Six on Saturday. 2.12.2023

Posted on December 2, 2023 by Pauline

I had thought I wouldn’t be able to do a post today as the only flowers that I have are the ones you saw last week. However, the weather had other ideas and frost descended in the night and left a dusting of white everywhere. We had a flurry of snow on Thursday followed by sleet but it didn’t amount to much, not worth photographing anyway, so I was very pleased to find quite a difference this morning when the sun finally decided to get up and show me what was outside.

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Rusty robin edged in white is just outside the back door. The real robin is frantically feeding at the bird table to keep warm.

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Six on Saturday. 25.11.2023

Posted on November 25, 2023 by Pauline

At last, a dry week! I have managed quite a bit of raking the leaves which have come fluttering down rather quickly and had a few sessions in the woodland getting ready for snowdrops, some of which I have found are up and nearly flowering. We had our first frost last night so yesterday was spent making sure that the greenhouse and conservatory were well prepared, the greenhouse isn’t heated so the plants there just have to take their chances, the conservatory is heated to just +5C, hopefully everything will be ok. when I go to check. The following photos have been taken at various times during the week, ready for todays S.O.S.

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Acer Osakazuki has gone from bright pink/red to silvery grey. The leaves all came down quite quickly and I am left with hundreds, if not thousands of seeds.

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Six on Saturday. 18.11.2023

Posted on November 18, 2023 by Pauline

Time once again for Six on Saturday, but not much work has been done in the garden due to more rain every day. The garden really is so sodden, walking on the grass just turns it into mud so I’m keeping off it as much as possible. Maybe I need to think of a paved path round the edge of the lawn so that I can get up to the top without causing so much damage at this time of year, worth thinking about I think. My six this week are a mixed bunch, some flowers hanging on, some new just starting to flower and the odd autumn foliage.

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Flowering all summer and still hard at it is Geranium Rozanne, an amzing plant. It has been flowering non stop since May, how much longer can it carry on?

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Six on Saturday. 11.11.2023.

Posted on November 11, 2023 by Pauline

Hopefully this will work after a fraught time with my laptop being clogged up with photos. Thankfully my lovely daughter visited  from Bristol yesterday and moved to a hard drive, would you believe, over 31,000 photos, no wonder my laptop was clogged up and I couldn’t do anything! I would think that 95% of which are photos of flowers, hopefully I will never get into that situation again. I know that I will have to bite the bullet and get a new laptop fairly soon, this one is 13 yrs old, but can put off the dreaded day for a bit longer now.

My six or so are all of autumn tints, which are looking gorgeous at the moment, I always say that November is such a colourful month, with leaves providing the colour instead of flowers.

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This is where we left off last time, Acer palmatum Westonbirt Spreading Star looking its wonderful best, such a beautiful blend of colours. Then came Storm Ciaran and the next day all the leaves were lying on the gravel- thanks Ciaran!

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Six on Saturday. 28.10.23

Posted on October 28, 2023 by Pauline

Another week of sunshine and rain, with more rain I think than sunshine. In spite of this I have managed a fair amount of gardening, cutting back, potting up more bulbs, planting plants and photographing plants ready for today. The garden here is a bit dark at the moment as the sun has dropped behind the ancient trees that are growing on the south side of the house and I won’t see the sunshine properly until the leaves fall once more in just a few more weeks.

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In my hedge by the field is Viburnum bodnantense Dawn which has started flowering for the winter. We will have blossom depending on the weather. If we manage to be frost free, then we will have lovely perfumed blossom all through until Spring.

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Six on Saturday. 21.10.2023

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Pauline

After another week of rain, when the gardener couldn’t come and cut the grass, plants are still coping, flowering as usual, the threatened frost didn’t arrive here in this part of Devon, so everything is carrying on as normal. It is still warm for this time of year, but colours are changing on all the acers now, as nights are a lot cooler and this makes the green colour fade away and show the underlying colours. Even so, my six for this week do not show any of my acers, I’ll save them for another week.

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I was reading somewhere that you can cut the foliage of Iris unguicularis back at about this time of year , so that the flowers show up better when they eventually flower in the winter. Imagine my surprise when I approached my plant under the dining room window, secateurs at the ready and found that I was too late, it was already flowering! I have never known it to flower this early before.

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Six on Saturday. 14.10.2023

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Pauline

Even though its getting darker and colder, although yesterday was so warm,20C, there are still things to see in the garden that make me smile as I have my daily wander. We had a yellow flood warning for yesterday, but didn’t see much rain, thank goodness! Still a few more plants to be brought in before our first frost which is due tonight, I think I will have them all under cover just in time! My six are as follows…..

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Mahonia Soft Caress has decided to flower at last. It was planted 3 yrs ago and this year, the flowering is slow to get started. By this time last year it was well into flowering by now.

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Six on Saturday. 7.10.2023

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Pauline

Sunshine and more sunshine and still more to come over the weekend and next week, an Indian summer for us and our plants to enjoy. Why though, is the only rain forecast, going to be on the day when the gardener comes to cut the grass next week? Leaves are beginning to change colour, so soon my acers will be the stars of the garden. Lots of weeding has been done this week, some plants have been planted in a holding bed while I can get on with the weeding in the area where they are to go and 3 boxes of bulbs have arrived! I think I know what I’ll be doing for the next few days!

In the meantime, here are my six for this week……….

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Some of the roses are still flowering away, some have been cut back , others I still have to get round to. This is Buff Beauty in the back garden, still looking lovely.

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Six on Saturday. 30.9.2023

Posted on September 30, 2023 by Pauline

Another month gone in the blink of an eye and still so much to do in the garden getting ready for the winter.Yesterday I spent quite some time covering benches and carvings and bringing seats and smaller carvings into the garage, but still more to do. My son is visiting this weekend so hopefully he will put the heavier things away for me, he will be rewarded with a meal at our local pub! Storm Agnes, which was the remains of a hurricane in the Carribean, didn’t really amount to much, thank goodness! After all the warnings, I was expecting dreadful weather but it was just stronger wind than usual, I think it was worse further north.

Anyway, time for Six on Saturday………..

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Euonymus hamiltonianus is looking rather pretty in the woodland with its pink fruits.

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Six on Saturday. 23.9.2023

Posted on September 23, 2023 by Pauline

When I started thinking about photographs to take for this weeks offering, I thought I wouldn’t find much at all after the weather that we have had this week. Going back to last Sunday was like living inside a waterfall!  I honestly have never known such rain, almost of biblical proportions. The Exeter area even made the national news with the dreadful flooding, our weatherman told us that we had a whole months rain in just over and hour! Thank goodness I didn’t have anything quite that bad, but the water was lapping at the back door, just as well I have quite a high step up, gutters and drains just couldn’t cope. In spite of all this, plants survived the storm and the gales that followed, yes, lots of leaves to sweep up, so my six are as follows………..

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At last my Sedum, yes, they will always be Sedum to me, has coloured up to the usual pink, attracting lots of insects, except when you want to photograph them!

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