Hello and welcome to this weeks SOS.
This week has again been a very damp week with rain all day on Tuesday. This has of course benefited the garden and filled my water butts again. I have left all my Succulents out this summer during the wet weather and have not had any problems to speak of but some of the leaves are starting to swell immensely. I will have to keep an eye on things and if need be put some undercover if there is anymore rain.
Gardening opportunities have been pretty limited this week as I have damaged my left leg slightly and have been resting it. Nothing serious but frustrating. Old age is creeping up on me.
Here is this weeks Six.
1. Dahlia Totally Tangerine
This is my first Dahlia to open. A lovely flower with a fantastic centre. I have seven dahlias on the go this year, 4 in the garden and 3 in pots. I have fallen out of love with the ones in there garden as they seem to suffer more from slug and snails. I have beer traps around them but I have planted them in the middle of the border and I find it difficult to get to them. This one is in a pot and has not damage whatsoever. I think from now on I could grow all my Dahlias in pots.
2. Eryngium Big Blue
As you can see from the first photo as ever the Eryngiums are proving very popular with the bees and other pollinators. This bee was having a feeding frenzy and had gorged itself that much it actually had to drop some of the pollen on one of the bracts. Here is a video here. This Eryngium Big Blue is one of the most striking ones. It’s ink blue flowers are surrounded by a crown of blue bracts. I have several Eryngiums in my collection and no doubt I will be getting more this year.
3. Cupid’s Dart flower
I posted a picture of the flower buds a few weeks ago. Thee first ones opened this week and they are wonderful. The leaves are a wonderful blueish Purple with a dark blue centre. The leaves are grass like and really non desript and to be honest I was going to pull out this “weed” earlier on on the year then I suddenly remember I had grown this from seed.
4. Some random Rose
I bought this Rose for a present for Mother’s Day last year. It was one of the small ones that Marks and Sparks sells every year for Mother’s Day. I planted it in the garden after it had stopped flowering last April. As you can see it is flowering for Britain this year. A lovely creamy yellow flower that has a wonderful form. The only puzzling thing is it was pink when I bought it😌
5. Heuchera Palace Purple
Two autumns ago I bought 6 Heuchera Palace Purple plug plants that had been reduced to £3 in the bargain corner at a Dobbies. They were in a sorry state but after a bit of patience they are looking fantastic. This photo does not show how good the leaves look. They are shiny as a button and this one has a wonderful shape.
6. Leopard Slug
I found this beauty climbing up a bucket last night. A gardeners friend because it eats other slugs and only eats dead vegetation. I soon put it back in the garden right next to my Dahlias.
That is my SOS.
Work has been pretty busy the past couple of weeks so this weekend I will be paying as much as possible in the garden to chill out and recharge my batteries. Hopefully I will not have to dodge to many thunderstorms.
That is my SOS. If you want to write one it is not that difficult. As always to find out how six on Saturday works please follow the following link The Propagator. The don of Six on Saturday.
Until next week goodbye.
Sedums, Dahlias and Hayfever 
I planted about 20 dahlia tubers and only 4 have made it! One is being terribly eaten again so I’m going to move them to pots too today I think. Pesky slugs. Have a great gardening weekend.
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I saw your first dahlia on Twitter, it’s very pretty! The first of mine has arrived so I should post it this weekend (if I have time …)
A goog thing to have leopard slugs… good helpers in the garden !
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I’ve grown a lot of Cupid’s Dart from seed this year but there are no signs of flowers yet. In fact some of them look a little ropey. I’m finding the same as you with dahlias. Those in pots are doing fine while a lot of those in the ground (mostly grown from seed or new tubers) are getting eaten. Great photos.
