I’m a day late for SoS this week, struggling to find any energy this weekend, but I’ve finally managed to get it done. As always, if you want to join in head over to the master of ceremonies at https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/ see where it all started and what it’s all about. Hope you enjoy my Six on Saturday.
1) This was more than a shock when I saw it yesterday, over the last few weeks I’ve had several plants in the work gardens and at home that have been months in front of themselves, but non more so than this petunia flowering for all to see! This is a pot that my daughter left here last summer when they moved back to the U.K. they just didn’t have space for plants so all her outside pots and house plants are holidaying with me until we can find the time to get them to her. Being a summer bedding this was stuck in a corner and forgotten.I planned to empty the pot and clean it ready to be sent to her but clearly this feisty little petunia had other plans, and who am I to argue if it wants to flower in early spring!
2) The roses I pruned over the last month are clearly keen to get back into flower, all are piling on the foliage and some are already starting to flower.
3) I love it when plants that have been completely dormant or just slower growing over the winter months suddenly wake up and realise it’s spring. This week the Hydrangea Macrophylla have gone into overdrive and are looking great, ditto the Origanum and Salvia Officinalis with lots of lovely lush growth. The Punica Granatum (pomegranate trees) are slowly filling in their branches too, and the one we moved at the start of last spring is romping away ahead of the others which is great (always a relief when you move something so big and it survives the trauma). Tagging along at the rear are the teeny, tiny Symphytum Officinale and Symphytum Asperum (comfrey) shoots which are just breaking the soil surface, no doubt these will soon be producing masses of leaves for use in the gardens and in my soaps, toiletries etc.
4) Aeonium, Aeonium, oh my do I adore these plants! I love everything about them, and that deep aubergine colour is stunning, as are the tiny details like the serrated leaf edging that you only see when you look up close. This beauty was a cutting I took last summer, it’s been out on my terrace with nothing other than a daily water whilst it was hot after I took it from the parent plant, it’s been ignored all winter. It’s now enormous and clearly happy where it is as it’s more than twice the size of the parent plant already! As you can see from the measurements on the photo, it’s turned into a whopper 😍
5) Teucrium Fruticans, the daily work garden has lots of these little gems dotted around and the bees just love them, they look so pretty at this time of year but this will be their last week of free growth as they’ll all be tamed into neat balls next week before they start to get woody and out of control. They’re one of the sources of early food for the bees but there’s lots more for them to enjoy now so these guys are getting a much needed haircut.
6) Polygala Myrtifolia - I cannot express how happy I am that we have this (and another one) in flower in the daily work garden. Just over a year ago we had a couple of dozen of these and they were absolutely stunning when in flower, then we got dreaded Xylella Fastidiosa and over the course of two months we lost all but these two, they quite literally died before our eyes leaving huge patches of dead wood and piles of dried, dead leaves. We thought these two were also affected but they seem to have been abandoned by the bugs before any real damage was done (not that we were able to see the bugs). Hopefully they won’t return and these two will remain, time will tell and I’m keeping everything crossed as I love these purple flowering beauties that otherwise grow well without pests or problems. A couple of other shrubs were affected in the garden but thankfully the strain of Xylella we had did not affect our Olive trees or other fruiting trees.
That’s my Six on Saturday for this week, but I had to share this little lady who decided to hitch a ride on my sunglasses and almost came for a ride home with us. I left her looking for a meal on a rose that climbs through an Olive tree, hopefully she found something. The pictures are more than a tad blurry, trying to take photos with a damaged lense on my phone isn’t ideal, especially when it’s starting to get dark.
1) This was more than a shock when I saw it yesterday, over the last few weeks I’ve had several plants in the work gardens and at home that have been months in front of themselves, but non more so than this petunia flowering for all to see! This is a pot that my daughter left here last summer when they moved back to the U.K. they just didn’t have space for plants so all her outside pots and house plants are holidaying with me until we can find the time to get them to her. Being a summer bedding this was stuck in a corner and forgotten.I planned to empty the pot and clean it ready to be sent to her but clearly this feisty little petunia had other plans, and who am I to argue if it wants to flower in early spring!
2) The roses I pruned over the last month are clearly keen to get back into flower, all are piling on the foliage and some are already starting to flower.
That’s my Six on Saturday for this week, but I had to share this little lady who decided to hitch a ride on my sunglasses and almost came for a ride home with us. I left her looking for a meal on a rose that climbs through an Olive tree, hopefully she found something. The pictures are more than a tad blurry, trying to take photos with a damaged lense on my phone isn’t ideal, especially when it’s starting to get dark.
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