No six last week due to some technical issues, and to me being away travelling. I still am. I’m lucky enough to be in Canada for a few weeks. My posts may include some of my home garden (with my partner busy keeping the place tidy, sweeping endless winter leaves, etc), and some of my environs here. Last week I visited Vancouver Island and went to the ‘world famous’ Butchart gardens. And WOW, they are certainly in the top 3 gardens I have ever seen, still full of summer colour, with autumn leaves on top. So here are the highlights for this week’s #SixOnSaturday.

This is the classic view of their most iconic garden: the sunken garden is built inside a former quarry. The planting and colours are fabulous, the lawns are immaculate. Really WOW!

Another favourite area was the Japanese Garden. A much shadier, informal place. There was lots of wonderful autumn colour, here with the Japanese Bridge brining out acer colours.

And here a view through the foliage of bronze-leaved acer.

Everywhere, there were varieties of maple in full colour. This wonderful specimen is even redder than the Canadian flag.

I wasn’t as keen on the Italian Garden, perhaps because, although the design was Italian, I don’t things the blooms on display would make it through a summer in Italy. They have done wonderfully in the temperature pacific north-west maritime climate.

And finally, my favourite thing in the whole garden was this delicate flower. This is Abutilon Tiger Eye. shrub that is sometimes also know as the Parlour Maple. It had the most perfect flowers, I’ve never seen anything like it.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s exotic Six. I’m travelling for a while, so there will be more to come. Thanks to those leaving comments on the blog. Join in with our #SixOnSaturday thoughts and images. 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

Bright autumn days allow some of the last colourful displays in the garden to really shine. Here are a few of those lovely colours for #SixOnSaturday.

First up is a wonderful red chilli. Lots of sunshine is allowing those chillies to finally ripen in the greenhouse. Here’s a vibrant one, possibly a jalapeño.

More delicate, and outdoors in the elements, astrantia looks almost translucent in the autumn light.

Back into the greenhouse for my favourite chilli of all, the deliciously fruity, yet quite hot, loom drop. And what gorgeous colour.

Rose this year have been magnificent, and they still are. I simply cannot resist including another rose, in the warm afternoon sunshine.

My even more favourite chilli of all, Alberto Rotocco, this sturdy plant often overwinters in the greenhouse, produces huge delicious juicy chillies for a lot of the year, and reliably grows babies from collected seeds, what’s not to love.

After the unusual warmth and dryness of the summer, amarine are flowering magnificently. What stunning colour, I hope they keep up the display for weeks.

I hope you enjoyed my October colour.

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

October has blown in with the first named storm of the season. I’m writing this blog on Friday afternoon with the wind rising and the rain pouring. yet, it is still warm. This morning I popped out to see what was new, and there were a number of surprises. This week’s #SixOnSaturday features things I didn’t really expect to spot in October.

A big surprise to start with. Back in July, my lupins gave up on the dry and warm conditions and faded away. I’ve not seen them come back with such a flourish before and certainly not in October.

Perhaps less of a surprise, as these window boxes sit on the courtyard windowsills, so I see them whenever I go in and out of the house. Summer geranium are doing really well still, though I need to keep an eye on frosts so that they can be swept into the greenhouse soon.

This is the second time this season that wigela have had a go at a second flowering. The shrubs are looking wonderful, with more flowers this time.

Yet again, an old OLD traditional rose is going for full flower, and I’m pleased that it has been warm enough to smell the wonderful spicy scent.

Perennial cornflower loves my garden conditions. Even more so this year, as several plants are throwing up a few more flowers. A lovely form to this flower.

This must be a first for my veg garden in October. Usually, there are sufficient cool nights that courgettes shrink away to nothing by the 2nd week of September. Not so this year. Fruit AND flowers into October, what resilience.

I hope you enjoyed my October surprises as much as I enjoyed finding them. I fear there may not be much left after Amy has done her worst overnight.

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