Well that was more like it! A cold week with plenty of frosty mornings. It’s wonderful seeing the plants covered in a fine dusting of frozen tiny water particles, adding a glittery shine to all that is touched. It is so nice also seeing the big round yellow think up in the sky, it just seems to turn the day around lifting not only our spirts but those of the wildlife we share the garden with. My highlight of the week was watching a red kite flying low over a field with a Kesteral in the forefront and 3 buzzards circling behind. Times like that, I find I have to just stop what I am doing and watch nature happening in front of me. This closeness with nature is one reason I just love what I do
Anyway moving back to topic and that’s of course 6 on Saturday and for the 3rd week in a row, it comes from my little patch in Hampshire. Not too sure how I managed it but I did!
Let’s start with a Heuchura and their beautiful foliage, they can really add a depth of colour and interest into the garden at any time of the year but even more so now, I love some of the names as well, this ones called Sugar frosting. Just look at that shade of purple underneath the leaves, just stunning purely stunning
So pleased with this galanthus called Spindlestone surprise, it’s really bulked up well in the pot and I am enjoying the 4 flowers I have, hoping to get a few more soon!
One of the first ones I brought a couple of years ago called Chedworth, makes a fine specimen in a pot, one of my little jobs this weekend is to feed them all with liquid seaweed to give them a boast, also tempted to repot a few of the ones that have finished flowering adding a bit of blood, fish and bonemeal to them
A little dwarf iris now one called iris danfordiae, it’s a lovely little scented plant on the verge of flowering! It belongs to the iris reticulata group (although I have heard horror stories they are not iris any more but Iridodyctium, but let’s only say that name after the 9pm watershed Mark!) Whatever the name, it’s still just lovely
And now for a dwarf evergreen shrub that is way underrated, it’s tough, it’s beautiful, it’s Eurya japonica ‘Moutiers’! This shade loving shrub can be pruned and shaped but it’s the stunning leaves and stems that turn bright red in the cold winter that sets it apart from many other shrubs, hard to find but well worth it
A late addition to six on Saturday but I so wanted to feature this beautiful small climber, it’s Ribes laurifolium Amy Doncaster, it’s lovely member of the current family that flowering at the moment, Amy Doncaster is a form with red stems, selected by the great plants woman Amy Doncaster from her garden in chandlers ford. I only planted this out last year and is already proving me with its beauty.
I hope you enjoyed my 6 on Saturday from My garden. If you did please checkout other people’s 6 on the memes founder website https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/ I love seeing other people’s plants and what’s happening in their gardens. Why not give it ago yourself next week and give me a shout so I can take a look
Until next week, have fun in the garden
Oh gee, you got the real thing. I got snowdrops, but they are a cheap imitation.
I have a few 😂😂😂umm about 60 I think at last count 👍
?! 60?! Is that sixty different cultivars?!
Yep, not too many I know
Thanks for your blog – so informative that I had to get my notebook out to jot down some names. Especially like the sound of Eurya japonica as my garden specialises in shade.
I am so pleased you have found it helpful 😀😀 yes it would be prefect for your garden in the shade
Thank you for teaching me something new every week! That climber is a beauty!
Good morning Thomas!
Interesting Six on Saturday- I haven’t heard about Eurya japonica ‘Moutiers’ before. Well worth a look!
By the way, if it has Japonica in the name- does it mean that the plants comes from Japan? You know my passion for Japanese plants 🙂
Have a lovely weekend!
Good morning 😀😀
Ummm yes t depends who you read and listen too, most say Japan but there’s the odd comment about being native to Chile…… personally with japonica in the. Name I think it would be ideal for your Japanese garden 😀
Thank you and I hope you have a great weekend too
I thought we all agreed that we would use Gardeners Latin and not Botanical Latin from now on. Interestingly, though (or probably not) Iridodictyum was the original genus name until someone decided it wasn’t distinct and so lumped it in with Iris. Obviously whoever that was has made all the money they can from the current edition of their book and now has an excuse to publish an updated version. I need more inoculations! It’s just struck me that with your six plants on a Saturday plus your plant of the week, you’re trying to get to an effective plant of the day! I’m naturally immune to Galanthus but Eurya and Amy look worth chatting up. 😉
We did John and I do apologise and I won’t do it again after Wednesday I promise……….. agree I can’t keep up with the changes lol. Lmao I never thought about it like that but yes you are right it’s almost a plant of the day, good job there’s thousands to use, have years worth 😂😂
Eurya is new to me, need to research that one. I’ve grown Ribes laurifolium way back, but it got left behind. Don’t recall thinking of it as a climber. It wasn’t Amy Doncaster.
