Good morning and welcome to another Six on Saturday. The last couple of Sixes have avoided the garden as a whole; either loitering around a single plant, or heading off to the allotment. Well we’re back in the garden this week for a general update: a few late summer blooms, along with some Cyclamen flowers marking the onset of autumn. As usual, for all things horticultural head over to The Propagator. Here we go:
1. Calendula
What better way to start than with this cheery fellow. This is one of several very healthy looking Calendulas just coming into flower. They’ve led a lifetime of neglect thus far: some seeds I’d saved from somewhere which I found hanging around at the bottom of the seed tin; sown rather late in the year; left in a seed tray for an embarrassing amount of time; finally planted out at the start of July. They’re now flourishing and seem to have forgotten their past troubles.
2. Cosmos
Here are some other late bloomers. They’re someone else’s leftovers but I thought they were just starting to look good, so they’re now brightening up a dull spot in the garden.
3. Tree Pepper
I have no idea what a Tree Pepper is, or should I say I had no idea, because apparently: this is. It was an impulse buy with a seed order and they’ve been growing very well. They put out lovely little blue flowers but didn’t seem to be setting fruit. I was just having a look to see whether I should pull the plants out and noticed lots of little fruit finally developing. Watch this space!
4. Lobelia cardinalis
A slightly washed out picture of a rather lovely plant; a pink cultivar of Lobelia cardinalis (cultivar unknown/lost). It struggled a bit when I planted it last year but has come up really well this time around and seems to be filling it’s space nicely.
5. Cyclamen hederifolium
I’ve planted a few Cyclamen amongst the various Lamprocapnos. The Lamprocapnos are finishing off for the year (with the exception of some ‘Alba’ seedlings which are looking like they never want to go to bed) so it’s nice to have a little something coming to the fore. The Cyclamen are grown from seed and there’s a few white flowered ones in the mix which has been a pleasant surprise.
6. Dicentra bits and bobs
D. formosa ‘Moorland Mist’ 
D. formosa ‘Stuart Boothman’ 
D. peregrina hybrid
It’s been a while since I’ve done any Dicentra updates, mainly because they’ve been sulking about the lack of rain. Dicentra formosa ‘Moorland Mist’ is starting to perk up and is putting out some flowers too. It’s probably my favourite white flowered cultivar at the moment and it’s outdone D. ‘Aurora’ (the usual star performer in the white-flowered category) this year. Next up is ‘Stuart Boothman’. It’s just started sending up some new leaves and rather nice they are too. They’re particularly finely divided and I’m glad to see it’s spreading a little bit. Lastly, the first seedling that showed up from my D. peregrina seeds turned out to be an hybrid (presumably with one of the nearby D. formosas). I’m still pretty excited about it and can’t wait to see some flowers on it.
That brings us to the end of today’s Six on Saturday. Have a lovely weekend!
I’m intrigued by the tree pepper. It’s pretty with it’s blue flowers and developing fruit. That calendula is lovely. I too neglected some that were carelessly left in pots for longer than they should have been – they don’t appear to have let bygones be bygones yet.
According to the seed packet it’s a perennial (although I believe peppers generally are anyway), so I’ll have to see if I can keep it for next year.
Original this pink cultivar of Lobelia! I’ve been growing a red one here for years, but yours is also interesting. Let the chilies grow and test them to see if they are hot! I’m sure they will be… Good luck
I’ll keep you updated!
Interesting tree pepper, but why is the word ‘tree’ there, will it actually turn into a tree one day? If so, hope you have space! I always mean to plant cyclamen and then forget, or remember but then they disappear without a trace. Very odd.
I have no idea! We’ll see what happens…
Yes, I will be interested to hear how the tree pepper fares. Pretty lobelia and dainty cyclamen.
I’m certainly looking forward to trying them 🙂
I did a direct sow of the Calendula this year. They did as well as the seed tray sown and potted on version. The Cyclamen look great.
My problem is that I can never decide where I want to put them, so I sow them in a seed tray while I try to make my mind up!
Cyclamen are so useful for the months when many other things are dormant, so long as you can remember where they are and not keep digging them up, which I’m very prone to do. My calendulas mostly finished flowering a few weeks ago, were cut back and looked like they might do another flush, but now they have mildew and look terrible. I should have done a second sowing by the look of yours.
I do find that Cyclamen are a little bit prone to being dug up! Having said that, I do find them quite resilient despite a bit of disturbance.