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.
The Helenium looks grand. Good old swing seat – it’s been the saviour of many a plant in this, the year of the slug (as I’ve just named it)!
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The Year of the slug is very apt indeed. We were looking at a potential replacement swing seat, metal with comfy canvas seats, when it dawned on me that while nice to sit on it was totally impractical for putting pots of plants on.
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I had to rescue a dahlia from the slugs and mine sits happily on a patio chair where it it now thriving and growing new shoots.
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Well done! I’ve had a fairly rubbish year with Dahlias. Some have been eaten but others just haven’t really done much of anything.
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Delta Sarah has been Hardy here, but she was much more flouriforous in years one to three. I will take some cuttings and ditch the original. I am going to do that with a couple of others too.
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That’s useful to know. I tend to chop my other other fuchsia down to the ground in the spring (copying my mother-in-law’s technique) and was pondering doing something similar with this one once established.
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You also chose to start a very bright photo of osteospermums. As here, they are annuals that don’t overwinter. I have been growing the same fuchsia as you for several years. In a pot of course and in winter I put it in my cold unheated greenhouse
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I’ve just been reading the comments on Jim’s post regarding his fuchsia. The original oesteospermums survived one winter before snuffing it the next – I’m glad I took those cuttings when I did.
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The year of the slug is indeed apt, though I thought that was last year, or the year before. My Chocolate Cosmos started shooting, then died; vine weevil suspected, though I never looked. Heleniums we struggle with because of eelworm and our Osteo cuttings have been damping off after planting out this year. Delta’s Sarah comes through some winters better than others for us, can lose all the top growth but always comes again from the base. With you too on garlic chives, anything flowering now is good and you’ve reminded me I was going to get some more Allium senescens, which is related, though I can’t remember now who was selling them.
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Aphids have been the main menace in my garden this year (particularly on the elders) and I have a suspicion earwigs are to blame for my nibbled Cosmos flowers. That’s useful to know about Delta’s Sarah. I’ve just been looking up Allium senescens. Tempting…
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Well done on your Helenium rescue operation, it’s a strategy I deploy too with good results! Great purple on that osteospermum. I have the opposite chive problem to you – garden chives thrive, garlic chives sulk – but after recently moving the latter to richer soil in a planter in part shade they are doing better.
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How strange regarding the chives. I must try moving the garden chives around a bit and see if I can find a position where they’ll do well! They’re one of the herbs we eat a lot of.
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Moving is often a great solution to many a plant problem!
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I’ve always wondered how choclatey a chocolate cosmos smells. I might treat myself. That fuchsia is lovely.
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Quite chocolatey. I usually end up consuming the real stuff soon after.
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Lovely photos this week Graeme! Chocolate cosmos is a beauty, worth a little extra care and attention.
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It will be nurtured through the winter. I may even try and remember to label it so that I know what it is come the spring.
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Good plan!
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Very nice fuchsia, different. My Chocolate Cosmos was planted bareroot and hasn’t done much. I’d rather hoped it was one of those perennials that blooms its second year. I love your sneezeweed. I have a Bigelow’s, and bought it without paying attention to the fact it likes it moist. I have no idea where it will get that, so it’s still potted!
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I hadn’t realised the Helenium liked moist conditions. That’s good to know. It certainly did better in a pot last year, presumably because I watered it each day. I hope your choccy cosmos ups its game. Some other bare-rooted plants that were planted this spring haven’t flowered at all.
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Ooh what a lovely six. Love that Fuchsia and the Helenium and your photo of the Chocolate Cosmos is brilliant. I can never quite capture that chocolatey colour. Mine are still flowering but I think the earwigs have discovered one plant. I leave it out over winter with a wool mulch, but the new one is in a pot and I think I shall put that somewhere safe.
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That’s a stunning fuchsia
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Fingers are crossed that it continues to do well!
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I love the sound of the Chocolate Cosmos. I like a flower with a good smell. Delta’s Sarah is a very attractive looking Fushcia — great combination of colours.
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It’s taken me a long time to get around to acquiring a Chocolate Cosmos having appreciated them in nurseries for years.
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What spectacular closeups and what an amazing fuchsia, woohoo 🙂 I had no idea a cosmos could smell of chocolate either.
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Thank you. Regular sniffing of the chocolate cosmos has lead to increased chocolate consumption!
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Beautiful fuchsia. I must try again with the chocolate cosmos. Both my last attempts were eaten by something…….not me!
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This one was nibbled to nothing early on but thankfully recovered. It’s taken a while to get going but it was worth the wait!
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