Six on Saturday 23/10/21

I usually take my pictures for my SoS on the Friday but somehow, even though I was out in the garden yesterday afternoon, I failed to realise that it was Friday. We’ve been out this morning so here is a very late offering for this weeks Six.

• The glasshouse thermometer recorded an overnight temperature of 6.6 degrees on Tuesday and an even lower 5.4 on Thursday. Things are definitely starting to look a bit scruffy in the herbaceous borders and the time has come to do some major cutting down/clearing out to make room for plants I’ve been growing on and for bulbs. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of autumn colour in the garden this year but the Parthenocissus henryana is slowly beginning to colour up.

• The leaves on some of the Hydrangeas are changing colour but not on this un-named one by the fern wall. The drying flower heads keep their form very well though.

• Last year I planted a rooted cutting of a plant I was given (and grew) as Bidens scabiousifolia in the garage border. I don’t think this name is correct but can’t find another name. Can anyone help? It was fairly rampant there so I removed it last autumn. It must be one of those plants that grows back from a tiny bit of remaining root and I kept meaning to remove the resulting growth. And then it started flowering. It’s now over six feet tall, beginning to run again and is definitely coming out. I will, however, keep some in a pot over winter and make a point of planting it anew each spring.

Bidens with Solanum jasminoides ‘Glasnevin’, Cobaea scandens and Ipomoea ‘Heavenly Blue’ behind on the garage wall.

• The Dahlias are definitely past their best and heavy rain and strong winds earlier in the week caused quite a bit of damage. However, there is still quite a lot of colour and the dark red single ‘Verone’s Obsidian’ is out shining all of the others. It was one of the first into flower in early summer and hasn’t stopped since. The bees also love it.

• Last winter I planted a small Carex morrowii ‘Ice Dance’ in a large patio pot with bulbs underneath. I’d intended to plant it in a border in the spring but it had thrown up so many offshoots that I was a bit worried about ‘releasing’ it into open ground so I left it where it was and added some trailing Persicaria and Ivy around the edge. I’m glad I left it as it has looked really good, if a little congested, ever since.

• Another patio pot to finish with. I bought six Begonia ‘Glowing Embers’ plugs five (?) years ago. They did well and when I emptied the pot I found they’d made little tubers which I over-wintered, not really sure if they were big enough to survive. I’ve had them ever since and the tubers are now hand-sized. This is one plant in a 14″ pot and it has flowered non-stop all summer. I’m not complaining but I really need the pot for some bulbs!

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend. I’m hoping that tomorrows forecast rain doesn’t happen so that I can garden in the dry 🤞

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