This is my first attempt at a Six on Saturday (also first attempt at a blog!). It’s all plants this week
My first plant is Schizostylis coccinea ‘Ice Maiden’ (I think we’re supposed to call it Hesperantha coccinea now). I have a three varieties of Schizostylis in my garden, all in various shades of pink. I found this one at a local garden centre a couple of weeks ago and have eagerly awaited the first flowers. It’s very nearly white! Just a touch of pink.
Number two is Begonia sutherlandii. I bought some as small plugs back in April and they have flowered non-stop ever since.
My third choice is Salvia patens. I haven’t grown this for many years and had forgotten what a beautiful colour it is. It’s taken a while to start flowering but is well worth the wait. 
Number four is another blue flower – Ipomoea tricolour ‘Heavenly Blue’. I sowed the seeds quite late as the plants don’t like the cold and have planted them to grow through many of my climbers. It’s a shame the leaves don’t last. The photo doesn’t do justice to the colour!
A couple of weeks ago I went to Picton Garden and nursery where they hold the National Collection of Michaelmas Daisies. It’s a beautiful garden and, needless to say, I came away with a couple (maybe slightly more) of plants. This is a photo of an unnamed variety of Michaelmas Daisy that I have had for a few years it doesn’t seem to succumb to the slugs either
Plant six has to be Cyclamen hederifolium. It’s taken me years to get a decent show of these and now the seedlings are popping up all over the place. This particular one is a seedling from a large corm I bought in Amsterdam several years ago
That’s my six for this week. Happy gardening.
3. Some Fuchsias are hanging on as well. By now I’ve normally taken them out of the big pots, cut them back hard and put them in the glasshouse. It makes me realise the little micro climates that can be created within a very small area.
5. I bought Erysium ‘Apricot Delight’ in the spring and it has flowered continuously and prolifically ever since. It’s smaller, more delicate and more mound forming than ‘Bowle’s Mauve’. The frost has signalled the end of the flowers I think and I now realise that I haven’t taken any cuttings. Oops!
2. Ageratina altissima ‘Chocolate’ is a late flowering perennial and the first flowers appeared about ten days ago. It’s another name-changer and used to be Eupatorium rugosum ‘Chocolate’. Despite being in a sheltered part of the garden it was battered by Callum but has bounced back really well. It’s growing in a fairly shady and dry area and seems to be very happy. It’s supposed to like a moist spot but I haven’t told it this.
3. Salvia microphylla ‘Hotlips’ grew really well last year and I overwintered some cuttings. Although the new plants have grown well there weren’t many flowers in the summer as the dreaded Capsid Bug did a lot of damage. Flowers are finally appearing en masse and one plant has reached an incredible size and is going for border domination. It’s over five foot wide now. The rate of growth that some plants achieve in one season is amazing. The time of year affects the flower colour of Hotlips, apparently; red earlier in the season, red and white in July and August and pure white in the autumn. I seem to have all three at the moment.
4. There are several Heucheras in the garden and I bought this one a few weeks ago to add to the collection. It is a large leaved variety and I have the perfect spot for it – once I’ve moved the current occupant. It’s labelled as ‘Fire Alarm’ but that doesn’t seem to be correct. Pictures of Fire Alarm on line don’t seem to have the green margins. Can anyone identify it?
5. As mentioned in a previous Six a couple of Ricinus communis have reached great heights this year. This one is now well over seven foot tall and is flowering well but the leaves suffered last weekend. I don’t think that the seeds will have time to ripen, sadly. The flowers are under-stated and only last a day but the seed pods are great. I’ve managed to save seeds from another plant, the inner seedcase ‘explodes’ to release the seeds.
6. Like most grasses Miscanthus varieties are reliably dependable. This is ‘Silberfeder’ and it has grown slowly over the years and looks wonderful with the sun shining through it. The photo doesn’t do it justice.
