Six on Saturday | Late November Edition

Cyclamen leaves

I have had a look around the garden to see what is still in flower, though probably won’t be for much longer as it has been colder this week including a frost on Wednesday morning. As you can see from the header my ‘Tresco Purple’ Osteospermum and the Erigeron karvinskianus are still flowering away in the sunny wall, but let’s have a look at another six in the garden.

1. Camellia. Unknown name, but a pretty double white flower in February usually. Now full of buds. Last year I brought into the conservatory in February because of the snow, where it flowered for ages and didn’t suffer from the wet which turns the flowers a horrid brown. I might do the same this winter too as it is still in a container.
   
2. Gaura / Lindheimer’s beeblossom (G. lindheimeri ) is still flowering away. I know I should cut it back after flowering and I know it doesn’t like to be wet, so I am hoping that by being in a raised bed and having some mulch around its roots will get it through the winter. Mine is a pretty pink one.
   
3. Another flower still blooming is the Calendula / Marigold. Self-seeded and totally the wrong colour for my Bee and Butterfly bed, this was badly damaged in the recent gales, but the stems that survived are still going strong.
   
4. Not in flower, but I couldn’t help noticing how pretty the marbled leaves of this Cyclamen is. Planted under the Kilmarnock Willow which is still hanging on to a few leaves, I hope that this plant will spread.
   
5. I bought this ‘Cornish Pixie’ a Fuchsia microphylla from the Eden Project in the spring. It is supposed to grow to only 20 cm so I planted it into my Belfast sink. It might be moved if it survives the winter. It has been flowering happily ever since I bought it and still is.
   
6. Finally the Penstemon again. After a disastrous start in the warm weather when the flowers lasted only a few days before dying, it has been in permanent flower. Some of the clumps have already finished and will need cutting back, but I shall wait until spring to do that as last year I lost a couple of well established clumps to the cold. These are not reliably hardy and also dislike wet soil  so I am keeping my fingers crossed.  Two new plants which I bought in late summer have already died down.
   

So that’s my six this week. Have a lovely week and if you fancy visiting a few more gardens then pop over to the Prop and you’ll find tons of links in the comments. I won’t be posting much on this blog for a few weeks, but you can see me on the Travel blog  (people who know me know that I avoid this time of year as best as I can and resurface in January). I shall wish all you good people a lovely time doing whatever it is you do during this season and I will see you all next year.

See here for the participant’s guide.

Six on Saturday