As spring continues the pace really ramps up in April as we win so much more daylight. It’s all happening so fast now that it is hard to find JUST six things from the garden for #SixOnSaturday. This week I’ve gone for what’s looking pretty in the sunshine, as we’re currently having lots of sun, despite a cold easterly wind.

For me amalanchia is always the herald of the blossomy part of spring, and as usual, it is showing its delicate blossom against the almost-red foliage. The peak time of the year for this simple shrub.

This year, other blossoms are hard on the heals of amalanchia. Not least the beautiful cherry, these gentle blooms are often sparse after bullfinch action earlier in spring. There seems to be more blossom than usual this year.

My magnolia usually take their time to appear. Both types have burst into bloom this week, together for once. My favourite is magnolia stellata, whose buds have been tempting me with their fluffy growth for weeks. Now we get the wonderful pink splash.

Hiding behind the veg bed, we gave the much larger traditional magnolia tree a huge prune 2 years ago. This year is is covered in huge white blooms, big, blousy and they really do look like the ancient tree that they are.

I have realised it’s time to start watering flower pots. Often we get a rash of early April showers, but the weather is set sunny for another couple of weeks. The tulips were drooping when I noticed, luckily, few are in flower yet. Here is the first.

I will finish with my very-much favourite flower of the week. Narcisuss Thalia is double headed, and almost a pure creamy white. Wonderful form, stands well in wind, what a wonderful flower.

Hope you liked the spring blooms special this week. This time of year happens so fast and seems to fly by. 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

Spring is really here, despite temperatures still fluctuating a fair bit. As you will see from the pics below, I had to dodge rain showers (they will get the weeds growing) to find six lovely things for this week’s #SixOnSaturday

First up this week, narcissi are all very much into full flower now. These orange-centred ones are lovely, but they nod their heads very low. I almost had to get underneath them to take a picture.

Just a few snake’s head fritillary grace my spring flower borders, but WHAT a flower, it is always hard to figure out how that tiny checker-board pattern evolved.

Some tiny species tulips, just a couple of cm across are fighting to flower against the onslaught of wind and rain. If it gets sunny enough they will open right out into a star shaped flower. I hope they do.

Much more robust, grape hyacinth have spread right through the garden and waive at me in the breeze, almost everywhere I look.

The first wall-flower of the season have pushed out a flower. this one fabulous colours, I hope there will be lots more.

Last this week are another gaggle of lovely narcissi, these are such a delicate yellow that they are almost cream coloured. The cold temperatures will make them last another couple of weeks I suspect.

It’s almost April, so veg time is coming VERY soon. Hope you liked the simple blooms still showing us it is early spring. 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

There has been lots of sun this week, yet some very cold nights (-3 degC one night). Some of the spring flowers are lasting a LONG time. I like that. And of course, it was the spring equinox on Thursday, so those of us at northern latitudes will now have longer days that those of you down south. I’m looking forward to all that light. To celebrate the lengthening days, I offer lots of garden colour for this week’s #SixOnSaturday.

First, there is something strong and sturdy about the traditional daffodil. I think some of mine have come early. Luckily, they seem to be flowering slowly, with lots still in bud. The frill on the trumpet of this is a very pretty detail.

Other spring flowers are slow to start, I think because the ground is still very cold. Primroses are just coming through. I like a variety of colours, this one is a bit artificial, but it pops out nicely from the brownish spring background.

My garden has a range of what are probably quite old varieties of narcissus. Here is a second one, a long elegant trumpet and gentle bobbing head. It has a very different feel to the bold one higher up this post.

A second form of primrose is much closer to the wild species. This one is offering lots of green with a cluster of flowers just coming. I’ll need to get out into the woods to see if the wild ones are coming now.

In a big pot that hosts a rose and some succulents, a chocolate-leafed Celandine pops up its lovely yellow flowers and foliage for just a couple of weeks each year. It has arrived.

For my last image this week, here is some rich and wonderful colour and foliage. A friend gave me a sorbaria a couple of years ago. Despite being almost knocked out by a cold spell just over a year ago, it has started to leaf. The complexity of the leaves and the bread of colours from pink to green make this a fascinating specimen plant for the borders. I hope it grows bigger in the next few years.

Spring is really on the way now. I must get out and try to mulch the borders and prepare the veg beds. Lately, I’ve been playing the greenhouse with seeds, we shall see how well the veg start. 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

Mid-March, a hard frost last night will probably have blasted some of the lovely new shoots and buds that have been popping up. Luckily, I took photos yesterday for this week’s #SixOnSaturday.

I hope these have made it through their first cold night in the cold frame. A few broad beans that I started in the greenhouse are gearing up for the spring growing season. I need to plant more as some mice got into the greenhouse and feasted on some of my pots.

