Six on Saturday (9 June 2018)

The garden is looking a little sorry for itself at the moment having suffered at the hands of one of the deadliest foes a garden can face. What was that? Slugs and snails? Oh yes, they’re still about and enjoying the phloxes. But no, not the slugs and snails. Aphids? Well, they’re wreaking havoc with the Philadelphus and attempting to set up home on the young lupin plants (which I’ve still not put in the ground yet). Pardon? The wood pigeon? Well yes, he’s snapped and flattened the pale pink Jacobs Ladder bought last year. No, this is a new foe and there have been plant casualties, sorrowful shakings of the head, sniffles (purely hayfever related) and… What was that? For goodness sake, get on with it and just tell us what deadly foe it is of which you speak? Oh, of course. Yes, sorry, tis the chocolate-hobnob-munching-and-endless-mugs-of-tea-drinking kind. Tis builders.

Very nice builders. Conscientious about their work too. And as a size 12 footed gardener I’ve inflicted the odd bit of accidental damage myself from time to time. But armed with scaffolding, ladders, guttering, power tools and steal toe capped boots, well, I guess the likelihood of the odd mishap is inevitable. Anticipating the worst, I dug up a few of the more vulnerable and prized plants that were most likely to be at risk, potting them up and moving them to a safer place. But the foxgloves, sweet williams and the buddleia that I’d grown as a standard have taken a bit of a bashing. And it’s only week one. Ah well.

Still, here are my Six on Saturday, and there’s a bit of a scented theme.

A perennial evening primrose grown from seed by one of my main suppliers of plants, my mum. The one she had was orange apparently, which this one most definitely isn’t. Still, the flowers glow in the evening light and the scent is lovely. They open in succession, but their beauty is quite fleeting as each flower only lasts a day or so.

A patio rose which reminds be a little of the dog rose. Again, a lovely scent, if you can crouch down far enough to sniff them. I have a label for it somewhere…

The Philadelphus Belle Etoile has had a troubled year so far. It was originally planted behind a hardy fuchsia (which was moved to another spot in the spring) but I hadn’t anticipated that in competing with the fuchsia (which gets surprisingly large despite being cut back each spring) the mock orange would get so tall and leggy. Covered with buds, I was reluctant to prune it back until after it flowered. Then the blackfly got to it. As there were too many to squash (I took my eye off the ball I’m afraid) I tried spraying them every day with a mixture of washing up liquid, water and thyme oil (which had worked on the green fly on the lupins) but this lot seemed more resistant and I gave up in the end.

It has still flowered but it looks a little sorry for itself from a distance. It has a lovely scent which always reminds me of my childhood as we had an orange blossom in the front garden. As soon as as it’s finished flowering the secateurs are coming out.

I have mixed feelings for this Jasminum humile ‘Revolutum’. It’s described as being highly fragrant but I’m not convinced it’s even slightly fragrant. My mum had one apparently and she did warn me that it would be a disappointment. I didn’t listen though, and she was quite right. I always hope I’ve misjudged it and nip out in the morning, afternoon and in the evening just in case it releases this highly fragrant scent at a specific magical time. But no. It does look good at the back of the garden though. Still, I’m tempted to replace it.

Now this is highly fragrant. Daphne x transatlantica (Eternal Fragrance). A heady scent which I think of as ‘flutey’ (don’t ask me why). And it flowers pretty much nonstop throughout much of the year. The flowers do well in a bud vase too, filling a room with its flutey scent.

And finally, another anonymous rose. This was a gift and was supposed to be a patio rose. However, it turned out to be a climber, and a lovely one at that.

Want to join in with the Six on Saturday posts but not sure how? Then take a gander at the site of the chap who started it all over at https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com