Brghhhh, just back from a chilly trip to the Western Isles of Scotland, and returned to my chilly central Scotland garden to discover there have been frosts and really cold winds here too. Makes me feel a bit better about not planting my tatties yet. Am trying to keep warm by looking for cheering garden colour. Keep warm with me, by viewing my pinky-purply selection for this week’s #SixOnSaturday.

Periwinkle (vinca) are having a great spring, they seem to be impervious to the cold. A pretty flower on a plant that can become a huge thug, even grows through a cobbled path.

Camelia really are at their very best now, enjoying the cold, but not so much the frost. Either way, my huge old shrubs have flowered very well this season.

Previous garden custodians planted a range of azelea, which does very well here. I’m not sure I’d have chosen this shade, though the colours fit very well with the rest in today’s little collection.

Not much to say about primrose, other than it brings a little cheer, for a long while, and spread very nicely around the borders.

A delicate single tulip has appeared in the front border. Wonderful shape and form, but I can’t remember where it’s buddies went…mouse winter fodder? Even on its own, this one is a wonderful sight.

Last, POW…this year the honesty is going bonkers. Each plant is 1m high, this one is also 60cm wide. I wonder what I did right?

Thanks for viewing my pinky-purply picks for #SixOnSaturday this week. And 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, its 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

As spring wears on, the cool weather means that the tulips are JUST coming into their own, and hopefully they will last a good while. A couple of light splashes, and tulips, therefore seem fitting for this week’s #SinOnSaturday.

First this week, my favourite Thalia daffodil is a late bloomer, but here’s a huddle of simple pure white blooms.

To get tuplipy, I’ve managed to establish just a few tulips in the garden, mostly red ones. Somehow, they seem to have sneaked away from hungry mice.

For years I stuck to the red tulips that I love, but I’ve been becoming a little more adventurous. This one has a strangely faschinating orange-pink colouration.

This one seems to have found its way into my pot from someone elses collection. Amidst the pale red blooms a red-white striped one has arrived. Rather nice. I do like the slightly ruffled edges to each petal.

I’m not sure I like these, not quite the ‘purple’ I was promised. They may grow on me.

To set this all off, THIS is the week when my Japanese cherry is doing it’s thing. Always, just WOW. A mass of white blooms, and a mass of bees feeding.

Thanks for viewing my picks for #SixOnSaturday this week. And 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, its 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

As the garden comes into bloom, I have had time to wander round and select from a range of garden delights. For my first colour theme of the year, here are a selection of spring pinks for this week’s #SixOnSaturday.

Starting with a splash, the pink camellia is now in full bloom. Lots of huge pink flowers to enjoy, quickly, before the high winds blow them off.

Pear blossom isn’t pink, but the pear blossom buds are. I’m not quite sure why.

There is nothing in my garden that has the exquisite tiny detail of the flowers on the snake’s head fritillary.

My garden hosts a number of large old cherry trees. Most are rather sparse to blossom, possibly due to a family of bull finch who feat on the buds. Yet there are always a few flowers that sneak through. I don’t think the bull finches could get purchase on these flowers, which seem to be blooming straight out of the bark.

A favourite flower of mine is that from the magnolia stellata. this little shrub, about 2m high, took years to get going, but now has 20 or so blooms that hold their own against the wind, looking especially lovely around dusk.

Last, I’ll end with another splash. The first of several huge rhododendron bushes (this one 3m tall by 4m wide) has begun it’s spring time dance. Wow, what wonderful colour to cheer up a gloomy Scottish spring day.

Thanks for viewing my picks for #SixOnSaturday this week. And 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, its 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

It may be spring, yet we have apparently endless rain again. It’s cold enough to keep the daffs blooming, but you saw those last week. For this wee’s #SixOnSaturday I offer the promise of a few clusters of buds.

Clematis montana grows all over the house stone walls. This year it looks a little thiner than it used to (after a major thinning), but buds are already coming.

In my pot area, it seem I don’t have quite as many tulips as last year, not sure what went wrong there, but there are some, and they will be blooming soon.

One of the oldest trees in the garden (I presume) is an old pear tree growing along the south side of the house. The house is 200 years old, so I suspect the pear is too. The lovely contorted old thing is about to burst into bloom.

A ‘volunteer’ tree at the other end of the garden has popped up, this looks like it might be horse chestnut. I love the way the leaves frame the flower buds, somehow like angels wings.

A favourite tree of mine is the elegant quince. Not sure if it’s too dry where it lives, but this one always is full of flower, then very few fruit appear. Should a garden have 2 quince for better fertilisation? I don’t know.

OK, so my last isn’t really a bud, more of an actual camellia flower, but it is the first, from a huge bush living on the darker north-facing part of the garden. Lovely.

Thanks for viewing my picks for #SixOnSaturday this week. And 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, its 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