June! Still supposed to be Summer! We are still having wind, rain, thunder storms and cool weather….but it’s set to warm up next week. This week, again, to bring us all summer joy, I have chosen the most summery pink and redlooms. Here is my #SixOnSaturday for this week.

Red again, and yet more shades of dianthus. First a really dark one. Yet look closely and the stamens are a pale whitish colour, lovely details.

Second another form of dianthus, these ones have a delicate stripe of white along the very edge of each petal, really showing off the frilliness of the flower. Plus a clear white centre. These flowers are so pretty and make great cut flowers. I’m so glad a bought that one packet of seeds 3 years ago!

Bright, beautiful and a little plumper than in some years (maybe all the May rain?), here are red hot pokers.

The next flower I spotted this week is a stunning flower, but so fiddly that I don’t think it’s a plant I would choose to grow. It is barely hardy enough for the location, but somehow comes back year after year to present its unlikely, complicated and intricate flowers. It is, of course, fuchsia .

Into the pinks now. This is a tiny ground-hugging hardy geranium. Sometimes overlooked but with huge numbers of flowers, each one almost perfect, with tiny stripes of darker pink along the petal length.

To finish….what could be more wonderful in early summer than a peony. WOW.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s SIX. I enjoyed collecting them. Maybe in the coming week it will even be warm enough to dine in the garden. We shall see.

Do join in with your own 6 things from a garden. Thanks to those leaving comments on the blog. I do read them all, keep them coming. And do join in with #SixOnSaturday. 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

June! Supposed to be Summer! We are now having wind, rain, thunder storms and cool weather….what we usually get in early May. Yet every week there’s so much to see, more flowers, lush jungly growth. The garden is loving all this rain. This week, to bring cheer against the rain, I bring you pink and red blooms. Here is my #SixOnSaturday for this week.

Starting with pink, always a joy to behold in early summer, this is an example of the HUGE poppies that appear every year. Almost dinner plate sized.

I’ve gone potty with potted dahlia again this year, it is becoming an obsession. I could not resist some bargain patio-dahlias, and they have already delivered. the first to open, these small pink flowers are looking good on the garden bench.

Dianthus are still coming. Here is a different colour from the one I showed a couple of weeks ago. This one has a small pink centre, then wonderful rich red outer petals. joyful, and will make great flowers for the vase.

Pure red, and always on my courtyard summer windowsill, here are the summer geraniums.

A newish plant, still in a pot. This is a type of chrysanthemum I think. Wonderful rich colour, and a lovely contrasting yellow centre. The bees and hoverflies like that too.

To finish……WOW…..the first lily out this year is a rich red one. I’m still battling lily beetle, but there are fewer this year so flowers look better.

Hope you enjoyed my summery six as much as I enjoyed finding them. Do join in with your own 6 things from a garden. Thanks to those leaving comments on the blog. I do read them all, keep them coming. And do join in with #SixOnSaturday. 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

June! Summer! The warm days have gone and we are having something like April showers. But the days grow lighter and lighter and the garden just explodes with growth at this time of year. There’s so much to see, I don’t know where to turn, slowly I just took a slow breath and contemplated the pond. Therefore here is my #SixOnSaturday for this week, some flowers, all from the pond or near it.

This week, iris have begun to bloom, with a good dozen a=or more all at once. this one is the native flag iris. These just spread and spread, seeming to manage in really quite deep water. we do have to pull out many evert autumn — for now, they look lovely.

This next flower found it’s own way to the pond margins. Water avens is it’s wildflower name. they are the native form of geum and grow in ditches and verges around here. This shot shows a deliate little flower and a sparkly spiky seedhead.

Back for one last time, candelabra primula have had the most wonderful season this year, and still show a few flowers at the very top of the flower stalk.

We were given one little spring of monkey flower for the pond many years ago. Some years the pond margin is bursting with them, this year less so, but they have started. Always a bright and cheerful friend to people, and those runway lights for bees.

I don’t think I ever planted forget-me-not in the pond margin. I think this is a variety that favours boggy ground. It provides a gentle blue to contrast with the bright yellows.

Last for this week, the Japanese iris. What a fabulous mix of colour and form. Almost perfect.

I hope you enjoyed my water six this week. A good 19 years ago we dug a big pond, and have loved it ever since. great for birds to bath, small mammals to drink, and wonderful plants to make their home. What’s not to love?

Do join in with your own 6 things from a garden. Thanks to those leaving comments on the blog. I do read them all, keep them coming. And do join in with #SixOnSaturday. 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