Six on Saturday. Drum Roll Please…

For the fabulous big fat bud on myMagnolia sieboldii . I hoped it would be open for today ; I have been gloat over this thickening bud for days and now it is just about to bulge out open and let out all its magnificence . When it opens amply I shall probably be inviting passers - by in , or finish cars to show mass . All this beauty and it is fragrant too . true , it smells a little like house of cards gum , but it is certainly wind .

I bought this magnolia a few year ago and plant it far too close to a daphne . I ca n’t remember whether this was out of wilfulness or in an absent tending moment . It bothered me for a class and then I decided that one of them would have to move . Magnolias hate root disturbance but for a daphne it means almost certain expiry , so the magnolia go bad into a pot . And there it sat whilst I searched for the unadulterated touch , which I never seemed to happen . Now it is growing happily in my new garden , although this is not the utter spot . This shrub or minuscule tree diagram grows as wide as it is tall and I have n’t really get under one’s skin enough elbow room for it to grow too big . But any problem it will cause are in the future and for now I am glorying in its very first nearly open bloom . I am surprised how pink it is ; I think it would be pure white . I had another summer- flowering magnolia yr ago calledMagnolia wilsoniiand it had gross white efflorescence and a delicious fragrancy . This one has pink distort buds and olfactory property of bubblegum . But I saw it growing at Highgrove and if it is honest enough for His Majesty , then it ’s good enough for me .

Years ago I read Vita Sackville West ’s first garden book and I followed her advice to grow the annualPhacelia campanulata . She suggested sow it in regular waves throughout the summertime but I ca n’t be bothered to do this . But most year I sow it like a shot into a overnice dope . It looks much too pretty to be a simple annual as the flowers are the deepest blue with white stamens and I mean it equal the best gentian .

Magnolia sieboldii

For years I feel sad that I did n’t have the proper conditions to growKalmia latifolia . It needs sulfurous dirt , a canopy of trees and plenty of moisture . But two years ago I sawKalmia latifolia‘Kaleidoscope ’ in a nursery and it was love at first sight . It occured to me that I could keep it in a commode and strain to give it what it like and needs . Actually , I only just actualize that it does n’t like full sun and the leaves do n’t appear too great but I think it will be fine now I have moved it into the shade . I have savor view the dark red , pointed flower bud amplify . They are ribbed and like footling turrets .

And when they open , the clusters of cup- shaped flowers are delightful ; they are raspberry - redness with snowy edges . I shall do my best to keep this beauty glad , even though it will have to spend the rest of its life in a passel . I believe its leaves are poisonous , but that ’s all right , I was n’t be after on eat them . But I have just been reading Reginald Farrer ’s book , The Rock Garden and he says honey made from Kalmia is poisonous . I look it up and apparently the pollen contains chemicals called grayanotoxins which are not poisonous to bees but the dearest is poisonous to humans . But I opine it is safe as long as the bee have accession to a wide range of other flowers . I hope so anyway , as my neighbours keep bees .

Next I have a lupin or lupine as they are called over the pond . I saw a lupine for sale at a garden core late for the eye- lacrimation price of £ 19 . £ 19 for a lupin ? ! gratuitous to say I did n’t buy it . I bought mine for quite a modest amount of money in April , at the marketplace in Bury St. Edmunds . It is calledLupinus‘Manhattan Lights ’ and it is quite dramatic . This loan-blend was bred at a nursery in Devonshire and it is much showier and more centre - catching than any I have seen before . It has five tall spire of yellow and majestic , fragrant flowers which are suppose to evoke the lights of skyscrapers on the Manhattan skyline . I do n’t usually go for grownup , fussier hybrids , but I am rather get with this beauty . The photograph was exact last calendar week when it was n’t fully out . It look quite prominent now it is all in full flush and the steeple have lengthen , but my late photo is a bit out of direction and I ca n’t be bothered to take another one , so you have to practice your imagination to see those illuminated tugboat blocks .

Magnolia sieboldii

I depict my son ’s wonderful pasture , Hakonechloa macratwo weeks ago , but this hebdomad I will show you another plant which he could n’t outfit into his mitt luggage when he moved to France . It is the most enormous hosta scream ‘ Sum and Substance ’ . This is always quite a large works , but my Logos ’s specimen is like a hosta on steroids , even after a mates of years of my care which bordered on negligence sometimes . ‘ Sum and Substance ’ has large yellowish green , crinkly leaves which are not quite as susceptible to molluscs as some hostas . Having allege this , I have had no slug problem here at all . I do n’t know whether this is because we had a dry May and June so far , or because there were no plants here when I fall so they have n’t discovered the garden , but it is wonderful . Next year , I expect the intelligence will get out that there are lots of delicious plants here and the shellfish will be partying and having orgies . But for now I am enjoying perfect hostas . This Funka can develop mirthfully in full sunlight , unlike many others and it has pretty lilac bloom later on in the summer .

I ’ll fetch up with a hardy cactus which I bought on a whim a couple of years ago . I love succulent but I ca n’t get excited by a cactus . I only bought it because I was intrigued by the estimate of a brave cactus . I put it in the nursery for the wintertime beause even if it is cold hardy , I should think it would succumb to winter wet . Anyway , it is looking quite jolly with its shiny , bright violent bloom . It is calledChamelobiviawhich sounds more like an STI than a works . It is a hybrid of theEchinopsisfamily . It is fuck as the Peanut cactus which I have to admit is easier to think and pronounce , so even a pedant like me has to use the vulgar name on this juncture only .

So there we have my Six on Saturday . Thanks to Jim atGarden Ruminationswho now hosts SoS. Do go and see what other citizenry are love in their gardens at the instant . In my next billet I will show some shots of the garden now that I finish making it .

Magnolia sieboldii

32 Responses toSix on Saturday. Drum Roll Please…

What a wide-ranging radical of six you have this week ! I laughed at your intent to haul sightseer in to see the Magnolia bloom – an Epiphyllum produced a new prime in my garden yesterday and I had precisely the same impulsion 😉 The Kalmia is lovely . I saw it in a Emily Post elsewhere and was immediately expect it up , only to find it is n’t remotely suited to my climate .

Six on Saturday. Drum Roll Please…