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

We are now fully into the swing of summer. Currently we’re a little less warm, and a little ore wet, than most of May. The garden loves it. To celebrate this crazy ‘don’t know what to pick’ for my Six season, I’ve chosen some lovely blooms and the first edibles of the season, to show you for this week’s #SixOnSaturday.

I’m very proud to present some super-early tomatoes. The variety is Galina. This plant is only about 0.3m high still, but just could not wait to start flowering and fruiting. Lots of wonderful tomato salad coming soon.

And to go with them, some wonderful lettuce, although these will have gone to seed long before the tomatoes are ripe. I’d better sow some more, fast.

And what would make a really lovely salad is to throw in a few broad beans. As you can see, these are a little way off yet. This is one was being pollinated this morning by, I think, a common carder bumble bee. Our family name for this is the ‘mink shawl bee’ as it seems to be wearing a little fur coat!

As for flowers, there are SO many! Some llovely lemony sage has burst into incredibly bright tall flower this year. What a gorgeous purple flush in the herb bed.

One of my favourite flowers of the year is astrantia. Wonderful form, fantastic details and lovely colours. I could look at this bloom for hours.

Finally this week, I planted a load of mixed dianthus in a slightly sorry-looking bed near the veg garden. Though it might be nice to coax in some insects. POW…..an amazing flush of colour, and they also smell lovely. I’m a complete convert to these plants now.

I hope you liked my #SixOnSaturday now we are fully into summer. I wonder what this summer will bring, hopefully a warm and stable weather pattern, but only time will tell. 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

How did summer come so quickly, and why do I feel it is so ‘rushed’ every year? The mysteries of time perception are fascinating! Summer has started with the end to the long dry warm spell, and some ‘April shower’ sort of weather. The new normal maybe? The garden loves it. I’ve been away for a week, in that time, spring flowers have finished (still lots of dead-heading to do) and the summer ones are coming. Here is a mixture for this week’s #SixOnSaturday

Water iris have been late-comers this year, almost a month late. But well work waiting for.

I grow this daisy-like plant in a pot, to offer a ‘pop’ of colour on the little bench by the greenhouse. There’s a good pop going here just now, with the most wonderful saturated red/pink.

I started growing dianthus just a couple of years ago. What a revelation. Lots of different colours, many scented, robust to winds, and the flowers are beautiful.

Despite the dry spring, several of my clematis are putting on a great show. This one is magnificent. I watched a tree bee slowly extracting nectar from the centre of this one.

Summer hardy geranium have popped out their first flowers, I hadn’t noticed until I walked round to the south-facing borders. This is such a great plant, with loads of ground cover and wonderful flowers. The detail of the flower centre is worth a close inspection, and the array of many blooms looks stunning from a distance.

Last this week, another iris. The colour and intricacy of the form of the flower make one stop and contemplate these blooms. One of the most interesting blooms that appears in my garden.

I hope you liked my first #SixOnSaturday of the summer. I wonder what this summer will bring, hopefully a warm and stable weather pattern, but only time will tell. 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