Six on Saturday – 1 July

Posted on by John

I’m getting the hang of this now. I didn’t think I’d keep up a weekly post for long but, like Nick over at Sweetgum and Pines, have found that the discipline involved in a weekly snapshot of the garden pays dividends as I now have, for three weeks anyhow, a better photographic record of it than I’ve ever had in 26 years here. I follow the same route every week, trying to photograph the same things as the previous week (if I can remember!) as well as adding whatever’s newly come into bloom. Then it’s just a case of picking six from maybe 50 or 60 photos. Yep, it’s a good thing to do.

So thanks to The Propagator for coming up with the idea in the first place.

I’ll admit to cheating just a bit. I took the photos last evening when the sun suddenly appeared from behind the clouds. Then I selected eight photos and drafted a post. Then, this morning, I nipped around checking that things were still there and hadn’t undergone some drastic metamorphosis overnight. A quick deletion of two photos (the text is in the captions, see?) and I was ready to publish before I’d finished my Shredded Wheat.

These pics are in sequence as I walk out of the breakfast room door and down one side of the garden. The back’s currently “in between” and the other side’s  getting there but not yet ……….

 

Fuchsias are starting to come into flower now. The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that there are actually two varieties growing together here – the dark corollas of the redoubtable “Lady Boothby” and the lighter ones of the more recent introduction “Pink Fizz”. I like to “multiplant” for the added interest though this has to be done when the plants first go in to avoid slicing off too many roots.

 

Some of the “decent” lilies (as opposed to the mistakes I included last week) are now in flower. This one is “Suncrest”. You’ll notice that I’ve removed the anthers. Lily pollen can be fatal to cats so I’m not taking any chances with resident cat.

 

Another striking lily, “Landini”. Some people class it with the black lilies but those like “Black Pearl” are much darker and there’s no mistaking Landini’s rich burgundy colour.

 

And it’s alstroemeria time again. Save for a couple of youngsters that may not flower this year, all of mine are now trying to outclass each other. This is “Mediterranean Summer”.

 

Two dwarf varieties from above. The mauve of “Princess Anouska” and the orange-yellow “Princess Diana”.

 

And two tall varieties – “Lucca” (the bright orange one) and the creamy-yellow of “Inca Ice” which fades to an off-white-yellow as the flowers mature.

I wonder what next Saturday will reveal. Till then, enjoy your garden.

8 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – 1 July”

  1. My one and only Alstroemeria is also blooming this week. I have been scared off most of them by reports that they tend to take over flowebeds. Do you find them to be invasive?

    1. Hi Nick. I bought them knowing that the “giants” would quite quickly develop into large clumps. Yes, they do need space but I certainly wouldn’t term them “invasive”. The largest I have will eventually be about 1-2 feet across at ground level; maybe a foot or so more at the top. They earn every square inch they take up many times over; I have nothing else that could be described as a mass of flowers from April through to November (March if the weather’s mild and a lot later if the first frost doesn’t arrive until December). Conversely the dwarf ones are about 6 inches across after three years.

    1. Hi Jim. Thanks for dropping by. Remember that ALL parts are toxic to cats (and not just what we traditionally call lilies – day lilies are also toxic). But the pollen carried on the anthers is perhaps the biggest issue. And if you have a vase of lilies in the house, the water they stand in will be toxic too. And the vase until you’ve thoroughly washed it. Incidentally, I’ve found that removing the anthers prolongs flowering. I don’t remove the “stems”, just the dangly bits at the top.

  3. I especially love ‘Suncrest’ and also the ‘Landini’, I don’t grow any lilies at home, think I might have to rectify that!

    1. I wish, with the benefit of hindsight, I’d mixed those two varieties together instead of planting in separate containers. I like the “in your face” contrast. I shall rectify this mistake later in the year ….. xx

  4. Very nice, lovely to see another six from you this week. Confession, i do mine on a Friday so it’s good to go on sat am. I had a couple of alstromeria from seed this year but they have been hiding from the watering can, now deceased, unfortunately.

    1. Having tried to grow alstros by various methods, I decided to commit half-a-year’s salary to Viv Marsh over at Viv Marsh Postal Plants. Scroll down his home page to see a few photos of his lab. He grows by tissue culture processes. OK, his plants cost a packet but they will establish quickly and grow well. And they work out a lot cheaper than buying lots of those knobbly little bits of bare root year after year in the hope they will do something. I’ve even had a couple from him that I was able to split before planting, so doubling the number of those plants yet achieving the same level of first year growth.

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