Welcome to this week’s edition of Six on Saturday. As usual, head editor The Propagator will be overseeing all this week’s entries: a cut here, a rewrite there, a new headline and a good yell about missed deadlines. I imagine.
Usually I’m a bit of a traditionalist in the garden; as soon as most of the autumn flowering plants have finished I clear everything up and give it all a good mulch. I mostly do this because it means I can do everything in one go and save myself having to do too much over the winter months. Well this year I barely touched the garden from about mid-November, leaving me with plenty to do over the Christmas holidays. The upshot of all of this is that all the seed heads have been left standing; some of them have lasted well and provided a bit of interest into the winter. Here’s the best of the bunch:
1. Hydrangea quercifolia
Regular readers will have seen this before and will know how much I rate it. It has featured several times before; here and here amongst other places. It continues to do it’s thing!
2. Aconitum carmichaelii
The towering seed heads on this often catch the afternoon light, if there is any; that sort of thing has been a little lacking of late. There’s a photo of it in full flower here.
3. Persicaria affinis
Another regular on my Six on Saturdays. It’s not showy but it is so reliable and adds a little bit of interest at the front of the border. Lovely jubbly. After I took this photo I took a spade around the edge of it as it does spread if given half a chance.
4. Origanum vulgare ‘Aureum’
Earlier this year I did a post on the various pollinators this plant attracts. I find it quite attractive too, ‘though it’s not particularly flashy.
5. Sedum/Hylotelephium
Another stalwart of both my garden and many others. From summer onwards it adds so much to any garden. It’s appeared a few times over the last few months and I discuss it’s naming in this post.
And finally…
6. Hebe before and after
I mentioned in last week’s Six on Saturday that I was planning to take it out. I wasn’t lying!
That’s all folks! Thanks for popping by.
A little bit of cleaning is needed in the gardens at the moment, I did most of it over the Christmas holidays. Where did the hebe go? Trash can ? Or did you plant it somewhere else?
All the soft stuff went on the compost heap, the branches and that will go to the tip in due course. I’d like to have kept it but it was just too big to stay. I’ve got a few cuttings of it though!
I wonder if the aconite self seeds. It is nice to see the seed heads but they do go very, to quote The Prop, mushy in our damp environment. What are you going to plant in the gap?
I’m surprised some of the seed heads are looking so good – it’s been pretty wet.
There are a few contenders for The Gap. I’ve got a Crinodendon and an Escallonia which are currently too close together, but realistically they’re both too big for this wee gap. I’ll keep you updated!
Despite the advanced warning I wasn’t prepared for the hebe! Just looked at the Hydrangea quercifolia photo from the summer – I’d forgotten how good it looked, and its friends.
I was quite pleased I managed to get the photo from pretty much the same spot – the photo slider works well!
Yes, the Hydrangea is really nice. Slow growing but somehow that adds to it’s slowly accumulating splendour!
A week ago I pinched some cuttings off a Hebe flowering up the other end of the village, a pretty pink thing. There was a time they were everywhere and I wouldn’t have wanted it if you paid me. Hydrangea heads are about the only “dead” bits left in my garden, the rest had collapsed and is gone.
I think some Hebes are certainly better than others! I’ve got cuttings of the one I’ve taken out. The foliage isn’t too special but the flowers are amongst the biggest I’ve seen (which is why I like it). Unfortunately the severe ‘pruning’/hacking I had to give it to make it fit in the space means that it’s been putting out fewer flowers each year.
Looking forward to what you are planning for the spare vacated by the Hebe. Nice seed heads which look great until they get too wet, but there will be a chance of seedlings perhaps,
I haven’t quite decided what’s going in that spot. I will miss the evergreen presence of the Hebe, so perhaps I’ll try and get something for all seasons.
The place looks so bare when plants are cut back but the garden is certainly much neater and ready for spring. Interesting variety of seed heads.
I was looking back at some photos of the same plants from the summer – it’s difficult to believe it’s the same garden! Even though it happens every year, it still comes as a surprise.