Six on Saturday – Forlorn

Posted byofftheedgegardeningPosted inChez Nous, Six on SaturdayTags:, , , , ,

Well Mr Prop you’ve really done it this time.  It has been my first day off for a while.  We have been away, dodging showers in Cornwall, and before that we had visitors to entertain, with more due next weekend.  How have I spent this glorious nugget of a free day?  Enjoying an aromatherapy massage, or perhaps brunching on avocado smashed onto spelt toast whilst perusing the weekend papers?  No, I have been wandering around my gardening in the pouring rain and howling gale trying to take photos for my Six on Saturday.  I am seriously annoyed.  And wet.  I will never forgive you.

I’m over it now.  All in the past.  I still admire you from afar.  Shall we get on?

First is a view out onto the courtyard from the relative dry and warm of my home.  I was contemplating.  I was revving myself up to venture forth.  No doubt I sighed a little.  You can see the green watering can that is too heavy for me to lug up the steps when it is full.  An anemic tomato plant, a stoically unflowering nerine and a few equally unfloriferous dahlias huddle on the step.  My pathetic greenhouse is flapping about like a demented seagull.   The ‘mind your own business’ is doing its utmost to treacherously smother the brick steps up to the main garden.  All is sog and forlorn.

I will try and cheer up as we proceed, but I can’t promise anything.  It might be a good idea to brace yourself for all eventualities.

Next is Solonum atropurpureum which is one of this year’s tranche of seed grown plants.  The decision to attempt to propagate this monster must have been made during a “what on earth was I thinking of” moment.  Alternative names are purple devil and malevolence so it is indeed surprising that I thought it would be a cuddly addition to the throng.  It is spiky and ugly and it is doing exceedingly well.

Now we have a bedraggled Dahlia australis and resident nibbler.  This plant was also grown from seed and turned out not to be the true species, a random bee must have snuck in with outsider pollen to the parent plant.  Still it is both pretty and reliable, two fine traits.  My dahlias have been dreadful this year, partly due to weather conditions and partly due to neglect.  Possibly in a ratio of 1:99.

Onto a depressed Rosa ‘Symphony in Blue’.  The first flush earlier in the summer was glorious.  Seems a little sad to see this battered shadow of its former self.   Time for it to have a sleep now and rest up until next year.

I have a confession, I have not one but two tibouchinas.  I say this tentatively as I’m a little worried that the Redistribution of the Tibouchina Party will come and liberate one of them.  But I need both, really, I do.  This is Tibouchina ‘Groovy Baby’, a diddy little shrub, but with flowers as large as its full-sized friend.  I would like a dress in this colour if anyone is feeling creative.

Lastly the delightful, Fuchsia ‘Bornemann’s Beste’.  This determined soul has thrived in the Bed of Anarchy, elbowing its way through the expanse of agapanthus and over exuberant salvias.  Sturdy and full of flower, it is a winner.

All done, until the next time, over and out.

 

 

19 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – Forlorn”

  2. Of course your solanum is doing well: it’s also called five minute plant, I see, and there has to be a reason for that!
    I love your rainy photos…just to see plants with some drops on their petals would be a fine thing. The tibouchina is looking particularly fetching in a dejected kind of way. A lovely colour. Will you have to put it in your demented greenhouse for the winter?

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    1. Trooper Heavens, excellent, nay stoic, contribution. Undaunted by a bit of pesky rain. Just what we expect here at the regiment. Love that fuchsia, and also the tibouchia, previously unknown to me, although, glory bush, snigger.

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  4. Eeks! That spiky plant looks rather unfriendly! Love the Tibouchina ‘Groovy Baby’ but who on earth thinks of these cringeworthy names? I once had a lovely velvet jacket that colour. Wonder what happened to it?

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  5. The tibouchina picture is stunning, Gill! The plant also, I’m sure.
    About Solanum is it easy to overwinter? Do you sow them every year?
    It’s a bit scary but the thorns and the beautiful leaves of solanaceous are very attractive.

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  8. Everything looks happy, despite being wet, even the malevolence which, a search tells me, is highly toxic. My sympathies to your enemies. Love that groovy baby colour as well. It surprises me that your rose is beginning to fade as mine simply won’t stop galloping on.

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  9. I am sorry I miss all this last week. I am embarrassingly behind schedule.
    That Solanum atropurpureum is weird. What is weirder is that a colleague who grows annuals and perennials actually grew it back about thirty years ago. (Hey, that was about the time of the Earthquake. Thursday was the thirty year anniversary.) I still see it on rare occasion in retail nurseries, although I do not know who grows it.

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