For some reason when thinking about six on Saturday this week, Elton Johns song Saturday night just appeared in my head, no idea why, it’s strange how the brain works at time. Anyway after the snow and the rain, it’s been nice to have a dryish week, well if you discount the rain Thursday morning and other showers overnight, oh and there was the April like showers that drenched me Friday morning while pruning a rambling rose. Talking about Friday, I had one of those bird of prey days when I managed to see five in day, started off with a peregrine falcon over Salisbury, before seeing a red kite and Kesteral while driving to my next job, then watched buzzards pairing up, doing their mating displays of twisting and turning in the air and fighting off other males and finished off with a sparrow hawk chasing a blackbird over the garden, all wonderful sights unless you are are the blackbird! Everything is slowly growing away now and I am frantically trying to finish off my pruning before it all comes into leaf and starts growing away although I think the mini beast from the east is due this weekend, bringing more snow and cold temperatures, so that will slow it all down!
Anyway enough of my little chit chat and on to the six on Saturday, which due to not a lot changing or happening in my little garden is a mix of mine and a clients, I hoe you enjoy them
Pulmonaria offinicalis, how on Earth can someone not like this plant, it gives us its lovely spotted leaves and beautiful spotted leaves harbouring in the spring. The little flowers are a mix of different shades of blue, with pink mixed in, how lovely does this shade lovely plant look!
Of course it’s not just the flowers that make it into the six on Saturday, but foliage and this Aquilegia, I find the emerging new leaves full of beauty, from the colours, the fresh new look, the patterns that they give as they slowly open and finally the way water sits on them
I love small daffodils like tete a tete here, I find them so useful in the smaller garden, there they just look more in scale than the bigger ones and there foliage when dying back can be a little unsightly while these little ones can be hidden by other plants coming though.
Ahh Daphne ordora varigata, lovely foliage, edged in yellow and then the flowers and the scent, it just fills the whole garden with its scent and they just flower for so long, normally at least 4 months during the winter time, such a great value plant
Rhubarb oh how I love this vegetable and before I start world war 3 on the internet, it is indeed a vegetable and not a fruit. I love the crinkled leaves as they slowly appear with the red stems emerging, bringing the thought of rhubarb crumble, rhubarb and strawberry tart or just rhubarb stew to add to ice cream, cereal or natural yogurt
Pulmonaria rubra is the red pulmonaria and again how beautiful does this look! They may lack the spottiness on the leave but their mid colour green looks good anyway and offsets the flowers nicely
I hope you enjoyed my 6 on Saturday from Mine and my clients gardens 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
I agree with all your wise words, Thomas!
Thank you Tim 😀
Wow thats a lot of rhubarb! I have one crown…
It’s a fair bit isn’t , the garden was a old market garden and this was the old harvest bed, beautiful site indeed
Good old rhubarb with everything. At least it keeps you moving 😉 ! Daphne is a real winter giver, especially to the nose. Mine have now been in flower for four months and still have some unbroken buds. Haven’t noticed any aquilegias growing up yet but when they start, I’ll be asking myself whether I have eradicated Nora Barlow at last.
Lol indeed it doe#, just love that taste.
Funny enough I am not a fan of Nora either, love the Mrs Scott Elliot’s form and the other form I can’t remember at the moment, need more port, may help me remember
Nice rhubarb! Mine is still under ground… a later one maybe. I totally agree with you about pulmonaria: they are lovely !
They really do make you feel like it’s spring don’t they
I’m with you with rhubarb, pulmonaria and aquilegia foliage. I would grow aquilegia for foliage alone, I think. Your pulmnaria looks further along than mine; mine was almost not worth photographing, and I seem to have lost my ‘Raspberry Splash’ which is very similar to rubra.
I love rhubarb, and pulmonaria. But, not together. Ha
Haha not the best combination
Always enjoy your blog and chit chat Thomas. Yes, you can’t beat Daphne for scent and that area of rhubarb is great
Thank you Hugh 😀😀 the scent is one of the best from a Daphne isn’t 👍
I think it’s quite unbeatable… maybe Lilium regale might compete with it …
That’s true and some of gallica roses could push them a little as well
Oh yes – there’s serious competition there, was going to mention Viburnum bodnantense but then we’d have to included lots of others too … Lol
Haha I can see a blog occurring in me head 😂
Loved your birds of prey story. We get eagles and Cooper’s hawks here and it’s always exciting to spot one. The other birds in our garden are lovely, too: most recently Northern Flickers. You’re going to have an awesome amount of rhubarb!
Thank you 😀 I would love to see eagles and cooper hawks, seen them in bird places but seeing them in the wild. Lol there is a good amount there
Yes, the Cooper’s Hawks have actually been making a comeback here.
That’s good news 😀😀 is it human pressure that caused their reduction like here in the uk with our birds of prey
Loss of habitat and pesticides in food chain, I think. There’s been a lot of logging on Vancouver Island.
That’s such a shame, I have visited Vancouver island many years ago and loved it, very beautiful island
It’s still beautiful. They left a fringe of trees along the roads and shores, so you only see the extent of it from the air. Also, there are many areas that are too steep to log. Within Greater Victoria, the Garry Oaks are protected and that provides habitats for birds and native plants.
That’s good to hear, I loved the wooded valleys with the river running though
I’m with you on the Pulmonaria, tête-à-têtes and daphne – three of my spring favourites!
👍 just seems they mean spring proper is here don’t they, spotted my first magnolia opening today
Another reader impressed w/your birds of prey. It’s a wonder you got any work done.
Haha I did spend a little time with my head that way when tying in the climbers, was great seeing them all
Thanks – while reading your blog all I got in my head was ‘Saturday, Saturday’ think it’s called an ear worm 😀 I’ve got the offer of a share of an allotment so I will give rhubarb a go never grown it before but it’s never too late.
Haha sorry Ronnie, it’s been going around my head all day as well 😂. That’s very exciting I bet you are looking forward to getting started on it, it’s pretty easy to grow
I just want a reason to buy an old fashioned Victorian forcing cloche really 🤗
Haha they are brilliant, I love the clay ones
Rhubarb! Yeah!
I love rhubarb! Mines cosy under a planter and thank goodness because I have woken to 6 inches of snow again in Wiltshire! I hope all you garden is ok in this cold weather.
Lol it was deep wasn’t it, me too I am sadly the only person to like it at home 🙁 yes hoping all is well, snow can protect as well, hope yours is ok too 👍😀😀
You’re quite right about Pulmonaria. I had ‘Blue Ensign’ for years but it expired. I have a big clump of a mediocre form of Comfrey; Pulmonaria would be much better.
Yes I am not keen on comfrey as a garden plant, good in huge drifts but not so good in small patch’s trying to get rid on one site and replace with pulmonaria