Indian summer has stayed with us in Scotland. Days are still warm and sunny with 19 deg C temperatures. As we move through the equinox and the light starts to fade, the miracle of giant courgette plants and sunflowers continues. This week I’ve chosen yellow-and-orange as a cheerful, warm, sunny theme, as we brace ourselves for the dark nights to come.

My first this week is the wonderfully wildlife-friendly buddlija weyeriana. This plant grows tall, like many buddlija, with yellow bobbles holding lots of tine flowers, that can last well into October to provide much needed nectar for Autumn pollinators.

On the more summery side, a mixed bag of nasturtium seeds has resulted in about 10% of this year’s flowers having a bright yellow flower, with red central streaks. Refreshingly bright on a dull day.

Clematis tangutica is next. For years I let this romp around a corner of the house with flowers up on the roof, then a friend pointed out that it could be chopped down to knee high each winter and the flowers might end up in reach next year….bingo. Here they are, each one a delicate yellow, leaving a springy seed head that will be used by small birds to clip off and make cosy roosting pockets for the winter.

Now for the late flowering big-guns. I’ve grown a rudbeckia in a pot this year, in the hope that i can nurture it in the greenhouse through winter. They should be hardy but I wonder if the winter wet gets them. This one is blooming away and looks like it will do for a while.

I may have shown this gorgeous dahlia before. I tend not to go for the big blousy ones, but this plant has been producing lots of delicate yellow-orange (or perhaps they are apricot?) flowers for what feels like months now, I love it!

To finish this week’s six it has, of course, to be the giant sunflower. This one was planted in a shady corner that I cleared for the first time in years. The soil must have been very rich, and the sun quite a struggle to find…the plant solved the problem by growing to about 9 ft tall….I had to stand on top of a bench to get anywhere near the flower. What a wonderful specimen!

That’s my #sixonsaturday for this week. A quiet weekend awaits me, where I’ll enjoy what must surely be the last warm weather. Stay safe, keep gardening, and don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.