The nights are drawing in, and getting cold, the courgettes are about to die back, but my late summer favourites, dahlia, and still going strong. Here are 6 wonderful dahlias for my #SixOnSaturday. Regular visitors to this blog may spot some familiar faces, but who cares, these plants look so great at this time of year.

First up, a simple red bloom, still caught after by the slowing bees and the odd hoverfly. This one is probably Bishop of Llangdaff.

Despite their uselessness for foraging insects, I’ve grown to be quite excited by cactus dahlia. I have a few this year. Love the orange-red of the petals and the spiky appearance.

This plant is a biggy, and so are her blooms. A wonderful pastel peachy colour.

Another huge blooms comes from this plant, delivering one flower at a time, but has been doing so for 5 weeks or so now.

A few plants are still hanging on in pots in the courtyard, although the house wall now occludes the sun for too much of the day. This one has still managed a lovely pink flower. These colours are almost metallic.

Last, but not least, flowering, flowering and then some more. This is my favourite dahlia for the 2024 season.

My discovery of the loveliness of dahlias for the end of summer, a few years ago, still makes me happy every season. Hope you’ve enjoyed them too. 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

In eastern Scotland there have been some warm bright days, hastening the harvest. The hum of harvesters is in the air, and the dust! In the garden, I’ve finally a lot of fruit and veg to choose from. Here are some of my crops for SixOnSaturday.

To emulate what’s happening in the fields around here, I dug some tatties. These are Shetland Black. Deep purple outside, inside a creamy white, with a purple stripe in the flesh about 1cm in. VERY tasty, especially when roasted.

Back in August I could barely find 3 courgette to enter into the village show. Not so now, courgettes are everywhere, with the yellow varieties doing best this year. I’m hoping for some warmish nights to keep them going as long as possible.

Most fruit are finished now, yet a few blueberries are still ripening. They have done so well in the cool and very wet summer. Blueberry muffins will cheer our autumn and winter as a reminder of summer. These fruit freeze very well for baking later.

Into the greenhouse. I have a fine crop of achocha, as I do most years. These are a Peruvian vine, grown as an annual (doing best in the greenhouse this far north). About the size of a plum, they will be deseeded and used in stir fry a bit lit a bell pepper.

Even a few of my chilli plants are finally making a show of some decent fruit. These are ‘lemon drop’. Nice and spicy but with a lemony flavour.

Tomatoes have been wonderful. I’ve yet to taste this variety: ‘blue fire’ has really taken its time, still not quite ripe, but very pretty so far.

I hope you enjoyed my fruitful harvest. 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

Some sunny days, but we almost had a frost last night in eastern Scotland. Keep up the summer vibes!!! Here are another colourful late summer SixOnSaturday.

First up, I have come to remove the snap dragon. A friend gave me some seeds a couple of years ago, I’ve kept a few plants in the greenhouse, and propagated cuttings, seem to have lots of pots of these lovely flowers now.

There are some lovely dahlias still coming into their first blooms. I have a peach one with a strange virus or genetic defect, a single white petal.

Red dahlia are finally coming into their own. This one is almost a pillar box red, or even tomato, coming into its full cactus variety loveliness.

I do like a pink one too. This is a plant I grew from a seed, it has managed to make it to its second year, but flowering in September is leaving things rather late.

And for something a little different, finally zinnia has flowered. this year I sowed the seeds late-ish, in May, and left the pot in the greenhouse. It has finally delivered for me!

At the very end of the season I’m getting one or two interesting sunflower now. So many rotted before getting to flowers. this one has some lovely autumn tones.

I hope you enjoyed another burst of late summer colour. I’m aiming for a few more before the summer is done! I hope we can hold onto summer for a couple more weeks yet. 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

There was no #SixOnSaturday from me last week, as I was exploring Scotland’s beautiful Moray Coast. A lovely week, with fewer garden visits than expected as I managed to up my hip-rehab and get onto my bicycle for some scenic rides.

Home now and the garden is bursting with late summer colour at the start of September. Was the warmest day of the year in Scotland on Friday this week, I do hope some of that warmth continues. Let’s celebrate with some vibrant colour for #SixOnSaturday.

POW, a simple dahlia that is a brilliant post-box red, this dark leafed Bishop’s Children variety has been late, but worth the wait.

The late yellow pom-pom budlija do a great job now to look right and cheerful and feed the pollinators. Bees, hoverflies, and finally eve a few butterflies have made it to September.

Another cheerful dahlia, this one has a delicate dark pink edge to the pale pink petals. Will be trying this one again next year.

My garden seems to be one of the very last where echinops flower, but here they are, with their perfect spherical form.

More dhalia, I alwasy want more, including this simple form that may well be another Bishop’s Children. A nice combination of colours runs across each petal.

And to end on a high note, this is still my favourite dahlia this year, and this one plant just keeps flowering and flowering.

I hope you enjoyed my burst of late summer colour. I hope we can hold onto summer for a couple more weeks yet. 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