Hello and good morning; or indeed afternoon, evening or night. It’s time I joined again with The Propagator in the weekly display of Six Things on a Saturday. Following on from last week’s foliage fest, I’ve spotted a few more autumn colours worthy of inclusion, so we’ll start with those:
1. Resplendent Ribes
The Ribes is positively blushing with autumnal good cheer. The leaves seem to take a two tone approach to the whole situation which, upon closer inspection, makes for quite a whimsical display.
Superlative Spiraea
Gently idling along from green to yellow, the Spiraea is brightening up this little corner of the garden.
3. Ambiguous Anemone
The delightfully fluffy seedheads of Anemone sylvestris appeared on a Six on Saturday a few weeks ago, but the foliage is today’s focus. There are several things worth pointing out here. First, the main (and original) clump of Anemone has yellowed and blackened. Second, one of the subsidiary clumps, that has cropped up in the nearby Phlox subulata, has reddened, rather than yellowed and blackened. Third, the leaves around the seed heads have remained green, rather than having reddened, or yellowed, or blackened. I can see why the foliage around the seed head might remain green; keeping the stem viable for as long as possible to ensure seed dispersal. I’m not sure why one section of the plant would turn red when the rest hasn’t. I remember reading a theory somewhere on the idea that the boldness of a tree’s autumn display is directly related to it’s health and fitness, in an evolutionary sense. That could make sense here too: the old clump being less vivacious than the newer shoot at the perimeter. Anyway, there’s some food for thought.
4. Oxalis hirta ‘Gothenburg’
This little delight is looking pretty chuffin’ marv in the greenhouse at the moment. It’s not quite getting enough heat or sunlight for the flowers to open fully but I can’t say I mind too much.
5. Bellis
I really like these cheery chaps. The white one is showing a bit of fasciation; the disc florets have expanded sideways rather than forming a neat little circle of yellow.
6. Aristolochia californica
I showed this several weeks ago: I thought I’d spied some flower buds and was wondering whether it would manage to flower before the cold weather sets in. Well it has turned out to be a flower bud, but the jury is still out on whether it will get a chance to fully open.
That’s all for this week. Have a jolly weekend!
The Bellis are always lovely. I have not had any luck with anemones. Wonder if if is just too warm for where we are?
Maybe. All I can tell you is that they grow like weeds here!
No success with anemone sylvestris? – the same in my garden. On the contrary to its name, it is not a true woodland plant. It prefares sun, warmth, relative dryness, mineral soil and high calcium. Possibly not all conditions have to be provided together. In my semiwoodland garden it is not at home.
Great colour on the resplendent ribes. I’m sure the neighbours have one in their front garden. I’ll take a nose later. I love the way the Oxalis flower buds start off and funnily enough I was intending to purchase some Bellis daisies from the Pant Man’s stall today.
Pant Man? Is he branching out into plants too? Good for him!
You could have gone with beautiful Bellis and awesome Aristolochia, did you get stumped by Oxalis? That’s an intriguing thing with the colour on the Anemone, just the sort of detail I like, though the connection between autumn colour and evolutionary fitness sounds like a stretch. I don’t know and very much like that oxalis.
Ostentatious Oxalis? I wrote the post in two halves and apparently forgot the theme when I came back to it!
I must admit the theory is a little forced. It was to do with trees with longer lasting and more vibrant colour displays suffering reduced aphid infestations in the spring. Correlation is not causation of course; I’ll have to see if I can find the article.
That oxalis is exquisite, and looking as if it is spring…
It is. I’m very much enjoying the autumn flowering Oxalis at the moment – I’m hoping to find a few more over the coming years!
Passionate gardeners love to have things to hunt for!
Adjectives are celebrating in your 3 first items this week! It highlights everything you have been able to present to us. This weekend I have a preference for the Oxalis hirta “Göteborg”! Superb spiral flower.
Fingers crossed to see the open aristolochia flower…
Yes, the spiral buds and flowers of the Oxalis are a lovely little quirk.
Beautiful bellis and oxalis 🙂
The hot pink and orange combination on the Ribes is resplendent indeed. The Oxalis and Bellis are looking so healthy in greenhouse, protected from the cold outside.
Yes indeed. I’m not sure how hardy the Oxalis is, but it seems to have coped with this week’s drop in temperature alright so far.
I enjoyed your observations and musings about the three different shades of anemone leaves, especially as I’ve been learning a bit about this in my RHS course (but sadly not enough to provide any intelligent commentary yet!). Do let us know if you come across the answer one day.
Hope your last plant does flower, although with the cold coming in now it might have left it a tad late!