That’s another week gone! I hope you have the time and the weather to get outdoors this weekend. Then check out the other Sixes this evening at 
2. Tricyrtis hirta featured in a Six the other week (Jim’s?) but it’s the first year that I’ve grown them so here they are again. The common name is Toad Lily and as I couldn’t see any resemblance to a toad I asked Google why it was called this. Apparently, a Filipino tribe used to rub the sticky juice of the plant on to their hands and arms before going frog hunting. The frogs were attracted to the smell and were easier to catch due to the stickiness. Several stems have been blown horizontal but these are still standing.
3. The Asters/Symphyotrichums are continuing to light up the garden. S. Novae-angliae ‘Andenken an Alma Potschke’ has the most vivid pink flowers, stands really upright at about four and a half feet and, most days, is covered with wildlife.
4. Another Symphyotrichum, this one is from Picton Court Nursery, whose label is buried somewhere in the plant. Similar height to Alma with slightly smaller flowers this wind-blown photo doesn’t do it justice.
5. I’ve grown Geranium palmatum in a pot this year so that I can move it to the glasshouse for the winter. I’ve never managed to keep it from one year to the next so gave up on it for several years. I collected some seed a while back, sowed some and have kept the rest for spring sowing. Seedlings emerged a couple of weeks ago and the first true leaves are coming through. Should I leave them in this pot until spring or pot them on individually?
6. My final variety of Hesperantha coccinea has started to flower this week. It’s called ‘Ice Maiden’ and is (nearly) pure white. It’s been a bit swamped by its neighbours but that’s the story of my garden.
Another six selected and there’s still a lot of colour around. I hope the weather improves as I’ve still lots of bulbs to plant in the ground, I don’t remember ordering that many! The pots are mostly done though. Thanks for looking in and enjoy all the other Sixes at our host’s site –
2. The Salvias haven’t performed brilliantly this year. The Capsid bug attacks earlier in the year have meant that the plants have grown to a good size but without many flowers. The bug activity seems to have finally stopped and the Salvias are starting to look great. Let’s hope the recent cold nights aren’t repeated for a while. I bought this one, S. microphylla ‘Heatwave Glimmer’ at the Malvern Spring Show. I’ve taken some cuttings for insurance.
3. Although Westonbirt Arboretum isn’t very far from me I don’t get there very often. I last visited three years ago, at this time of year, and loved the foliage colour of Euonymus alatus. The following spring I found a little one on a ‘reduced’ bench in a local garden centre and had to give it a home. It’s slowly growing and the leaves have been transformed in the last few days.
4. I added a couple of Hydrangeas to the garden last autumn and they’ve really struggled with this summers heat and drought. This picture is of one that’s been in the garden for quite a while now. I can’t remember/find it’s name – all I remember is that it was a Japanese ‘star’ flowered variety. The leaves are smaller than usual this year but it flowered well and looks nearly as good now as when the flowers first opened. The pink is deepening with each passing day.
5. The Michaelmas Daisies are continuing to add to the autumn colour. This is the first time I’ve grown this one. It’s about four foot tall and, until the recent high winds, stood strongly upright. The flowers are very large (for a M. Daisy) and an insect magnet, except when I took the photo of course! It’s Symphyotrichum novae-angliae ‘St. Michael’s. The novae-angliae varieties are supposed to be less prone to mildew – so far so good!
6. At the other end of the height scale is this little beauty. It was labelled as ‘Little Carlow’ but clearly isn’t. It’s a keeper though.
It’s a wet, windy and cold day here today so I think I’ll be the gardening quilter and stay indoors and play with fabric. Hopefully, tomorrow I can be the quilting gardener and start planting pots of bulbs and spring bedding and start clearing leaves. I hope you have time to garden this weekend in between checking out all of the other Sixes at 
R. Crown Princess Margarita’
R. ‘Snow Goose’
2. Last autumn I went to Picton Court Garden and nursery. They hold the National Collection of (Asters) Symphyotrichum. The plants I bought have all done well with a few still to flower. This one is S. novi-belgii ‘Flamingo’. It was knocked for six by the high winds last week but the flowers are still beautiful
Another week, another Six chosen. Thanks for looking in.