I love my garden, but this time my focus is elsewhere. This was the week when I put my post-covid nerves aside and took a long train journey…..all the way to the Chelsea Flower Show. My first time…we had a great time. This week I’m dedicating my #SixonSaturday to highlights from the show.

First, up, this year’s style was very much naturalistic planting, I think the plant that featured most was geum, and here are some really gorgeous examples. I need to get some more for my own garden.

I’m a big fan of alliums, and they did pop up in some of the show gardens, but also featured in several displays in the grand pavilion. WOW, look at these.

With a 6.5 hour train journey home to contend with, I didn’t buy any plants, but bulbs and corms were had, including several from a fabulous stand showing Zantedeschia — previously known to me as calla lily. I’ve gone for the purple-white one on the left, and a bright red that didn’t make it into this shot.

One stand wove clematis across the ground, round boulders, round obelisks, and they were so SO sumptuous. Like this one.

I always keep an eye out for veg. I know it’s a show garden, and thus ‘faked’, but just look at these rows of obedient and tasty veg: the stuff of dreams.

Finally, a long shot of one of the gardens. The pink-purple through to muted orange was very much a favourite theme of the show. What’s not to love about those colours? This was a ‘wild garden’ example, in the grand pavilion itself (it did turn out to be a breezy and rainy day, so the pavilion kept us happy for hours).

I’d love to go again one day, but maybe next year I’ll focus on a show a little closer to Scotland! Tatton Park and Harlow Carr look promising, as does a new flower show that’s being set up at Scoune Castle, near Perth.

That’s my #SixonSaturday for this week, back to my own garden next week, and maybe to veg, which I’ve been working to get planted and watered in nicely before a holiday (yep, GOING AWAY to another country) that’s coming up soon. Stay safe, and don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.

Late spring I guess, and we’re well into May. It’s almost time for Chelsea (I’m SO EXCITED, going down to London for my first EVER Chelsea Flower Show next week). So what to choose? Pink has tickled my fancy this week, so that’s what you’ll see here for my #SixonSaturday. My first offering this week is a bit of cheat. Last weekend I visited the wonderful Branklyn Garden, in Perth, full of acid loving pitcher plants and spring bulbs. On the way home, I felt inspired and couldn’t resist a bright pink candelbra primula, now nestled in the boggy-bit, next to the pond. It’s gorgeous, so I hope it likes it there.

Next, something rather different: the coarse leaves of persicaria are not my favourite thing, but the delicate popsicles of flowers are lovely, bobbing about in the big border.

My house is wreathed in very old clematis montana. After years of getting out of hand, I hacked a lot of it back to 1m off the ground this winter (it was over 1m deep in places). I am pleased to see that it has started to come back. The flowers are simple, pretty and fragrant. That’s all I need.

My late spring garden is full of Spanish bluebells. they are thugs, but I love the colour, especially when they also come in pink.

Purple usually dominates the huge numbers of aquilegia that pop up in May. Perhaps I managed to stop them self-seeding, as this year I’m hosting other colours, including a pale pink little bonnet. Such a complex flower.

Last, but very much not least, a rhododendron at it’s very best. This one’s outrageous pinkness dominates the garden and can be seen from the lane into the village. Wow, I never tire of it’s annual display.

That’s my #SixonSaturday for this week. Stay safe, and don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.

I love my garden, but with some occasional rain now in the picture, the growth is TOTALLY out of control. Lots to love….so time for me start some colour theming for #SixonSaturday. Given the mid-spring season, it has to be blue/purple, and will start, of course, with bluebells (though apologies that they are Spanish…this is what I found when we moved here..invasive, but still beautiful).

There are some wildflowers that pop up amongst my pots that I love to leave until they threaten to swamp them. Alkanet is one…big, thick, almost spikey leaves host tiny little flowers. There will be a vaseful later this weekend to replace some finished tulips.

One of the first annuals to get going (especially when started in the greenhouse) is cerinthe. For several years I have saved my own seed from this weird and wonderful plant. In a good year, they flower for months.

Also at the very start of their season are a copious number of aquilegia. The purple ones pop up most all round the borders. Annoyingly, a huge windstorm on Friday 13th has blasted many to the ground….perhaps there will be many vases of flowers this weekend.

We have witnessed another dry spring in Fife, after a mild winter. The conditions have proved perfect for rosemary, flowering prolifically, growing by 30cm, I’ve way to much to use in the kitchen.

Last this week, the very first allium heralds the next flowering season. This one is the first, I suspect many more will be showing up in #Six’s this season.

That’s my #SixonSaturday for this week. Stay safe, and don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.

We’re into May, I’m trying to use up all of last year’s frozen fruit and veg in the kitchen as the new season approaches. While I do that, I’m noticing the edibles are really gearing up now, ready for this year’s fruiting and vegging season. This week’s theme reflects my excitement, mostly edibles, in whitish colours, for my #SixonSaturday. I’ll start with the exception that breaks the rule. The very LAST of the narcissi, I often wonder where my Pheasant Eye have disappeared to. Then their striking heads pop up in early May. One of my favourites.

It is very much apple blossom time now, especially the early fruiters. I have 8 trees in the garden, mostly very old, fruiting sequentially (a previous garden custodian really new their stuff). This huge tree fruits at the back end of August, with small red apples that are perhaps a bit too sweet for my taste. The tree looks fabulous this week.

As old as the house…probably….at about 210 years, the old pear tree (30cm diameter trunk) has been covered with blossom this year. Most of it has blown away now, to reveal a host of tiny fruit. Here’s a sample of some oldish blossom with new fruits revealed underneath.

A final blossom for this week has just arrived on a large Saskatoon Berry bush. Whenever I have tasted the dark purple-black berries in August they’ve been rather bitter. Perhaps not quite ready? Who knows, by the time I try again, they have usually become bird-food.

Down to the ground now. I started broad beans in pots in the greenhouse back in February. They got planted out in early April, and now are flowering away for an early bean harvest. The flowers have a complex white-with-purple-black-stripes pattern, worth some close inspection.

As a finale, down in the shady undergrowth it is very much wild garlic time. With some trepidation I introduced these to the garden from a local woodland some years ago. They are rather invasive, but they put up a good fight against the pesky ground-elder that continues to spread across the whole garden, and their flowers are gorgeous, so good luck to them (make a sparky, spicy addition to a spring salad too).

Have a lovely weekend and find time to enjoy the flowers and the edibles. There’s so much to do in the garden just now. That’s my #SixonSaturday for this week. Stay safe, and don’t forget to follow the crowd on twitter and via the web from links to the originator of #SixonSaturday, the Propagator himself.