It’s not something you see a lot is it Jim, got it from burncoose while I was down in your neck of the woods before Christmas, yes you can do both with it, I find the habit of them tend to suit being trained up a wall rather than left on the ground, makes a much bigger noticeable plant grown that way
My current garden is heuchera-less, a new thing for me, so I’m always looking & falling in love w/one of those guys or the other. You’ve given me a new crush w/sugar frosting. In the end, I may have to put in a heuchera bed. Does Amy have a scent? She looks like she should. And the leaves on that moutier . . . simply wow. I know you try to keep your present garden to containers, but it’s incredible how many different beautiful types you have. Stunning. Oh, & because they’re your favs, let’s not forget that the snowdrops are gorgeous, too.
Thank you Lora 😀😀it is a stunning form isn’t, I brought it for the pots in front but I love it in the back, sadly Amy doesn’t have any scent but the flowers are just delightful 😀 thank you I love finding new and unusual plants for the garden, even more as it’s so beautiful as moutier 😀 thank you so much for your kind comment 😀😀
What a poet you are … a lovely Six this week too.
Your Heuchera looks like one of mine (“Shanghai”) and I have pleasantly discovered the Eurya. Do you know where the name ‘Moutiers’ comes from? (It’s a French city in the Alps). About Iris (or Iridodyctium) whatever the name, I think these changed names are mostly used by professionals and for professionals (and for me I will always call an Iris ‘an Iris’ …)
Why thank you Fred, I wonder if that was where it was first discovered, if so it’s one tough cookie isn’t
Yes I think the time is coming that we will end up with 3 layers of plant names sadly going to get even more confusing
Eurya is new to me too and looks worth further investigation. Heucheras are such a wonderfully varied bunch. I can see how Sugar Frosting would brighten a shady spot in my front garden very nicely.
Both little crackers aren’t they, I love them both already, I hope they grow well for you too
As always so interesting. I haven’t been a fan of Heuchura until I bought ‘Marmalade’ last year. It just settled into a corner quite nicely and looked good. Sugar Frosting does look stunning – can I find that right place for it? Am I being converted?
Haha yes I think you maybe, there’s some great cultivars out there that Just add so much to the garden, lighten up any spot and give a different foliage colour to enhance anything nearby
Loving that Eurya, not one that I have heard of before, straight off to Google ….. Back now, I totally agree with you about the closeness to nature that our job allows, your bird of prey trio sounds amazing.
It’s so unusual isn’t, I fell in love with it first time I saw it, we are just so linked with nature aren’t we 😀
Eurya new to me as well. Need to investigate. Also, does the Ribes smell as bad as the more common varieties? Hopefully not as it looks wonderful
It’s well worth finding 😀 no it’s not really got any smell to comment on really just a nice little plant 😀
Thoroughly enjoyed this Six on saturday Thomas. You seem to have a lovely little collection of unusual plants growing that I’ve not heard of before, particularly the Amy Doncaster one that looks a beauty. You also have some lovely little pops of sunshine ☀️ they really lift up your spirits & like you said bring you closer to nature. It really makes you stop & appreciate this planet a little more don’t you think 😊
Thank you Nichola 😀😀 I do love plants and love finding new ones but so pleased you enjoyed it 😀😀yes Amy’s well worth getting hold of it’s a little beauty. Oh I totally agree, Mother Nature is amazing and some of there creations are just wonderfully aren’t they
The (no longer) dwarf iris is lovely. A nice contrast to all the blue ones!