Hello and welcome to this week’s six on Saturday.

Well after last weekends birthday celebrations I am pleased to say normal service has returned.  The weather has been most sunny this week so this has given me the opportunity to spend more time on the garden and I seem to be spending more and more time in the garden which is pleasing after the year I have had with illness.

I can’t remember of I have mentioned it but I lost a lot of succulents last winter due to not being able to put some of them under cover due to ill health and a doomed experiment to see what semi hardy succulents will survived a Scottish Borders winter. It turns out not many will.  As my bank statement will show I have managed to get back to level in my succulent collection I had at this time last year. For the past few weeks I have been planning on where to store them all and how to save space, this includes putting them into small plastics square pots  instead of bulky terracotta pots and grouping them all in seed trays. I have also started to give some away to friends and family.

Her is my six for this week.

1.  Echeveria Elegans

Last week I only posted one thing and that was the picture of the Echeveria Elegans.   As you can see from the above photo I split up the plant and managed to get 17 plants out of it.  I also bought a clump of Elegans from a lady from Gloucestershire on Etsy and they arrived last week and I was surprised that this clump contained another 25 – 30 plants.  This will give me enough to see if I can keep these plants outside all year. I have got some in plastic pots and teracotta pots and will keep some in the open and under cover.  I am trying to persuade myself to plant a couple in the darkest most sheltered part of the garden and will probably do that next week and pit in some extra grit.

2. Sedum kamtschaticum var. floriferum ‘Weihenstephaner Gold’

The name is a bit of a mouth full.  It’s late August so this means that most of the Sedums are flowering.  This one has been particularly popular with the bees this week so though I would share it.  It is a low growing plant and like most low growing. Sedums it keeps the weeds done and this means it will be on the top of the list to split up and plant in different parts of the garden later on in the year.

3. Sedum Spectacabile Stardust

I have had this for a couple of years and it has never flowered .  It is however looking hopeful this year and I have my fingers and toes crossed because as week as it is going to look spectacular and the bees and pollinators will be all over it.  Some of you know that this group of Sedums were reclassified as Hylotelphium but not by me.  It’s like calling Opal Fruits Starburst we all know the true name of the sweets “that makes to make your mouth water!”

4. Purple Corner

Not the best photo partly because of the sun and I have had to use my tablet to take photo’s as my work phone is broken.  This corner has a been a revelation this year and I would like to say I planted it like this on purpose but I didn’t. The Geranium Roxanne, Erygium planum and Lavender have all combined to make a pollinator buffet and I spend many a time watching the bees fly from plant to plant.

5. Sempervivum Pineapple Paradise

I bought this on Ebay a couple of weeks ago from a seller.  It is one of the Chick Charms which is a American based company who grows under licence in Europe it is a controversial company amongst sempervivum officiandos as it takes cultivars from other breeders and renamed them e.g it has taken cultivar Mrs Guisseppe and called it Mint Marvel, or a cultivar called Killer and Called it Cranberry Cocktail.  Most of it’s names have a fruit or confectionery leaning. It has up until now bred one exclusive cultivar so far which is called Golden Nugget and it is not the best cultivar as it does not like getting wet and is slow to propogate.  However it was announced this week that they are going to realise 3 brand new cultivars next year  Gold Rush, Lotus Blossom and Choco Latté.  Below is a picture of all 3 plus an existing Cultivar rebranded

As you can see the colours are garish but I love them. It will be interesting to see how Pineapple Paradise turns out to look next year as the one in the photo has obviously been cultivated with steroids under controlled conditions in a greenhouse. The 2 other plants looking sorry for themselves is a Oxalis and Saxifrage I had forgot about and found underneath some Ivy.

6. Spirea

My Spirea looks fantastic this year. It has been late in flowering this year but I think that was because of a cold April and wet May. Every Winter I cut a foot off the top and this seems to bring out the best in the plant.

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.

That’s my six for this week. It looks like The weather this weekend is going to be as they say changeable in the extreme so gardening opportunities might be limited.

Until next week goodbye.