In pots on a sunny table near the greenhouse, spring blooms are busy. I love a drumstick primula, this one has delightful flowers and promising almost-furry buds.

New shoots are bursting forth. One of my favourites is magnolia stellata. I’ve been waiting a while, looks like I’ll have to wait a bit longer for the flowers. In the mean time the buds are now very fat and very furry.

Climbing roses are now awake, and showing off new shoots and leaves. This one shows an interesting detail of a red lining to each of the leaves.

It is good to spend some time investigating small details. Clematis Montana, for example, is pushing new shoots that will soon give us leaves and flowers.

My best find this week is a plant that only pops up some years, and hides in the not-quite-tidy borders. The wonderful erythronium (dogs tooth violet) is full of visual detail in both it’s foliage and the almost perfect flowers.

No frogs this week (see last week’s blog), I suspect they are back into torpor in the bottom of the pond, I hope the frogs wan make it through this chilly snap (freezing again this morning). The flowers and shoots are satisfying enough for now. 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

Spring feels like it’s on its way. There has been some mixed weather, grey and windy. For the 3rd time this year we have had to shore-up the laburnum tree again. I hope it survives all the root sway. The mild weather has brought out some blooms, and the frogs. Here’s my early spring #SixOnSaturday.

The frogs, wow, they are going for it this year. We’ve had frog-spawn for a few days now, I’ve counted at least 20 charging about at any one time. A wildlife extravaganza, and just a few steps from the back door. I think I might have caught a pair in the process of delivering the frogspawn.

Some of the winter flowers are still going strong, pieris has been flowering for man weeks now.

And hellebore are nodding away gently in the breeze.

I’m so pleased I planted lots of the tiny winter iris in pots. They look stunning on a sunny morning.

And the newcomers are arriving for spring. A little spray of tete-a-tete mini narcissi are brightening up the courtyard windowsill.

Sheltering from wind and rain in the green house, I love my couple of pots of species tulip. These are tulipa Turkmenistan.

With the frogs serenading my attempts to start a bit of gardening, spring is here now, and I don’t want to miss a moment of it. 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

It’s the first day of meteorological spring. A sunny day is promised and I’m going to get out and garden for the first time in over 3 months (due to rehabbing new hip). I hope you enjoy my #SixOnSaturday comprising blooms to celebrate the new season.

We’ll start with the soon to finish winter flowers. Crocus are coming to the end of their season, as ever they have provided bursts of hopeful colour through the drab of February.

Much more diminutive is the tiny red male flower at the very top of the luxurious female hazel catkins. Hopefully warmish winds will pollinate and allow hazelnuts to do well in the year ahead.

I could not help myself at the local “Jamesfield Nursery” who are having a primrose festival. I love the frilliness of the runcled flowers on my new primula.

The very first narcissi are in flower. This miniature daffodil sits next to the now glowing pulmonaria. A great combination of pretty flowers and furry foliage.

The first tiny Scilla are coming into bloom. I hope parts of the garden will be a sea of blue soon.

Last but not least, I recommend trying anemone in pots, they seem to flower very early. These ones are so cheerful, growing in a tall metal pot near the greenhouse.

It’s so much like spring now that I don’t want to miss a moment of it. 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

February is a short month on paper, yet the grey cool days drag on….except now it’s 12 deg and we have a few days promised of warmer, yet grey and windy. It was tricky to collect garden joy this week as we’ve had wind and rain too. This week, therefore, I’ve focused my camera on activities in the house and greenhouse for my #SixOnSaturday.

First, in the warmth of a warm windowsill, the first tiny tomato seedlings are on their way.

In the greenhouse, I’ve completed a first stage of potting-on, for a cluster of little pak-choi, that I hope will be eaten before the greenhouse warms too much. We will see if they quickly enough.

I can’t remember quite when sweet William were sown, sometime in autumn. Sheltering in the greenhouse for now, I’ll maybe pot them out in a month or so, they are starting to grow away nicely.

An overwintering experiment that sometimes works looks like it might this year. I have been trying to overwinter Alberto Rococo chilli plants in the greenhouse. Sometimes they rot. This year, at least one looks like it’s going to make it. Some new growth has been spotted. Up close, the furriness of the leaves are rather attractive.

My last two are both overwintering flowering plants. First, a friend gave me an orange-scented geranium a few years ago. The leaves offer up a delicious smell when rubbed. These grow very well from cuttings, I have a dozen or more plants now. Some of them are starting this seasons flowers.

I’ll finish this week with a shot of a much loved osteospermum. This one was grown from a tiny potted plant. It spends part of summer in the garden, all of winter in the greenhouse, and seems to flower for abut 10 months with gorgeous purple blooms.

