons why it makes sense to me. 

Corylopsis sinensis - Chinese Winter Hazel

4. Early morning low light in the garden: a special time and a plant from Special Plants: 

Miscanthus nepalensis

5.  Some of the cyclamen I grew from seeds received from the Cyclamen Society are throwing up flowers for the first time. I was not quite sure that it was as the packet said, and thanks to posting on the Cyclamen Society Facebook page, I had identification by Steve Walters and John Lonsdale that the two plants I showed were Cyclamen intaminatum. Isn't wonderful that such experts give time and help through these societies.  I even had the comment 'nice leaf'! New labels with the correct name are now in the pot.

Cyclamen intaminatum

The flowers are much smaller than Cyclamen hederifolium, so I shall be keeping these in a pot rather than releasing them into the garden.

6. The cosmos that I bought as seedlings are finally flowering.  The plants are very tall but finally they are showing their colours.

and only when I was looking at some of the pictures and blowing them up on the computer did I see that one of the blooms was host to a Flower Crab Spider, it is still small and if you want a hint it is at about 31 minutes past.

I'm out this morning to my local HPS monthly meeting, and taking a great specimen of the Chrysanthemum Picasso.  I took the tiniest of material early in the year as cutting, and it has made an extraordinary good plant in just one season. 

May in the garden - Six things for 'Six on Saturday'

My garden, unlike Jim's who now hosts this weekly trot round the garden to find six things to mention, is not 'visitor' worthy at the moment. The front garden may appeal to plants people or visitors on the close.  Jim is opening his garden this summer, bless him, he is working hard to get it in perfect form.Jim is opening his garden this summer, bless him, he is working hard to get it in perfect form.

1. Close to where we sit and have lunch in the back garden is a tub which has had the same planting for the past three years.  The Nemesia Wisley Vanilla are into their third year and are wafting their scent around in that sheltered corner, under the Corkscrew willow: Salix matsudana 'Tortusa'.

Nemesia Wisley Vanilla into their third year

2.We were sitting at the Blue Table having lunch and there was the smallest of spiders crawling across the table.  It was quite content and stayed there whilst I rushed inside and picked up the phone. It is probably Araniella cucurbitina.

Cucumber Green Orb Spider

I've been doing a major edit in the back garden, and have dug out some things which are either not performing, or just not working in the garden, gone are the two pear trees, and the large Garrya elliptica which has not borne a single tassel over the past years.  

Therefore for the rest will be from the front 'Mediterranean Garden'.

3. The two shrubs of Phlomis fruticosa Bourgaie are the largest shrubs in the area by the window.

Phlomis fruticosa Bourgaie

4. Behind it and rather being overwhelmed at present, are the Tulip sprengeri.  I really ought to move them to the sunnier side of the shrubs.  Just how deep will they have sunk?  Has anyone any experience of digging them up?   There are too many tulips in too tight a clump and in any case they need to be spread out a little.  When the foliage has died down I shall have a go. These too were sown from seed given to me from a friend's garden.

5. Along the south side of the house this 'Mediterranean themed' garden extends along a narrow bed.

Just to the left of this is another shrubby Phlomis which is  a sophisticated pink number: Phlomis pupurea 'Matagallo'. 

With its silver stems and leaves it is probably my favourite Phlomis, though it is a little tall, and I ought to cut it well back to allow the younger shoots to come through for next year, after the flowering is over.  This is another shrub that I grew from seed bought from Chiltern Seeds, though they do not seem to stock this at present.

 

Phlomis pupurea 'Matagallo' amongst grasses and Irises

6. Right up by the front door, should any elephant happen to be passing, it would go straight for this succulent: Portulacaria afra or elephant bush plant.

It feels as if Summer has arrived, a coolish British Summer though. I've had to fast forward through Chelsea on the TV, it seemed to be all about the presenters and just how many do they need?  Gave up in the end, I want to see gardens and plants and not hear about all the messages etc.  Is there an episode or somewhere to view the gardens?

Six on Satuday - 9 October 2021

1. Just as I was wondering what new I could learn about things happening in the garden at this time of the year, when I was piqued by a friend's post on facebook about a change in one of her Dahlias.  Her David Howard had changed most of its petals, whereas on mine just a few emerged white. For a couple of weeks I was wondering whether David was developing a Mallen Streak, or was just going 'grey' as the Autumn encroached, or might have suffered from inadequate watering whilst we were away.

I had a bit of a dig around on the internet, as I had given away my lovely book on Dahlias, and came across the term 'Colour Fluidity'.  The link will take you to an interesting article on Longfield's site, together with more interesting articles on Dahlia growing.  I may just have one Dahlia in the garden, but it is still interesting to learn about such things.

2. When it isn't a spider, and don't we all have lots of those at the moment, and it still have eight long legs, and still doesn't look like a Daddy Longlegs, but with no waist and no ability to spin a web this Harvestman is enjoying the sunshine.

3. And this is not spiders' webs covering the sempervivum Sprite, and not a cultivar of a Sempervivumn Arachnoideum as far as I know, but the frost like hairs on the leaves caught my fancy.  Sempervivums and succulents seem to be having a resurgence at the moment. It is going through its green stage though when I bought it earlier on this year it was quite red.

4. When I found a late flowering small allium I felt I had to get it, and it is just starting to open its flowers now.  Allium thunbergii Ozawa which is a small allium will hopefully clump up in the gravel garden.

5. A single plant in isolation with plenty of space to itself with its flowers glowing in the early morning light is a joy to behold.  I hope the bidens survives the winter.

At the stage when I was helping plant out the Elizabethan garden at Kenilworth Castle I learnt that when prize plants were first grown, they were grown in singles with plenty of space and given due reverence.  On the whole I seem to favour that approach, though I also like mass planting too. The first potato to come to England was planted in Kenilworth.

6. The cyclamen hederifolium whether special ones in pots such as this 'Silver Shield' with pink flowers

or otherrs such as this all Silver leaved form in the garden, continue to bejewel my garden, and give me great pleasure.

Those are the Six on offer today to add to the meme which Jon The Propagator set up ages ago, and which each week some of us join in with.

Tube Web Spider

I love looking at the wildlife in the garden...but was totally taken by surprise last night.  I was sitting quietly, reading, when I became aware of movement on the other side of the living room.  Glancing up a black spider with a relatively large abdomen was scuttling around the armchair.  It was the largest spider I have seen indoors in the UK.

There was no web, and if it was female I wouldn't want to think that I would leave her free to lay eggs, and hence be invaded with many dozens perhaps of such spiders.  Being on my own, I was aware that I ought to handle this spider carefully in case I got a bite.  For me even a small bite may lead to allergic reactions, and with no one around, I certainly did not want to put myself at risk.

I came back armed with a steel mug, and a sheet of paper, and went on the hunt.  Several minutes later I had found her/him and had it secure...but then at the last minute decided to photograph it before releasing it into the garden.  I placed it under a glass bowl where it scurried around the edge, and just would not face towards the lens.

It was camera shy for sure, and I just could not get a picture head on of the spider.  I do however feel that the closest match is  tube web spider (Segestria florentina)