Here we are my 6 for this Saturday, sunshine and a cold wind but good gardening weather…it’s dry hooray. Do please pop over to Mr Propagators Six on Saturday he has some lovely tulips shining away.

I just love these plants whatever the weather does they never let me down. No named varieties I just collect them from various plant stalls fetes fairs etc when I see one I am not growing I just have to have it as they don’t appear very often.

Described as a Dwarf plant 10 x 10″ yes I am old enough to still work in inches but then so do the growers!! It flowered all last summer despite the heat and drought conditions.

This comes closest to Lamium galeobdolon ‘Hermans Pride’ in my research but the leaf is not as variegated so perhaps it is a poorer relation, whatever it is I am happy to have it.

A lovely column of colour which fitted into my garden perfectly. In spring this wonderful splash of red which label calls orange!, very tiny yellow flowers in summer followed by red berries . I think it has reached it has now reached it’s maximum height of 4ft.

So happy to see this shooting up as I stood on it last year and broke half of it off consequently it had only one flower, maybe I will get two this year, fingers crossed. this is a plant I wanted for years when I did get one it never flowered and died in a hard winter or did I stand on that one as well!!

Probably ‘Spectabile’ but right now it is pretending to be the jewel in the crown, not rained but just Devon mist collected overnight, you can see why this plant is such a survivor.

Another week has shot by and I am going to have to re think my garden to make it less labour intensive. Is that really possible I ask myself, I like things the way they are, I am never totally on top of things but I just have to be out doors. Sitting around reading a book is not my style at all I am a doer, so if I end up sailing around the garden doped to the eyeballs in pain killers so be it, I shall be doing what I love, even if I do have the odd nap in a flower bed!! So here we go another 6 on Saturday inspired by Mr Propagator the originator of the Six on Saturday blog do have a look at his and be inspired to sow seed and strike cuttings.

A plant from my childhood and the Wool Carder bee just love it, watch carefully and you will see it chasing others off and protecting it’s source of food. My one problem with this is, when do I cut a flowering stem off ? the bees just never give up even when there are only a few tiny flowers left.

This same plant has lived on the edge of our privet hedge and cement path, in bone dry soil in full sun for the past 10years. It never self seeds and is said to like damp places!!

You are probably realising by now that my garden is all about wildlife and in particular bees as this is another favourite of theirs and mine, it appears so early and flowers for a long time.

Already in the garden but pretty sure it is Victoria, last year was one of the poor ones so if the frost the other night hasn’t damaged the flowers and it doesn’t look like it we may be in for a good year.

Given to me by a gardening friend in France, her brother had bought this over from Belgium. I have long since lost the name or never had it in the first place. I have almost lost the plant several times but always managed to salvage a tiny piece to root and it never lets me down. These days it spends it’s winters protected from wet and frost in a cold frame, where the leaves take on a lovely edging of dark pink which you can just see in the photo.

Not a bit phased by the wind and rain we had not one stem broken or keeled over, can’t live with the perfume indoors though.

Pop over to the original Six on Saturday started by Mr Propagator and tell him they they may grow on him!!

Me I love them to bits and so do the bees.

I just cannot bring myself to like this inherited plant, after the long wait for flowers it produces this untidy mess of flowers, please others tell me why you like it, as I feel quite guilty sometimes.

Shall we just call it Periwinkle, so much easier… this wonderfully beginners garden plant came to me as a tiny piece transported by my Aunt from UK over to France and 15 years later travelled back again with me.

Another I don’t care about the weather plant that I intend to buy a lot more of for next year, never mind waiting to divide, I just can’t. What a mouthful of a name how do you pronounce that and is it the Persian Blue bell, that would be a much nicer name hey ho Scilla it will be but deserves better.

Leaves pretty tatty, flowers perfect, hope this spreads a bit more this year.

I did not notice this lovely little group last year, maybe because they were hidden under a blanket of snow courtesy of the beast from the east. This year they are spreading their wings and becoming a larger more noticeable clump.