I hope you enjoyed yet another ‘late winter’ (??) #SixOnSaturday, this time with the promise of spring coming. 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

The region where I live has been stuck under a ceiling of cold grey cloud for about a week now. It is hard to be bothered to go out and look at the garden. I always forget that the February run up to spring is very much wintery. I did get out, though it was hard to find much inspiration. Some of this week’s #SixOnSaturday are from my little trips out, others from the house and the greenhouse.

I will start in the warm. I sowed chilli seeds, as I always do, in January. They have been resting cosy on a warm windowsill above a radiator since then. Some have done very well. This is a dish of cayenne seedlings, growing away nicely now. Helps me think of the heat to come.

Into the greenhouse, I’ve had some success this year with osteospermum cuttings. Here is (admittedly) by best one, growing away nicely, even though it is currently only 3 degC in the greenhouse. I will be pinching out those flower buds to promote stronger growth.

Braving the outdoors, a few hellebore have found their way into ground just below a twisty hazel tree. Here are the flowers peeping through the hazel branches. I like the combination of pale lime-green against the brown twistiness.

A surprise was in store in a south-facing corner, almost under a garden shrub. The shelter and dryness must have promoted a few euphorbia into flower. I’m beginning to see a green theme emerging this week that I hadn’t planned!

Some green here too, but I also liked the mix of yellows, browns and reds (perhaps the stress of winter cold) in this little clump of saxifrage urbium.

I cannot get around the garden without feeling, yet again, the joy of snowdrops. One shady east-facing border has naturalised to a full-on carpet of flowers. I’ll be heading for a nearby visit to a ‘snowdrop garden’, at Cambo, Fife, next week. Hope to see many many thousands more of these there.

I hope you enjoyed yet another ‘late winter’ (??) #SixOnSaturday. 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

The light returns! We’ve had some cold crips clear days. There is now light(ish) when I wake around 7-ish, and the sun is going down just before 5pm. It feels wonderful to see the light days coming back. I think my plants agree. This week’s #SixOnSaturday suggests how garden plants are responding too.

My first offering shows a detail of a viburnum in full flower. This week I noticed bees feeding from it’s tiny blooms for the first time this year.

There is some growing action in one of the main flower borders. A furry poppy that will have hand-sized large pink blooms is pushing forward. If we have some hard frosts these leaves will be gone. But for now, things look promising.

The greenhouse shelters my little lemon tree during winter. There’s a tasty looking lemon almost ready to pick, and lots of little ones.

I’m hoping for species tulips soon. The foliage is well on its way, no sign of flowers yet. if there’s heavy rain, I may need to bring these bulbs into the greenhouse as any flower buds will rot if there’s too much wet.

Some brave chard have managed to overwinter. The pink stems on this one are a real gem. If sunny afternoons continue, the big stone garden wall will warm these beds and the plants will bolt. I may try a new recipe I’ve found for chard kimchi. If I harvest leaves now, there could be another flush for the dinner table before the flowers buds come in a month or so.

Last this week, there has been enough sunshine at the front of a sheltered border, near the house, for crocus to emerge. I can almost bring myself to think of ‘early spring’ when I see these (but it might be FAR too soon to speak of spring).

I hope you enjoyed a ‘late winter’ (??) #SixOnSaturday. 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

Wow, a new month of 2025 already, and yet winter drags on. I know we’ve now passed the darkest 10 weeks of the year, but it’s a long haul to spring too. I’ve been struggling a bit to find all-new things each week, so today you’ll see some new stuff and some progress on things I’ve already shown off this year. Here are my #SixOnSaturday.

Some promise to start, I’m CLOSE, but still maybe a couple of weeks off from flowers on this magnolia stellatar. The buds have a lovely furriness, picked out by the afternoon sun yesterday.

A great all-rounder, I’m not sure I like heather, it’s a bit boring. But this tree-heather has grown into a 1.5m evergreen shrub, and the limey green foliage really brightens up a winter’s day, especially against the born-grey stone wall.

A long way off still, but there is something fascinating in the way that tulip shoots come up in one of the pots that sits waiting for spring.

Some colour from witch-hazel. This one lives in a shady spot on the drive. At this time of year it is almost fully shaded by the house, with about 5 minutes of direct sunlight late in the afternoon. The flowers come late, but they last for weeks.

A bit early for the hazel tree, but catkins are just starting to swell now, and will be in full flower soon. These are the resilient ones that did not get blown off in the 80mph winds as week ago!

Surely, surely, this is peak flowering time for one of my all-year favourites, the wonderful purple hellebore. And with my new hip almost 2 months old, I’m healed enough to risk bending down to grab a photo of it’s wonderful flowers.

I hope you enjoyed another wintery #SixOnSaturday. 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