Six on Saturday: 1.12.18 A new month

Well the garden media guild awards came and went this week. I’m not expecting my award in the post as I’m not a member, but enjoyed following the hashtag on Twitter as I’ve found lots of new gardeners. Hope those of you who went had a super time.

As we enter the last month of the year there are still a few surprising bursts of Summer colour around. The marigolds and borage are still going. A few ox-eye daisies are flowering. The Autumn flowering cyclamen are adding splashes of red and purple. But increasingly it’s the evergreen plants holding the structure of the garden together.

1. Pink rose

My repeat flowering pink rose keeps giving. There are still flowers coming and of reasonable quality. Each time a flower fades I figure that will be the last, then another comes! Each year it has got to a horrible stage of leaves eaten and blackened and I consider removing it, then I get a flush of flowers as everything else is fading reminding me why I’ve kept it.

2. Fuschia

Despite a few touches of frost and strong night time winds the fuschia is still going strong with a good spread of flowers.

3. Miniature iris

A new addition to my bulbs. I admired a lot of irises in other people’s gardens last year and wanted to add some. I’ve got a variety started in pots, that I can then move to where I want them at a later date. As with the tulips, Alice helped, so some may be upside down, on their sides or buried too deep, but I like having her involved. I had said I was done with planting bulbs, but we all know that I meant I was done until the sales come along.

4. Hostas

The garden centre was selling off hostas for £2 each. While it might seem a bit odd to be buying a pot that looks empty they should return. I got one hosta halycon and two fortunei aureomarginata. A reasonable saving for something that should come back. Both popular choices that are destined for pots on the patio if I can keep the slugs away.

5. Poppy feeder

These feeders were selling cheaper. I quite like them for adding a bit of colour through the year while also serving a functional role as a feeder.

6. Stunning succulents grow kit

I was fortunate enough to win this little kit through twitter. The kit contains everything you need to grow two varieties of succulents. I probably won’t start until the new year, but it looks like a nice set ideal for a Christmas present. Morgan and Thompson have released a number of these kits including rainbow veg, chillies, herbs, bonsai, sunflower, juicy fruit, exotic fruit and more. I might be tempted with the bonsai kit if this one works out. I may review this at a later date when I’ve got it set.

As an additional note to last weeks bug hotel blog Alice was straight back in and stealing pots. She returned it filled with stones.

Happy gardening weekends. I am celebrating the wife’s birthday, so probably won’t be out much, but I will find time to enjoy reading the rest of the exploits on hashtag #sixonsaturday

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