It must be Autumn. The days have been shortening for a while now but a few weeks of sunshine belied the truth. It’s time to move on with the season. I’m still moving plants around, digging up the excess alchemillia mollis was a struggle as they are so established in the garden, and I’ve added some new plants. The bulbs have arrived. I’ve planted out the erythroniums and ipheon uniflorum but left the muscari, crocus tommasinianus ‘Ruby Giant’ and narcissus actaea until the soil was more forgiving. There have been a few days of rain now so things should be easier. Now for this week’s six.

One

I was waylaid at the supermarket by this heuchera, ‘Grape Timeless’. The colour just sucked me in and so home it came. I moved some of the magenta phlox around and this has found a shady corner in the space they vacated. I’m now wondering if I should have bought a couple more for impact. On the other hand I still have space for something else.

Two

Just round the corner from the heuchera sits this hylotelephium (sedum/ice plant). It grows out of a cramped hole in a low wall and I am amazed it does so well. This year the colour is splendid. The rain has laid it low but now it overhangs the wall in a good way.

Three

Earlier this week the berries on the viburnum were glowing metallic blue in the sunshine and looked amazing. This tree was in poor health when we arrived five years ago but some remedial pruning and feeding seems to have helped it along.

Four

The sprawling geranium ‘Ann Folkard’ has flowered erratically this year. But I’m glad to see it is having another go. It hasn’t really established itself well but I am trying not to move it, again.

Five

It’s so difficult to photograph new grasses well. This one is Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’. There is only one flowering stem this year but it is the colour I was hoping for.

Six

Here’s another grass that I am hoping will settle in and become a regular in the garden. Its pennisetum villosum. It has a H3 rating (-5 to -1 degrees) and I thought I had lost it last year but it has just about pulled through and finally put out a flowering stem. So far it hasn’t self seeded but I live in hope.

I was feeling a little battle worn as autumn settled in. Several new plants added this year succumbed to slugs and snails and last winter pushed many plants to edge. Optimism will come to the surface when I plant out the rest of bulbs and add a few more perennials. Even as I bemoaned my losses I consoled myself with the thought of the free plants that come from cuttings, divisions and self-seeders. Onwards, ever onwards!

The Propagator has a sunny, colourful six for this week. But I don’t envy his bulb planting programme! Enjoy your autumn gardening or is it spring for you in the Southern hemisphere?