Redemption

Six on Saturday is a weekly diary hosted by The Propagator & contributed to by gardeners all over the world.  For links to other SoSers, check out Mr P's comments & the Twitter hashtag, #SixOnSaturday.

Our witchy calendar says May is the month to dress your well.  As dry as this month has been, I'm very glad we aren't dependent on a well, dressed or otherwise.


While there's no rain forecast for the next fortnight, the garden this week has reminded me of hope.  Things which I'd given up on, have redeemed themselves.

So perhaps, too, we shall see rain.

Now let's do this thang.






1.  Dog Rose.

This self seeded in a flower bed around 7 years ago but'd never flowered.  I'd decided if it didn't produce this year, it was going to be guerilla gardened out of my life.

Apparently threats work with roses.

I'd expected white but am delighted that it's pink.


2.  Bramble buds.

Last year, the bramble from next door was left to cover the fence & provide support for the new hops until said hops matured.  This the bramble did, but it didn't produce a single flower.

With last year's bramble growth still in place, that was all the hops support necessary, so I determined if there were no berries on the bramble this year, I cut it at the base, leaving the dead wands in place as a hops trellis.

We've at least got flower buds - lots of them - so hopefully berries to follow.  Another plant that responds to threats.


3.  Bass guitar.

When El Punko's guitar died, it couldn't be fixed & no one wanted it for parts.  This week, he decided he was tired of it taking up room in his office.  I offhandedly said that it'd make an interesting trellis.

Later that same day, he-who-never-gardens surprised me.

There are rhodochiton, thunbergia, & Japanese anemone planted at the base of this wall, which he assures me won't clash with the brilliant red of that guitar.  We shall see.


4.  Deutzia purchased as raspberry sundae, but an image search says, no.

Not that many weeks ago, I shared the unthinkable on Twitter - that I'd fallen out of love with my deutzia.  The flowers were pale & lacklustre at the time.  Most unfortunate, as it wasn't the deutzia's inner self I loved.

But the flowers darkened, so now my zest is back.

I don't remember it doing that last year.  Let's hope I remember it next year.


5.  Ricinus.

I've lost count, the number of castor seeds I've planted this year with no results.  Even as we speak, there's a warm tray of them in the dark, thinking about whether to make an appearance.

Imagine my delight when I found this self-seeder growing next to one of last year's ricinus stumps.

The late ricinus had been shorter than others planted across the garden, so I decided to move this seedling to a better spot.  However, I couldn't extricate it, so lifted the ricinus corpse for better access.

The seedling came with it & seemed attached to its dead ancestor.  Even though these leaves don't look like new growth on an old plant, I decided to relocate them together rather than risk damaging the seedling's roots.

There shall be weird ricinus flowers in our garden this year.


6.  Honey garlic.

I'll close with the honey garlic, that speaks for itself.  (The videos loads faster if you full screen it.)

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope to see you next time.