Welcome to another Six on Saturday, the meme of choice for the horticultural in-crowd. Too cool for school, on-trend, leaders not followers. You get my gist. Contributors are herded by none other than the great cultural icon himself, The Propagator.
Before I go any further I have an apology to make, last week, in my haste, I forgot to mention the indomitable Mr K. As today is his birthday, I will do my best to redress this error. Oh, and I will say, sorry, it won’t happen again. Let us get a move on, or it will be Sunday before we know it!
Firstly we have a tulip and hosta combo. After a slow start to the season things are beginning to catch up with themselves, meaning there are some interesting combinations to be seen. The spring flowers are overlapping with early summer ones. Strangers are making new friends. These tulips have been in prime condition for a couple of weeks now. They are in a rather shady and exposed spot. Perhaps that is the trick!
Last year the aquilegias took over the garden and I vowed to ensure that this did not happen again. It has. When they have finished flowering and before they seed I will be ruthless. I promise.
Next is Cerastium tomentosum, also known as dusty miller and snow in summer. It lives on the wall between our house and our neighbours’. On a regular basis it is squashed beneath sleeping cats, slices of apple pie, bowls of soup, cupcakes, magazines, plants and elbows. Doesn’t turn a hair.
They have arrived, in fact they have been here for a couple of weeks, so much for a hard winter killing of pests! In fact both the aphid and mollusc populations seem to be doing rather nicely, thank you very much. Not sure what the white one is all about, perhaps it is the ghost of previously squished greenfly and it has come back to teach me a lesson. Gulp!
Another late on parade is Pulmonaria ‘Opal’, a plant that I rescued from a bargain bin somewhere earlier in the year. I have grown this lungwort before and pounced on the pathetic specimen as soon as I realised what it was. The colour is enchanting, everything I remembered it to be.
Lastly we have Geranium sylvaticum ‘Mayflower’. I am big fan of geraniums, they are dependable and long flowering and come in many makes and models. This wood cranesbill is a great beauty, understated and elegant. Just like The Birthday Boy!
Thank you Mr Prop, why don’t you pop on over to his blog and find out what the rest of us hipsters have been up to. Adieu.
Off The Edge Gardening 
Similar issues with aquilegia over here! Nice shots of all your six.
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I’m glad I’m not the only one who wants to deal with their aquilegia! I never planted it – it has possibly come from across the road. And I’ve got a succulent I’d rather put in its place.
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Tulips and hostas make a great combo – thanks for the idea. However, aphids – eeek! – don’t want to see them or think about them. I do share your intentions for ruthless removal of self-seeding columbines. Also relentlessly reaching rhizomes. I imagine we share the same likelihood of not actually achieving said ruthlessness. 🙂
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Great combo that your hosta and tulip! Thank you for giving me the name of Cerastium tomentosum … I took pictures in my garden without having the name … With this Latin name I found the French name literally called “mouse ear” .. Do you have the same thing?
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No, but I’m glad you told me, a lovely name.
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Spotted greenfly on one of my roses the other day. Have zapped them with a soapy solution. Seems to have done the trick. For now.
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Good, I am squishing.
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My roses have greenfly too ☹️ Think I will go with soapy solution as am too squeamish to squish.
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Good plan, I’ve got some garlic solution from last year, it will be pretty lethal by now!
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Now that sounds both organic and toxic – how do you make it?
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Bash some cloves seep in boiling water for ages, water down and zap!
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Right shall get brewing thanks!
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Love your plants!
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Thanks Tim 🙂
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I like having some aquilegias on the go to fill the gap between spring and summer flowers. I think I may have culled them too much, we have less than we’ve had for years.
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I’ll send some ….. It is all about balance isn’t it? I love them but it has become a bit much, and they are buggers to get out of the nooks and crannies!
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Lovely colour with the Hostas and tulip, Gill, and the geranium is pretty too. I don’t have much luck with geraniums here…too hot, I think. I’ve just planted some aquilegias and hoping they’ll fill spaces. Might be a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’!
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Just keep one eye on them, they are beautiful but sneaky ……
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I’m standing up for the much maligned aquilegia, I love them and they can self seed at will as far as I’m concerned, as long as they don’t all turn out to be that rather insipid pink.
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Well done Maggie!
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Oh, that white columbine is nice. That is something that even I grow, or tried to grow. Well, it was not exactly my idea; but there they are. They don’t do much, and the colors are rather weird, but they are sort of cool. I think I would like them more if they were more columbine colored, like white ad blue, white and yellow, white and pink. All the dark brownish red, burgundy, deep orange and such are a bit off for these familiar flowers.
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Late to the party! But lovely images. You’ve got a mutant greenfly! Hopefully it’s been parasitized rather than just shed its skin so it can grow bigger, and eat more… :~((
I love aquilegias, and they do fill a post-spring bulb gap.
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Fashionably late! Re: the ghost of greenfly past, I hope so ….. 🙂
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