Six on Saturday (18 September 2021)

When the sun has shone, hot and summer-like, bees and hoverflies buzzing busily from one flower to another, I’ve been able to fool myself that Autumn is some way off. True, the sun is sitting lower in the sky with a tendency to dazzle of late, the days are getting much shorter and leaves have begun to fall from the odd tree, forming blankets of yellow here and there. But I think I’ll continue to delude myself for just a little while longer yet, dead-heading this and that in an attempt to keep things blooming for as long as possible, including my first Six on Saturday…

1. An Osteospermum, possibly ‘Tresco Purple.’ I lost my two Osteospermum’s last winter but thankfully several cuttings survived in the mini greenhouse. Planted out in the front garden in early summer, they’re starting to form some nice bud-covered clumps. I think I may dig these up and put them back in the greenhouse in a month or so.

2. A plant that will definitely need cosseting over the winter is this Chocolate Cosmos. Bought as a bare-root plant from Wilko, it bounced back from a severe munching in the spring and has finally got into its flowery stride. It’s impossible not to walk past it without taking a moment to appreciate the chocolatey fragrance.

3. The Chocolate Cosmos wasn’t the only plant that proved popular with the gourmet gastropods earlier in the year. Having survived the winter in a pot, Helenium ‘Fuego’ was planted in a border near the patio and appeared to be doing well. So well in fact that I stopped checking up on it, assuming the slimy ones weren’t interested. Several weeks later and all that remained were a few nibbled stems. It was hastily plonked back in a pot and spent a month or two on the swing seat recuperating. The Sneezeweed has since been returned to the border and has been flowering for several weeks.

4. Next up, Garlic Chives. I don’t tend to have much luck with the regular edible chives for some reason, but these have done really well over the past few years. A late flowering Allium, they’re proving popular with insects.

5. As are the Sedums, which have been covered with bees. The tiny flowers are turning a deeper shade of pink with each passing day.

6. And finally… A new addition to the garden back in the spring, Fuchsia ‘Delta’s Sarah’ has put on quite a bit of new growth, producing beautiful white and purple blooms. I’m hoping it will prove to be just as hardy as ‘Army Nurse.’

They were my Six on Saturday. For more Sixes on Saturday, from all around the world, take a look at the site of the chap who started it all over at https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com.