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Great info of the leopard slug, I will certainly be looking out for them, and so beautiful! I have several of my dahlias in pots and they are doing much better than those in the ground, mind you they still have a few nibbles. Lovely cupid’s dart 🙂
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I second the comment on great photos. That rose, especially, nearly jumps off the page. I’m surprised at the name of your dahlia, as it looks rather puplr to me, but w/that lovely orangish centre. If it had to be named for fruit, a peach or nectarine would fit better. I’ve given up on dahlias for all the flaff that goes w/them, but now I may try again but use pots. And I didn’t know a leopard slug was our friend. Don’t think I’ve seen any in my nightly evictions, but shall keep an eye out for them. You’ve broadened my mullosk horizons.
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You will soon know if you are one. They are massive and have a disc on it’s top that are remnants of a shell. 🐌
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I wonder if your rose will turn pink. I have such mixed fortunes with Dahlias, some have been munched remorselessly, others, just feet away, are fine. Once they get up two or three inches they seem to be away but some have only just been allowed to grow even that much. Perhaps starting them in pots would work. Have you grown Eryngium from seed?
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No Jim I have not grown any Eryngium from seed yet. Although I have tried and I may have success but the seedling although pretty tall does look a little different. Will let you know how it turns out.
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Love the dahlia, I’ve done ‘Bishop’s Children’ from seed this year and have protected them with eggshells – so far so good. I’ve never seen a leopard slug – what a beastie!
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Dahlia Totally Tangerine looks anything BUT tangerine to me! But very pretty. I have three dahlias on the go this year – bought as 50p tubers late in May. I grew them in pots and then planted them into the garden when they had sprouted. Two are doing OK, one has a bud already, but the third is looking quite ill. Not sure I’ll bother with them again. As for the leopard slug, I never knew we had friendly slugs! Does it really not eat the plants?
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That’s what google says.
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I hadn’t heard of a slug that doesn’t eat fresh shoots etc. but eats other slugs! Lovely Six, in spite of what’s missing.
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Wait till next week Granny
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PS. Hope your leg is better soon and I am looking forward to next week already!
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Love the Random Rose and oh my, that slug! I don’t know what I would do if I found that in my garden! Good news slug I guess!
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Thank you. To be honest my first instinct was to squash it. Then the markings mesmorised me and I googled it.
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Love your Eryngium and what a great shot with the bee! What an ‘orrible slug. They keep on crawling through the gaps in our French windows and my husband steps on them by accident late at night 😑
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I couldn’t sleep on Friday night so went in the front room lay on the couch and put my leg in a damp patch. It wqs q baby slug. I must have bought it in from the garden.
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With you on the dahlias. Mine have been mullered, old, new, big, small, doesn’t matter. I did not know that about the leopard slug. Interesting…
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Never did I until I found it and said what tbe be jesus is that! And loo,ed it up.
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The only Dahlia that is thriving in the border has brown leaves. You should never judge a slug by it’s looks!
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Send the rain down here! I’m having to fill the water butts with a hosepipe so that the solar watering system can work. Madness.
The Dahlias that I left in the ground aren’t getting above an inch tall before they’re munched. Ones I started in pots in the spring are, on the whole, better. I’ve only seen the odd Leopard slug in the compost bin. Maybe I’ll move them to the Dahlias.
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Thanks. The weather is completely different to last year up here. Last year we had hardly any rain for many months. In fact we had hardly any rain up until May this year. Now it will not bloody stop. The only Dahlia that is thriving in my garden has brown leaves.
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Lovely flowers. Great Eryngium. I tried to grow some from seed for first time ever but they didn’t germinate so not sure what I did wrong. 😊
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‘Big Blue’ eryngium looks more ornate than I remember it to be. I am not sure that I have ever grown it. We grew eryngium as a cut flower crop back when I was still in school. We referred to it as ‘Big Blue’, but it was so long ago, that it could have been something different. There were not many cultivars of eryngium back then.
‘Some Random’ roses are sometimes the best. Cultivars that I select are not always as nice as those that were already in a garden. It seems other people do a better job as selecting them. It is like when the waitress gets your order wrong, and you get to try something new.
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