This is exciting for me and I am sure other gardeners recognise the feeling success brings. these little toughies are from seed saved from a shop bought plant that never flourished. It managed to produce a few not so robust looking seeds, I wasn’t even sure they had matured enough but thought I would give it a go anyway and here they are. If I get 3 plants I will be over the moon.

The name of this low growing ground cover shade loving plant has escaped me and is not leaping out from my note book. If memory serves me well it has small upright yellow flowers or they may be pink!! Google has been no help what so ever, maybe one of you reading this will recognize it and put me out my misery.

Roma always the best in my greenhouse. lidi a yellow cherry sized tom and Indigo Cherry drops are new to me. All of which are beginning to look a bit desperate for potting up, tomorrow tomorrow I promise.

The tiny new leaves of my favorite lamium.

Surely this is flowering a little early but happy to see it the garden will soon be full of bees and bugs the pond too is perking up. Do have a look at The Propagator’s blog and see what’s been happening in his garden.

My favourite tree stands in the middle of the lawn and has something to offer at all times of the year so there will definitly be more pictures during the year.

Gives a nice bit of warm colour in the hens garden.

The very next day it was completely blanketed in snow, the last time this happened it killed the mother plant, I left it alone for over a year and lived in hope. then one day two 2″ shoots appeared this is the surviving plant which took forever to grow to this size. so fingers crossed.

I have no idea where I acquired this probably inherited and sadly broken again. It is only 2″ across and just perfect for getting up close to base of plants. I need repair point or replacement has anyone come across similar, I have looked and they are all much bigger or weirder in design.!!

Pretty in the snow

The trees on the left grow on the embankment the rest is garden.The Greenhouse is currently not owned by me but my hens who use it as another shelter and a very good dust bath I do have a polycarbonate cold frame in there which houses a few plants that don’t like the wet and rain. You can tell I am not a fussy gardener everything has to take it’s chance. That’s my 6 on Saturday done and all in honour of ‘The Propogator”

Such healthy root stock on my Daphne Bholua thisis a present from my garden club friends and as you will see in the next photo seems quite happy in it’s new home.

Hope Mr Propogator the instigator of 6 on Saturday doesn’t think this is cheating with a two for one plant.

Given to me as a 4″ high cutting then at a foot high I accidentally stood on it and snapped it nearly in two. Made a mud castle round the broken stem and crossed my fingers 2 yrs later it is about 2ft high and has come into bud for the first time, so excited and hoping I can give it a name could it be Peg Leg?

Or snowdrop in English but I love the French description of piercing the snow and they do little toughies.

I have never seen so many flower buds on the Laurel, which grows on the embankment and helps to shelter my garden from the nasty north wind.

A real favorite of mine tiny cheerful flowers, in two of my favorite colours a little damaged by the weather. Mr Propogator on his blog may have his eyes on all the tiny seedlings round about but he stands no chance, they will soon be potted up and stashed.

Never before have I tried plug grown parsnips but failed seed germination tempted me to give them a try, I tried and so did they. Edible but pretty small no idea of variety they were just called Parsnips!

This plant just loves just loves the shade and so far undamaged by hard frosts. I now wish I had bought 3 in the first place.

Ophiopogon Nigra works well with above Heuchera and it to is unfazed by winter.

Hippo keeping company with the Sedum album, I know he should really be by the pond but he looks comfy.

Self sown Hazel being allowed to grow on edge of a path, might be a mistake!

The Iberis is yet another plant getting ahead of itself, do forgive photo quality it was a bit windy yesterday but Mr Propogator has inspired me to wander down the garden path with camera in hand.

Tiny Euphorbia which came with no label , just makes me smile, it positively glows with good health and I think is pretty indestructible.

This little group of plants were bought for £1.00 from a church plant sale, a tray of tiny cuttings nobody else wanted. The idea for planting so many plants in one small container came from one of Copplestone’s ‘Station Friends’ who creates wonderful gardens in all sorts of containers and troughs, I am now addicted!

Am I right is this Redstart, if so then it too is early, as is every single one of my 6. Now lets see if I can work out how to share this with The Propogator, I have a lot of learning to do and must learn to pay attention to detail.