Six on Saturday 1st January

Whoops: it appears I missed December! In actual fact I was completely present for all of December, simply not in my virtual form. As I mentioned in my post the other day, in the weeks preceding Christmas I barely saw the garden in daylight which did make taking pictures a little impractical. I return to Six on Saturday with renewed vigour: refreshed by the break; fuelled by a year’s worth of mince pies (consumed in the space of a single month); and wearing a new shirt and trousers.

Back to the matter in hand: today’s Six on Saturday is part of a veritable pan-global movement, led by the indomitable Propagator. Do pop over to his site to find more garden orientated blogs and bloggers (including some from the Southern Hemisphere, if summer blooms are your thing). For my part I’ve been mostly looking at the Corydalis, along with a few bonus plants for those of you brave enough to make it to the end of the post.

1. Corydalis anthriscifolia

This is not a particularly showy plant regarding the flowers (a sort of pale blue-purple), but it’s foliage is delightful throughout the year. Just as it starts to show the strain of a season’s hard graft, the old leaves are replaced with this ferny and finely marked growth; making the most of the scant sunlight that this time of year brings. It also has the rather jolly little habit of holding droplets of water in it’s leaves. If one must have a habit, better for it to be a good one.

2. Corydalis temulifolia

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Another good foliage plant, and in many respect a very similar species to our previous contender; C. temulifolia has leaves that are atypical of the Corydalis genus but it’s really only a superficial difference. Otherwise: it’s flowers provide the same pale blue-purple colour as C. anthriscifolia; in common with many herbaceous Corydalis it’s new flush of foliage arrives in late autumn; it’s new growth comes from bundles of scale leaves just like it’s relatives. These scale leaves are an interesting feature if you’re the sort of person that likes to get lost in the minutiae of the natural world, and in C. temulifolia they’re supersized; an unworldly, bulbous mass at the base of the plants. There’s a photo about halfway through this post.

Corydalis vivipara

Here’s a very pleasant surprise. Far from being dead as I had thought (see Adlumia fungosa at the end of the post), and as is so often the case, it’s aliiive! I bought this last year: in full flower in January. Being such an early riser, it’s evidently also early to bed, disappearing well before summer got going. It also made a home for itself a couple of inches away from where I planted it, which contributed to my thinking it was deceased. Anyhow, I’m well chuffed to see this cheeky chappy making a go of things.

4. Cyclamen mirabile

This Cylamen is really tiny – the pot is about 4 inches across. Somehow the delicate patterns that adorn so many Cyclamen leaves look even more impressive in miniature.

5. Hebe

I featured this Hebe (species unknown) in a Six on Saturday back in September. At that point I mentioned how it had neglected to flower with the exception of one emerging shoot. Since then, that single flowering shoot has carried on dancing to it’s own tune. This is one confused plant. I’ve got several nicely rooted cuttings of this, so I’m afraid the parent plant is destined for the chop.

6. Lonicera x purpusii

I’m sure I’ll show this one later in the year too as it flowers well for a long time, but here are it’s first flowers. I got a good whiff of the scent too; it so often seems to evade me.

That’s all for now. Thanks for visiting, Happy New Year and have a great weekend!