For a change it’s been a very calm week weather-wise and the garden has appreciated the rest. The season has definitely changed here with autumn well under way. It must be autumn as the bulbs have started arriving! Anyway, here’s this weeks mixed season Six.
- I’ve grown Salvia uliginosa for a few years and it normally reaches four to five feet high. This year, along with many other herbaceous plants, it has grown taller than usual and is currently around seven feet high! Being so tall it was badly blown by the recent storms and is looking a little unkempt.
- After seeing Agastache on other Sixes last year I couldn’t understand why I’d never grown it. I bought a young plant late last summer, took a couple of cuttings and overwintered the original plant in the cold frame. It has been flowering for weeks and weeks and I keep thinking I’ll include it next week, then next week. Ideally, it should have had it’s moment here a couple of weeks ago as it is going over a bit. Definitely a keeper though.
Only one of the cuttings made it through the winter but it isn’t variegated any more!
- I grow a lot of Fuchsias, mainly half-hardy ones that spend the winter under glass. Having battled with Capsid Bug for the last couple of years the plants have had a rest from those pests this year and have been looking great. Sadly, Fuchsia Gall Mite has really taken hold in the last month and while cutting the stems back removes the affected parts it also means that the Fuchsias have no flowers. This is a problem that has been growing over the last few years and I think I’m going to have to stop growing them for a few years, but what to replace them with? A newer Fuchsia addition that hasn’t been affected is ‘Lechlade Gordon’. It has flowered well and the seed pods are very attractive. And the colour matches the turning leaves of the Cobaea behind.
- The grasses come into their own at this time of year adding a lot of movement in the borders. Chasmanthium latifolium is commonly known as Sea Oats and has beautiful, flattened flower spikes. They don’t show very well here as it was a bit windy. I’m sure it will feature again.
- The Hylotelephiums are starting to flower and every one is a bee magnet (apart from when taking photographs)
- The plants I really look forward to in the autumn are the Michaelmas Daisies. I visited the National Collection at Picton Garden/Old Court Nurseries near Malvern a couple of years ago and added a few plants to my garden 🤣. One of the first to flower is Aster amellus ‘King George’.
The weather looks fair here for the weekend and my plan is to go out there with pencil and paper and start to list plants to go, plants to move, where I might squeeze some bulbs in etc. Sounds a good plan but I’m sure I’ll get distracted by weeds, dead-heading, cuttings to take. The list is, thank goodness, endless.
Have a great weekend, whatever you are doing and don’t forget to make time to check in with our leader at https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/
Six on Saturday 
This salvia is very pretty, I didn’t know this variety.
About agastaches, they are a real bee and butterfly magnet. I cut mine down at the end of the season , mulch the plant and it starts again in the spring.
Always in love with these asters…😍
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Yes, that salvia is a lovely, intense blue. Mr Propagator gave me a cutting of a blue salvia a few years ago. It takes a while to flower but it’s worth the wait. While on the subject of Mr P’s cuttings, one of the last things I brought home was a similar Agastache to yours. It’s small but very healthy.
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I think I’m going to keep the cutting in it’s pot for the winter and then plant it out next spring.
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Ah, the blue of that salvia is really something, and also very pretty with your phlox. At this time of year the asters and anemones (and of course dahlias) keep going!
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Getting distracted is something that I am afflicted with! Picton Garden is a fabulous place. We visited a few years ago and loved it, September is the best time and your King George is gorgeous. I bought three asters (as they were known then) and still have them in a large container.
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