Top o’ the morning to you! Another week has whistled by, bringing us back to another Saturday and another Six Things. The wind has been whistling by too over the past couple of days and previous to that, the rain was whistling down. It’s been a squally sort of week all told, with a few colder mornings to accompany the arrival of the weekend. Back to the task in hand, and of course there are more Six on Saturday posts available over at The Propagator.
1. Geranium ‘Elke’
I do like this little spread of cheeriness. It’s main flush of flowers arrives in spring, but it’s been kind enough to keep up a display of some sort ever since. The wet autumn weather has encouraged it even further in it’s efforts, earning it a space in this week’s selection.
2. Cyclamen hederifolium ‘Silver Cloud’
Now into it’s third week of flowering, the leaves of this lovely Cyclamen have started to emerge, revealing the silver tones that gives it it’s name. The flowers themselves featured in a Six on Saturday from two weeks ago. It’s been an absolute star of the greenhouse; my original intention was to find a home for it in the garden but I’ve enjoyed it so much as a potted plant that perhaps it will stay like that.
3. Purple-pink Salvia
I found a couple of cheerful unnamed Salvias on the discount bench somewhere or other last year. They’ve flowered well and continue to bring a bit of colour to the borders. Unfortunately, the surround plants are looking increasingly dilapidated and I haven’t got around to tidying them up yet. I’m afraid this unsatisfactory state of affairs rather detracts from Salvias themselves.
4. Grapevine
Just behind and above the Salvia, the Grapevine is yellowing it’s way towards winter with pleasing aplomb. On the occasional day when the sun shines all afternoon, perhaps even into what remains of the evening, the golden hues are picked up nicely by the low-lying sunbeams.
5. Oxalis massoniana
Back in the greenhouse: the first sign of colour on the autumn flowering Oxalis. I only bought this (and another one which featured last week) in the spring, so it’s a small voyage of discovery; I wasn’t certain when they were going to start growing again after the summer, or when they’d flower. I kept them dry since they went dormant in the spring and started watering in September. It seems to have done the trick.
6. Gazanias
Following on from last week’s flowers in a bucket, here’s some more. These were dug out of my nan’s border to make way for some winter bedding. I’ll pot them up and overwinter them in the greenhouse, in the meantime, they seem to be happy flowering away in the bucket.
Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!
Ah gazanias! I can see that I still have flower buds in progress… weird at the end of October, right ?! yours are superb in this bucket. Fingers crossed that you manage to overwinter them.
I hope so – some people manage to keep them outside, but the don’t come back very strongly. We’ll see what happens!
Beautiful flowers! Hope they carry on after you plant them.
Those gazanias are lovely!
I think so too!
It has been a bit wild weather-wise lately. That little Oxalis is rather lovely and I fear I may have to look up Geranium ‘Elke’ later.
‘Elke’ is a great plant – low growing and quite well behaved for a Geranium!
I have ‘Elke’ but it stopped flowering ages back and was chopped back. On the other hand, I have Cyclamen ‘Silver Cloud’ in the garden and it seems well ahead of yours in both leaf and flower. Lovely thing and one of my clumps has masses of self sown seedlings around it, all equally silver and destined for planting elsewhere when they go dormant.
I feel a bit ashamed that our Gazanias went into the compost.
Your garden, and the plants contained therein(!), are often much further along than mine. It’s surprising how much difference the latitude makes.
I thought I’d try keeping the Gazanias as a chap I work for has been keeping his going for years. He heats his greenhouse which gets them going nicely in the spring – I don’t heat mine, so we’ll see how I get on.
Very interesting cyclamen, those silver leaves are beautiful. You’re very good at photographing flowers in buckets, those gazanias look super!
Ha! It’s my hidden talent!
I do like those Gazanias, do they overwinter? The colours are joyful are they not?
Very joyful indeed! Yes, they do overwinter although I’ve never tried it myself. I’ll let you know how I get on!
I also have ‘Elke’ and she is very pretty, but mine stopped flowering a while ago. Your Gazanias look lovely, but I tend to treat any I buy as annuals. Good luck with overwintering them!
I’m an optimist! It’s always worth trying these things.
The Oxalis looks like it’s going to be a beauty when those flowers open fully. I have Elke and its one of my favourite geraniums. Great flowers and nice and low growing.
The gazanias look very jolly. What will you pull out of the bucket next week?
Yes, I’m looking forward to the Oxalis, and there’s another similar one which is a little bit further behind.
I feel like I’ve set a precedent with the bucket. I’ll have to see what I can work out for next week!