This weeks six in the Saturday has been written earlier in the week as I am now on holiday down in Dorset. So I will look forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to when I return home.
Sedum/stonecrop
The first of six is the sedum/stonecrop. The plant flowers in Autumn, then dies down. I like this point of the year when the plant starts to grow back up from the ground looking like sepervivums.
Crocus
This dainty crocus has come up after it’s companions have already been and gone. No less pretty for being on its own.
Passion flowers
Tesco is selling off different climbers at cheap price. I’ve gone for two passion flowers. I have one variety already. These two are going to be planted either side to give a solid section of fence covered in the flowers. While I like to encourage natives the bees still love the open flowers of passion flowers. I have native honey suckle and various clematis of native and non-native origins elsewhere in the garden.
One blue variety: passiflora caerulea.
One white variety: passiflora Constance Elliot.
Bird bath
I’ve added a solar panel floating fountain and some stones to the bird bath I’d bought with birthday vouchers. A little bit of a novelty purchase. The bird bath reviews had said the birds enjoyed one of these fountains in the bath, so thought I’d try it. It gives little squirts of water, rather than continuous flow, when the sun is on it. So far it’s been overcast, so don’t think it’s been at its best yet. I fancy a proper water feature, but I’m not ready to invest money into wiring outside, so this little tinkle of water will do for now.
When the sun has been out it gave a solid continuous jet.
Gardening reading
On the gardening reading front I’ve finished reading Jim Buttress-The people’s gardener. This has been on sale this March for kindle at 99p. It has been a enjoyable quick read. Jim was encouraged in a love of gardening by his dad, from there he has worked in nurseries and town parks. He then went on to train at Wisley, where he failed to graduate due to the academic side. After this he went onto work in the Royal Parks and eventually as, he’s probably best known, a RHS judge and Chelsea Flower Show gold award winner. Life at Wisley was fascinating, as was hearing about his time working for the different parks. This book won’t improve your horticultural knowledge in any major way. But a pleasant read for 99p. My only gripe was how he makes himself out to be a working class lad working his way up from the bottom. He talks about dealing with resentment because he wasn’t the right class. His father was ex navy, then an accountant, so not really a working class upbringing, more middle class. That said he still comes off as a decent bloke who has done well for himself working in a profession he loves. What more can you ask for from life?
Glory of the snow
The last entry for this weeks six I don’t remember planting. I believe it is glory of the snow. I vaguely remember buying the bulbs as they sold off cheap at the end of season last year. However I think I have then dug over the ground and displaced them leading to these forgotten beauties being randomly spread around an area of the border.
The standard blue variety a bit droopy from the rain.
And the white variety.
Over this coming week I am in Dorset, so I may leave off doing six next week or may do a travelling six depending on where we visit. Hope you all have good weekends and the weather treats your gardens kindly.
I love the floating fountain, will look for one over here. Sedum is something that grows really well in my garden, but I wish I knew a way to stop it falling over when in flower. So untidy!
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The fountains no good without sun, but was cheap. Even if I just get a few seasons out of it till I can make a better water feature.
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I use a bit of twine attached to a couple of canes, pulled tight about halfway down the stems to keep them more upright, the canes tucked away at the back so you cant see them.
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Yes that makes sense, thank you. Mine are looking a bit miserable now as they come to the end of their flowering.
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Sedums can be tip pruned at 6 to 8 inches to shorten the plant, but this will also delay flowering. I do this with my Autumn Joy sedums.
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I think passion flowers are amazing – so exotic looking and yet the hardy ones cope well in our climate.
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I really like them. The existing one has taken a battering with snow. I’ll have to see if it recovers. But it grew quickly enough to establish well in a season.
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That floating fountain is amazing! Thanks for showing it.
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Good idea this floating fountain! I also use a solar panel for my pond pump or for a fan inside the greenhouse but this little thing is charming! I can’t wait to see you white passifora in bloom. Give us news of this! (Do you know if this one is as hardy as P Caerulea?)
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No little info on the passionflower with it, but cheap enough to take a chance on.
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Love a bargain plant. Those look like good little plants. I had a passiflora but it didnt like the exposed position it was in, it died…
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I bought a couple of Clematises from Tesco’s nice plants and really healthy.
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I bought the same solar fountain on Amazon after seeing one on a tour of local gardeners. It’s great in the sun but stops working if the water isn’t high enough.
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The RSPB bath, while a bit cheap looking, is quite deep so can fill it quite high.
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If you want a fountain that isn’t reliant on solar or on mains wiring, track down Bernini (in the UK, though, that means the TV shopping channel QVC). Battery powered but rechargeable so best of both worlds. Downside is that if and when a battery fails it’s a real pain until you discover that you can buy similar batteries on ebay or Amazon dirt cheap but need to do a bit of soldering to attach adapters to the terminals. Bit of a faff but once you’ve got the hang of it, a doddle. And the fountains are pretty good too. I have a 3-tier and a wall fountain. They run happily on built-in auto-timers for a month and a bit between charging.
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Thanks for the suggestion.
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O, do visit some Dorset gardens & give us a peek!
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Well the weather is currently down as horrible the next few days, so we’ve mainly been exploring the New Forest as we get some tree cover but might fit one in.
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Forest photos will do very nicely, too! Enjoy your holiday despite the weather.
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