It’s been a really busy week, what with travelling back and forth from Wales, work, gardening and golf! Although I’m still mainly working from home, I have been into my office this week and it made such a change. There are very few people around, but even so, it felt far more ‘normal’ (whatever that is these days) than getting ready for work and retreating into a bedroom at home. More normality in the garden too, with the vibrancy of July really in full swing now; I’ve chosen colourful pictures for my six this week:

Aster frikartii ‘Monch’ is now out in force – I love this great herbaceous perennial as much as the bees do. With a long flowering period and vivacious colour, this plant grows to approximately 90×90 cm and thrives in full sun in most well drained soils (heavy clay is a no-no).

I grew quite a few dahlia ‘Bishops Children’ from seed last year – and they’re back. Although I’ve had to keep a close lookout for snails, they seem to be doing well, with the darker leaved ones the most resilient. On inspecting the tubers, I was pleasantly surprised – healthy and plump!

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I really don’t deserve the treat this wonderful lily is giving us at the moment, it has been sorely neglected. With the bulbs languishing in a pot over winter, I had actually forgotten about it. Look closely and you’ll see the awful lily beetle damage that it has suffered – leaves and some of the flowers. I’ll be taking better care of it next year!

This cranesbill or hardy geranium self seeds just a bit too freely and needs to be kept in check, but it is a pretty plant and is certainly a weed suppressant. I watched this bee for a few minutes – if I didn’t know better I’d have thought he’d been drinking – lurching from flower to flower in a most wobbly manner before dropping head first into these petals!

Hemerocallis ‘Sammy Russell’ is vibrancy epitomised. I find daylilies a real joy in the borders, there is so much choice and they deliver bountiful flowers year after year. This one grows to approximately 70 x 70 cm in a sunny moist well drained soil and can be divided in early spring to make new plants…

Finally, not a colourful flower, but a post lockdown handsomely groomed Ollie – he was looking so woolly and the loss of a great deal of fur has given him a spring in his step!

Keep safe and well!

For more SoS please visit its home at: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/