Six on Saturday (16 March 2024)

Okay, all this blustery wet weather is becoming tiresome. Actually, it was tiresome back in February. It’s just tedious now. Perhaps a bit depressing too. In fact, let’s say it’s depressingly tedious. When’s a gardener supposed to get an opportunity to mow their increasingly untidy lawns, clean the mini-greenhouse and re-paint the blue shed? Actually, perhaps I’m grateful not to have had an opportunity to do that last task. Many of the spring flowers are looking decidedly battered – not helped by the continued petal munching of the tiny snails. But enough moaning – in the grand scheme of things such trifles are, well, trifling. Hmm, now I’m thinking of trifle. Stay focused Edwards – get on with your Six on Saturday… and it’s another mostly damp looking one.

1-3. Up first, a returnee from a free mixed pack of Narcissi that came with an order of bulbs from J. Parker’s back in 2022. I’d quite like some more but I’ve no idea what variety it is… although now I’ve typed that I have a vague recollection someone may have identified it last year. I’ll have to check later. Purchased after seeing it featured in one of the Propagator’s SoSs, Ficaria verna ‘Brazen Hussy’ has returned for another year, although I never did remember where I planted its partner – I’m assuming it is no more. I’m having to enjoy this lesser celendine purely for it’s foliage at the moment as the yellow flowers are proving popular with the slimy ones. The dark leaves are rather great though. And as predicted last week, here’s the Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-Mai’ again… and a brief glimpse of blue sky yesterday between all the showers.

4-6. After suffering a few wounds when pruning the climbing roses the other weekend, I’ve been pondering getting a third Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca ‘Citrina.’ They seem to do well in my north facing back garden, grown against the south and east facing fences. Tying-in is essential as the branches are rather lax, but it’s a fast grower, doesn’t get too tall, and the fragrant flowers are popular with the bees. A Narcissus of short stature, ‘Toto’ (and hands up if you said that doing a Dorothy Gale/Judy Garland impression) is just about surviving but not really thriving. This photo was taken earlier in the week before the snails set to work on the flowers. And finally… more disturbingly early Tulips – possibly ‘Apricona’ which started flowering at the beginning of April last year and the middle of April the year before that. It’s proving to be a reliably perennial variety.

They were my Six on Saturday, a meme originally started by The Propagator. For more Sixes on Saturday, from all around the world, head over to the blog of our Six on Saturday host, Jim. Err… I’m still thinking about trifle. As Mabel from You Rang, M’Lord? would say “I can’t remember the last time I had trifle.”