Some of you may have noticed that my midsummer Six was missing. I was busy touring, walking, and viewing birds in the stark yet fascinating Shetland Islands. At more than 60 degrees north we were as far north as Bergen, Norway, or St. Petersburg, Russia. Gardens are scarce, lots of wildflowers on moorlands and cliffs, but tiny, to protect against the wind. And of course, it doesn’t get dark there, the sun skims just below the horizon for 3 hours in the middle of the night! They have an astonishingly compressed growing season, growing a few hardly grains like oats, and various kales and roots.

It was such a joy to get back to my lush, tree lined and flower filled garden this week. To celebrate, here’s a special #SixOnSaturday, featuring my roses.

I don’t know the variety of this rose. Almost dinner-plate sized, and very fragrant.

Just coming into bloom, this is a ‘small climber’ with lovely orange petals and a slightly spicy scent. I think it might be Lady of Shallot.

Another recent rose is a pale pink one, also from David Austin. This one enjoys a bit of shade.

This is a very pretty white rose, very old I suspect. In full sun against the west wall of the house. A wonderful form, but no scent at all.

Another majestic ‘old rose’ — a shrub that looks like it could have been in 60 years. Perfect rose shape, and yet another shade of pink.

Finally, always a joy, my huge rambling rose performs only once, in a huge flush of colour and scent in June. She’s been a little late this year, perfect to come home to after my wild holiday in the north.

I hope you liked my #SixOnSaturday as the year already is turning towards shorter days! Not much sign of any longish warmth in Fife yet this summer. Thanks to those leaving comments on the blog – sorry if I don’t always get back to you on time! The blog is going well, but it would be great if more folk on Mastodon, or other parts of the Fediverse got into tooting a Six! Go on, it’s a much kinder form of social media, not controlled by crazy billionaires. All you need to do is find 6 things in your garden to show us. Then post on social, or add a link at Jim’s blog below. For regulars, our organiser is Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/. And I’m on mastodon @julie3dharris@mastodon.scot