Hello and welcome to this weeks Six on Saturday

I have had a relaxing couple of weeks off and TBH have not done very muck in the garden. What I have been doing has been mostly reporting some of my succulents ready for the winter and this will reflect in this blog. Not only have I been putting well established plants with healthy roots into bigger pots but I have also been planting smaller plants into smaller pots so there is less chance for the root to be damaged by the cold and damp in winter, well that is the theory. I have also been reading up about how hardy some of what we think semi hardy and as an experiment I am going to keep a few in dryish areas over the winter but near the front door so I can inspect them easily.

Here is my six.

1. ID please!

I have absolutely no idea what this plant is. Any one enlighten me? The colour is extremely vivid and stunning. Any help appreciated.

2. Pachyveria Ganzhou

As I mentioned before I have spent most of the week repotting succulents. I was pleased to see that most of them had healthy root systems as you can see from the above photo. To encourage this it is important to water sparingly and allow the soil to dry out between watering. One thing you learn when growing succulents is to embrace any imperfections on leaves as no matter what you do you will get the odd mark. According to some sites on the internet this should be frost hardy to -5 degrees. This is going to be one of my test plants but don’t worry I have managed to propagate a couple of babies just in case.

3. Part of the collection

This is part of my ever increasing collection. I will wait until the middle of November to put on the cover as one of the risks if you get a lot of condensation and if the weather is humid it will cause the plants to rot. Even when I put the cover on I will leave the door open as often as possible and allow the plants to breathe. I have put the shelves flush against a west facing fence which hopefully will protect it from westerly storms.

4. Sempervivum Rosie

One for Granny. This is one of my best looking Sempervivums this week. The babies are perfectly formed and look like a necklace of jewels. A real pleaser.

5. Sedum Crocodile

I left the parent to this plant out to the elements last year and it rotted at the stem so I cut off all the branches and created 6 different plants. All plants were extremely dormant over the summer and the leaves were brown and leathery hence it’s name Sedum Crocodile. You can see the brown coloration at the end of the leaves but in the last few weeks the leaves are changing to a plump green jelly bean type leaf. Supposedly these are hardy down to -9 degrees so in October I will move these into terracotta pots in a more grittier mix and I will put half under direct cover and the over half in a dry area.

6. Pachyphtum rare Hybrids (Sooth Korean and Taiwanese)

One of my favourite succulents are Pachyphtums. These plants can be found in Mexico on elevations to over 600 to 1500 metres. The name Pachyphtum means Thick (Pachyphtum) and Python (Phytum) and you can see why. Some plants can be bred lwith Echeverias to create Pachyverias. One of my guilty pleasure is to buy some rare varieties from a supplier of South Korean and Taiwanese Hybrids in France. Above are 3 varieties I bough during the lockdown. From bottoms left clockwise we have Pachyphtum Ovirefum X Mikadukabijiin, Pachyphtum Momibijjin and Pachyphtum Heavenly Beauty. I am going to place another order soon as I don’t know how difficult it will be to get plants from abroad after the withdrawal agreement with the EU kicks in, especially with all the Shenanigans that have started to rear it’s head this week.

That is my six.

If you want to write a SOS blog 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.