Good morning and welcome to Six on Saturday.

Well hopefully by the time you read this we have had some rain.  I am getting bored of this weather now and would even accept 5 days of Sea Fret to cool down. Some of my plants are struggling and have flowered early and have died back and said yup we have had enough this year until next year see you. The garden is buzzing with bee’s, butterflies and hover flies but as the plants are flowering faster the garden is running out of flowering plants. Hopefully my HypotelphiumSedums will start and flower earlier. I gave half of them a Chelsea chip end of May but the ones I left intact should start flowering. Bees and Butterflies love these.

In other insect news I have seen my first Ladybird in 5 years and gave a little dance when I saw it. It was in the Eryngium I featured on last weeks blog. This is by far the most popular plant for pollinators and sometimes in the morning sun there can be 30 or 30 bees.  I have ordered 3 other Eryngiums and also some seed to grow next year.  The bees will be spoilt.

This is my SOS.

1. Dahlias are coming slowly but surely

Checkers

Quinty

Tartan

It’s a bit of a slog but slowly but surely my Dahlia’s are starting to flower.  The first one is called Dahlia Checkers and is a medium sized flower with vivid colours.  The second one is Quinty according to the label.  The flowers are  supposed to be purple and white.  I may be wrong but I don’t think the colours match.  Interestingly I had ordered American Dawn.  The last one us Dahlia Tartan.  It is a great flower but this one is a little bit straggly around the edges.   All these plants were bought from Pheasant Acre Plants.  The cuttings arrived in May and were large and  healthy and I may use this nursery again.  On a separate not I had a spare hour to kill in Stirling yesterday so went to Dobbies and when I walked past the Dahlias and picked the ones I liked and took a note of their names on my IPhone.  Please tell me other people do this?   As I said in last weeks blog I am going to Cornwall next month and on my to do list is to go to the National Dahlia Collection so I will no doubt be hunched over looking at the label typing away attentively.

2, Succulent Planters

These have been a great success this year.  I couldn’t be any happier with them.  The bottom left one is some Sempervivums I bought from B and Q.  I have featured the other 3 in previous posts.   I have already bought or made available 4 half plant pots for me to pot up when I return from Cornwall.   Surreal Succulents is just a mile away from my mates so it would be rude not to go there.  I can’t wait!

3.  Dianthus Letitia Wyatt

A cracking Dianthus.   I thought I had killed this over the winter but after planting it in a pot and leaving it alone it is starting to flower.  The flowers are light pink and very vivid.  This is becoming my favourite Carnation.  The other plants in the pot are a couple of Hypotelphinium/Sedums from the Sunsparkler series Cherry Tart and Lime Zinger.  These have been bred in America by Chris Hansen Sunsparker Hyridizer.  They are fast growers and they add a bit of different colour to the garden. I have 4 of these hybrids and I am sure they will become an important part of the garden for years to come.

4. Aeonium Voodoo

Aeoniums are becoming a bit of obsession of mine I must admit.  Above is Aeonium Voodoo and blow me I am writing this blog (as always) on a Friday might and Gardeners World features the exact plant!  I am going to follow their advice next year and plant them in the garden in richer soil.  I have 2 Aeoniums already planted in the garden, one of them is Zwartkop and the other one is I think Voodoo.  I have planted these close a wall of some sleepers and just covered by my dry bed trough and I am going to leave them in the garden over winter to see if this gives them enough protection.  I will be interested to see the results.

5.  Hypotelphium\Sedum\Opine Purple Emperor

This is the first Hypotelhium (used to be a Sedum) was to flower.  If this summer is anything to go by then I will be growing more of these plants in the future  Easy to grow this plant has purple leaves, red stems and the pink flower heads which open to a deep pink flower.  This will flower from now until October.

6.  Clematis Justa

A small flowering Clematis the flowers are really nice.  I have had mix results with my Clematis this year.  Some of them have flowered profusely and others have been disappointing.   I am going to move the disappointing ones to the new bed to see if I can nurse them back to health.  Not holding up very much hope.

Update

I have just walked past one of my dahlias in a pot, brushed past it and knocked it clean off at the base of the stalk, gutted!  Will definitely have to look into how to grow more of the garden beds next year.  I have inspected the rest in pots and they are a little bit ropey to say the least but hey I suppose that is part of gardening you are always learning.

As I write this on Friday Evening the Thunder, Lightening and Torrential rain has started and it looks like it is going to be a cracker.  This may be the end of the hot spell but the rain is very much welcome.

As always to find out how six on Saturday works please follow the following link The Propagator. The don of six in Saturday.

Thanks for reading my SOS.

Until next week.  Bye