I bunked off last week. There was a very good excuse. As no one seemed to notice I will continue unabashed. I will bank the good excuse for another time.
Here we are again, Six on Saturday, the pyramid selling concern started by the President of Prop Towers, The Prop. This tower should not be confused with Malory, Fawlty or indeed Trump. God forbid. There is oodles more intrigue, much better customer service and well, the least I can say is, a better haircut.
The weather has changed. The rain arrived last night and brought with him a rowdy party of hail, thunder, lightning and gales. He would have been more welcome on his own.
My first contribution is a flowering sedum. When my OH appeared with this in hand I humoured him, “very nice, dear” I said, whilst barely raising an eye from my How to Crochet a Rocket Ship book. When I saw the flower I repeated the sentiment, the difference being this time I meant it.
Next we have Lilium ‘Casa Blanca’, both fragrant and fabulous. A gift from the generous and kind, cunningly disguised as a grumpy, old man who will probably be even more grumpy now I have said nice things about him, Mr K. Thanks, they are indeed a wonder to behold and sniff.
Just as I love tigers but wouldn’t particularly want one in my garden, petunias and me are not a happy gardening match. They are sticky. They make me go icky. I like to look at them, admire them in other people’s gardens as long as I don’t have to work there. My lovely neighbour gave me a pot of petunias for looking after her cats. I smiled and accepted them as enthusiastically as I could muster. I admit they are rather striking, attractive even. A tiger would have been nice.
Several years ago I grew Alonsoa warscewiczii ‘Scarlet’, the mask flower. A magnificent colour, tough and persistent, it even over wintered for a couple of years. Then a harsh one and it failed and drifted out of my consciousness. In mine and Nancy’s “all seed packet 50p” frenzy at the local garden centre I picked up a packet. Now I am rather pleased I had practiced my Boston crab.
Now we have Cautleya spicata ‘Robusta’, a member of the ginger family, that was donated by the lovely Phlomis Phlo. It has been battered by scorch and now rain and wind so is perhaps not looking its best. The fetching drip on the end of its nose brings a little pathos to the picture don’t you think?
And finally a dahlia seedling, whose parentage is a little vague. Possibly Dahlia coccinea with a contribution from some passing Lothario. Dark leaved, tangerine veined petals and a central boss of ginger, a beautiful love child.
Thanks Mr P, happy holidays to you. Who knows what next week will bring? Let us hope it is all good things.
Off The Edge Gardening 
I’m glad one of us has Casa Blanca flowering. Mine are a lofty foot tall with no sign of a bud, let alone a flower. Come to think of it, none of my (now three) Rhapsody in ‘Blue roses has flowered; one looks decidedly dead. For the second week running I have nothing worthy of inclusion in a six. I’ll just have to wait for Edifice 3 to get off the ground.
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You do have a very good excuse! My RIB flowered once (not much) and now looks very sorry for itself although I have watered it wellish. We live in trying times.
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I manage to bunk off every other Saturday and no one seems to notice. So glad you have a blooming Casa Blanca lily. They are soooo lovely. But rain? You had rain? There is not a drop in our forecast for weeks to come. Out of sync! 😦
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Again!? I will have a word 😉
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Please do – just rain, no thunder or lightening necessary.
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I will try to be selective, but I can’t promise!
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I’m with you on the Petunia front….hate when the flowers have gone over and they are, indeed, sticky and icky!
Love that orange though ; very showy and I love showy.
Glad to see your 6!
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Glad you agree, I thought I was alone in my anti-petunia stance. Thanks x
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Lovely contributions from the sedum to the dahlia. Strange weather everywhere. No end in sight to the heat here. I might welcome a nice thunder storm and I know the garden would perk up.
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We have had quite a lot of rain here now, I am sure they will say it is not nearly enough, but the plants will be loving it. And, of course, the slugs and snails but at this very moment in time I think, hey ho! When I see the damage I might think differently! Stay cool x
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I liked the red of your Alonsoa warscewiczii that I didn’t know. I googled to realize that no one in France sells it online. I’m going to have to order in the UK as this year, I guess. Good choice this week and congratulations for not having put the red pollen of the lily on the white petals …Casa Blanca is gorgeous !
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How strange! You can be a forerunner. If you would like me to find some for you just give me a shout. I have been very careful around the lily, not sure what it will look like after all this rain, I will take a peek later. Hope your garden is getting some rain, especially if you are still on your hols!
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Maybe in late summer. Thanks. I’ll tell you more.
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I so agree about the petunias, Gill, have never liked the feel of them, and not the look much either. Your flower shots are great, I couldn’t pick a winner out of such a lovely six. Love your description of the dahlia..such goings on in your garden!
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Thanks, I thought I was alone, almost a guilty secret!
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Seems like there is a bit a petunia thing going on – me too. I hated the stickiness and stopped buying them. The white of the casa Blanca is beautiful. Hope John K is on the mend.
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Horrah, another one! The lily is just lovely. I think John is playing “catch up”, a tough time for a gardener to be ill.
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He must be very cross! But he’s got to go easy. Best wishes
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That is where the problem lies…..
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Those sedum flowers are just so alluring aren’t they? Aalthough the crochet a rocket ship book sounds intriguing…
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They are gorgeous! As for the book, fascinating!
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They probably noticed, but were tactful enough to not say anything about it. Most of us miss SOS from time to time.
Mask flower is an odd one. I am not familiar with it. Pretty, but now worth a brawl. What is 50p? It sound inexpensive. I suppose it would be to cause a frenzy.
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Oh, that looks like $0.65! I might sock it up with a bunch of pretty white West Side Bs for that.
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All seed were reduced to 50p, usually anything from 1.99 – 2.99 so a real bargain!
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Wow your Casa Blanca lily is as pretty as Ingrid Bergman!
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She is!
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You brought the anti-petunia brigade out of the woodwork. I’ve never liked their look, so didn’t have them in my garden, thus didn’t know they could be sticky & icky. Take that back. One open garden year, I grabbed some flats of petunia to fill in spots, becuz that’s what was at the garden centre. They blended well, but not enough for me to become attached. Now I’m glad I remained strong in the face of it. So sorry about the hail. Wow! Someone on Twitter had horned hail – was that yours?
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Horned hail? No not me, it sounds pretty scary! Yes, there seem to be a lot of us about, who would have thought it?! 🙂
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