Where did the time go – I can’t believe it’s the end of May already! I’ve been taking part in Six On Saturday for about 6 weeks now and I love being part of this little gardening community all over the world! Thanks to our host The Propagator for the inspiration and encouragement.
One – Fuchsia are a bit of a nemesis for me, along with acers, I have killed more than my fair share. I got two last year and they were beautiful and I had resigned myself to their demise over winter, never to return. Well, these two have completely defied me and my curse, thrusting themselves back into the world. Here’s hoping for the same gorgeous display I had last year.
Two – Campanula. This is something I’ve had for a few years – I adore it and how hardy and almost indestructible it seems to be. A friend sent a cutting last year so I have two. The smaller was a tiny little cutting at the beginning of the summer and grew into this beauty. The larger has been in the garden for three years now and is onto his third pot. Not sure what to do next as I’m not sure I’d be able to move a bigger pot!
Three – Weed or not. Personally I don’t like calling things weeds – everything is a wild flower unless you bought it in a garden centre. This sweet little thing shows up on my plant app as Devil’s Paintbrush. Before the pandemic I used to commute to work by train and these flowers always grew in the border at the train station and I took many photos of them because they made me smile and feel so happy to see them. Imagine my delight when my Campanula friend sent me a few of these! My hostas came from the same person – he has great taste in plants!
Four – Aquilegia. I’ve included these a few times in my Six On Saturday as this is my first year of them flowering. I’ve had the purple blooms for a few weeks – then this week, a yellow flower emerged. It’s in the same pot as a purple one and I’d missed the fact that there were several plants in the same pot. So not only does it self seed, it seems it can be a different colour and a different flower! Is there anything more magical?
Five – Senetti. Another new plant for me this year. I loved it so much that I bought a second one – in hot pink! The purple one is starting to fade but I’m dead heading it regularly to try and encourage it to go back to its delicious dark purple colour.
Six – Lilium. This is one of my rescue plant successes. Bear with me, I know it doesn’t look like much right now. I bought two lilies last summer – right at the end of the summer and they looked very sorry for themselves but they perked up and flowered in about September and were absolutely gorgeous. So I read up on what to do with them and so dutifully waited for the leaves to die back, dug up the bulbs, dried them, stored them in paper in the loft over winter and back in April I planted them all into their own pots. Then nothing. Not a peep out of them. I was this close (puts thumb and index finger together) to dumping the compost back into my standby pots and putting the plant pots away. Then this happened this morning. Tiny little signs of life. Not all the pots but some of them. And I’m going to take that as a win!
Thanks again to The Propagator – please go and have a read of his blog and have a wander round this little community.
The Garrett Garden 
Lovely selection! I thought number 3 was a Calendula? Aquilegias are gorgeous, aren’t they, and there’s a surprising variety in colours and as you mention flower shape, from the wilder ones to the larger flowers and even the doubles (though I prefer singles).
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I think the flower head is too small to be calendula (from a quick google search as I didn’t know what calendula was LOL) but I will keep taking pictures as they open! I don’t trust these plant apps 100% of the time so I’m happy to be wrong đŸ˜‰ My neighbour has the most amazing purple and cream double aquilegias, right next to our shared gate – I’m hoping she’ll let me have some seeds later in the year! They are all so beautiful.
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