Morning all, it’s Six on Saturday time again. Autumn seems to be in the air this week: the mornings are a tad dewy and misty, and the afternoons have been pretty delightful on the whole. The Propagator will be hosting a smorgasbord of Six on Saturday delights from around the globe, as is his way. My Six are as follows:
1. The Plant Formerly Known As Sedum
The plant featured above has, unbeknownst to itself I’m sure, undergone a name change; duly noted by many other Sixers. It now goes by the name of Hylotelephium: a name that doesn’t quite slip of the tongue like it’s old one. To further confuse matters, it’s name never seemed particularly clear in the first place. I’ve seen it described as Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, Sedum ‘Herbstfreude’, Sedum spectabile, or even Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’ (or ‘Herbstfreude’). The cultivar name ‘Autumn Joy’ appears to be a synonym of the original ‘Herbstfreude’. This was the name given to a hybrid between S. spectabile and S. telephium. What the differences between Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and S. spectabile actually are, physically speaking, I couldn’t tell you. Even if I knew it, I should now be questioning the difference between Hylotelephium ‘Autumn Joy’ and Hylotelephium spectabile. As I alluded to above, it really makes no difference to the plant itself, or to the napping bee.
2. The Plant Formerly Known As Schizostylis
Just next to the Hylotelephium is the plant now known as Hesperantha coccinea. At least with this one, the more recent name is easier to pronounce. The photo is a little lacklustre doesn’t really show it’s full character, with it’s cheery autumn presence giving something to look forward to over the next few months.
3. Onions!
Onions drying off in the greenhouse. That just about sums it up!
4. Calendula
I included these a couple of weeks ago and here they are again, this time from a slightly wider view point. I could dead head them, but I quite like the daily drama of constant birth and decay. I’m happy for them seed around in this particular spot anyway.
5. Gravel
Here’s a funny one for you. Every night an industrious spider spins a web between the greenhouse roof and one of the gravel topped pots on the bench. Every morning I lean over the pots to inspect progress (mainly of the Cyclamen) and catch my head on the line of silk, ending up with a single piece of gravel dangling from my head. It’s a strange sequence of events, and one that is quite difficult to capture on camera. I had to dangle the piece of gravel in front of a pot so I could get the camera to focus properly.
6. Hydrangea quercifolia
I’ve featured this before and no wonder; it’s an excellent plant. It’s semi-evergreen, the leaves are interestingly shaped and colour, it’s peeling bark is a nice detail if it does lose it’s leaves, and the flowers are full of exquisite subtlety. It’s one flaw is that the flowers are so weighty that they tend to bend down to scrape around on the ground. If there was room I’d let it do it’s thing, but space is at a premium, so I stake the flowers up (when I get round to it) to keep growth a little more upright.
That brings today’s Six on Saturday to a close. Do have a jolly weekend, see you next time!
Your onion harvest look very impressive and it’s nice to see the Calendua again – such great plants. Plant name changes are tricky to get used to. There’s an old corner shop where I grew up that has had many names over the years but it will forever be ‘Balshaws’ to me. Having said that I was late to Hesperantha so didn’t realise it was a new name so I’m perfectly fine with it!
To be honest, Hesperantha is better!
Quite a few of the Toby Carverys round here are still known as their old pub names (Parson and Clerk, Highwayman, etc.), even though I don’t ever remember them being anything except Carverys!
I like your hydrangea.
Cheers – me too!
Your onions are superb! You will be able to enjoy them all winter and next spring.
Nice photo also of sedums.
As for this white gravel, it’s very difficult to find small, clean, and cheap here that can be used on the surface of the pots as a cover.
I’m pretty pleased with the onions – they clean and very firm, so should store well.
Thankfully, alpine grit (or whatever name it’s sold under) is fairly easy to get hold of. I mix it into a lot of soil mixes as well as topping some of the pots with it.
I ventured onto Twitter a few days back to suggest to the RHS that they might change Hydroptelephium to Hylotelephium in their plants for pollinators list. https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/pdf/conservation-and-biodiversity/wildlife/plants-for-pollinators-garden-plants.pdf
Even the (alleged) experts tie themselves in knots. There’s been no response, incidentally. I have a taxonomic unknown with Hesperantha in my six too this week. Must be a taxonomic time of year.
I hope they do correct that – some poor soul has probably spent hours looking for where they can purchase a Hydroptelephium. Twitter has it’s uses but I couldn’t spend too much time on there!
All times of year are a taxonomic time of year!
Humans are just obsessed with classifying things, the plants – if they thought about us – would think we were very silly! Magnificent onion harvest. Can’t keep up with deadheading my calendulas, will leave them to it now.
I have to say, with Corydalis and Dicentras I’m pretty obsessed with classifying things! I’m much more relaxed with everything else.
The onions have been great this year. They had a very slow start so I wasn’t sure if they’d be any good, but they caught up in the end.
Love the Formerlies, made me smile. I agree, one a worse name, one a better name. H. quercifolia is a favourite of mine too, great foliage. I wonder if the diligent spider is waiting for you every morning to fall into his trap.
I reckon the spider sets his trap then calls all his mates round for a bit of entertainment.
I’m sticking with the formerlies for the Sedum, not only can I pronounce it, I can spell it too. The Spiders are out to get us I think (I’m not a fan) and I get covered in webs just walking around the garden. One of the little s*ds puts a thread across the path at face height for me every day.
The problem with using the up-to-date names is that no-one knows what you’re talking about!
It’s a very spidery time of year – thankfully I don’t really mind them, but I can imagine it’s very trying if you’re not keen!
Sedum does it for me. They are lovely plants all year. I enjoyed growing onions but my eyes couldn’t cope with the freshly chopped, home grown ones. Excellent harvest though. ðŸ˜
I’m planning to split that Sedum and have a few clumps of it around the garden – as you say, it’s a great plant 🙂