Six on Saturday 22/09/18

It’s been a rough couple of days for the plants in the garden as high winds from back to back storms have gone through. Even the large pots have been blowing over causing quite a lot of damage to the contents. I’ve dragged a few pots and the hanging baskets into the glasshouse to give them a bit of respite. Luckily, I’d cleared out the tomato and pepper plants the other day! The freezer contents grew considerably. Here’s this week’s six from my garden, photographed between gusts.

1. Last winter a friend gave me a cutting of a ‘climbing geranium’ and I overwintered it on a window sill. It grew straight up and so when I repotted it in the spring I pinched the top out (and rooted it of course). They’ve both grown steadily through the summer and branched out really well. I made frameworks from bamboo canes to tie them on to but didn’t realise how large they would grow.   This is the original plant, currently sheltering in the glasshouse. It’s now five foot tall and the other one isn’t a lot shorter. Has anyone grown one of these? Do I cut it down to overwinter it or leave it this height? I’ve taken cuttings as insurance (not really sure why as I’m not that keen on the flower colour!) so what will I do with half a dozen triffid geraniums!

All this growth has come from just one stem.

2. This is the third of four varieties of Hesperantha that I have. It’s H. coccinea ‘Mrs. Hegarty’. It’s normally a lot taller so I think the lack of water and extreme heat has had an effect.

3. This is a new addition to the border this year – Helenium autumnale ‘Short and Sassy’. I’m really pleased with it. The wind has split the plant a bit, hence the stakes.

4. I’ve started sorting out ‘problem’ areas in the borders. This is a dry spot that gets a lot of sun. The new occupants are Hylotelphium ‘Red Globe’ and Pennisetum setaceum ‘Sky Rocket’.

The emerging flower spikes of the Pennisetum are a beautiful pinkish-red colour

5. It’s not been a great year for my Clematis but they’ve struggled through and a few are putting on a late show. This C. viticella ‘Etoile Violette’ shares an obelisk with a dwarf Humulus lupus. I grew a non dwarf variety for several years and this one isn’t really much smaller.

6. And finally, another new to the garden daisy – Rudbeckia hirta ‘Prairie Sun’. I love the green cones. It makes a colourful corner growing with Penstemon ‘Garnet’ and Fuchsia ‘Tom West’.

It’s a working weekend combined with a very wet forecast so I don’t think there will be much gardening done but there’s the seed catalogues to read and plans to make. Thanks for reading about my Six and don’t forget to check out the other Sixes at https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/