#liriope

Six On Saturday: The end of a golden month

/ n20gardener / 14 Comments

September is ending well in terms of sunshine but I still feel I’m missing out on rain. The quantity of stored water is diminishing as I continue to water specific plants. Our apple harvest is good and bad. So many apples fell during the heat waves and there is high incidence of brown rot on one of the trees. Although we could probably get a few bottles of juice this year we have decided to enjoy the crop as eating apples. The good ones are particularly crisp and tasty. Here are six other things from the garden.

One

The garden feels a bit topsy turvy. Here’s a resurgent antirrhinum, flowering again after a desiccating summer.

Two

I kept a number of young plants in pots over the summer rather than plant them out. It was easy to see them all together and remember to water them. Here’s a Japanese anemone that I propagated from a root cutting. This went into the garden this week.

Three

This liriope has been in the garden for several years and hasn’t really caught my attention. This year is the best it has ever looked and it’s still rather scruffy. Probably time to divide it.

Four

I thought I had dug out this fuchsia last year. It did not look happy, but it has fought back and although it is quite small I give it huge respect for re-appearing. I’ll leave it alone.

Five

The hylotelephiums are having a very good year. I’m enjoying this phase of colour before it turns deeper red.

Six

This is one of the plants I’m still giving a can of water to every now and then. Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’. I’m showing this again because it still has it’s ivory colouring which I like.

I’ve sown a few seeds that I collected from the garden. I can report that the hollyhocks that seed themselves quite happily have rejected my seed tray of peat free compost topped with gravel. I wanted to have a few more white ones but only one has germinated. I have managed to get two blades of pennisetum villosum to appear which I consider to be a great success. Astrantia also turned up its nose at a space in the greenhouse. We can but try. We have a new fox cub in the garden. A gorgeous creature but not a welcome one as it chews the compost bags and strolls through the border with impunity. I hope to be able to start on moving a few plants soon. I have definitely got my spacing wrong and this needs to be sorted out. I hope your gardening spaces are enjoying the gentler conditions. Jim’s garden is closed for visits but generously, visitors to Garden Ruminations still get to have a peek.

Six On Saturday: More or less?

/ n20gardener / 22 Comments

I’m pretty sure all gardeners are constantly asking ‘What more can be added to the garden?’ and, especially at this time of year, ‘What do I need less of?’ I’ve just about finished thinning out the alchemillia mollis. I definitely needed less of them, lovely though they are. I’ve decided I need more salvias, in particular Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’. I should have thought of this earlier and taken some cuttings. Of course, ‘more bulbs’ is an annual cry and I have managed to plant a couple of hundred muscari bulbs this week. This six is a bunch of other things I could do with more of.

One

Nerines fall into the more of category. This is my only one and have bought bulbs over several years. I am envious of those who have swathes of these lining charming paths that wend their way through verdant borders. Here I have one in a pot. It’s a start and I am persuaded to buy bulbs again – or even pots of them in flower if I come across them.

Two

Cosmos ‘Dazzler’, I have the right amount of these I think, but then again they are popping out of the gloom so well at the moment that I could be persuaded to have more. I was lucky this year to have self seeders that I transplanted around the garden. Will I be so fortunate next year? I may have to sow a few seeds myself to be sure.

Three

Liriope ‘Big Blue’. I used to have more of these but they refused to flower so I moved them to a new spot. Unfortunately the new spot had been home to self seeded carex that I did not want and I think in my enthusiasm to rid myself of carex seedlings I may have pulled out a couple of Liriopes! This one has stayed strong and has flowered for the second year. Thoughts of division come to mind but I’m leaving well alone for the moment.

Four

Berries on the snowberry was the wish for last year and this year they have arrived. I have been hacking this shrub back for the last five years, which explains the lack of berries. I’ve been taking out a mass of dead wood, dealing with the subsequent regeneration and finally getting it into a more or less reasonable shape. Of course it grows relentlessly and I’d really like to have less of it but that’s not going to happen. The birds are enjoying the berries and it fills a difficult corner so I will learn to love it.

Five

Anemone ‘September Charm’, still going into October and I think it started sometime in August. I am a fan of anemones and I did have success taking root cuttings one year. SOS posts have recently introduced to me to some really zingy pink ones that are high on the wish list, more, more, more!

Six

An unknown variety of hydrangea, that generously offered a little more in the shape of this late flowering stem. I have several hydrangeas around the garden and thought I had enough but this year I added a little pot of ‘Limelight’. I am very impressed by how quickly it bulked up, more please.

Of course less weeds, less slugs, less fox poo and less tree seedlings would make life easier but then what would we gardeners have left to moan about! The Propagator blazes the trail ahead through the winter months, challenging us in the northern hemisphere to come up with the weekly six, while those in southern hemisphere get to show their blue skies and summer gardens. Plenty for all to enjoy.