I had a look back at my early September post from 2020 to see what I featured then. The three types of Japanese Anemones¹ are all thriving, though Pamina is producing some odd flowers this year. Hemp Agrimony ( Eupatorium cannabinum) still annoys me, but it’s difficult to dig out as it is wedged between a granite slab and a wall. Selinium wallichianum died. It was riddled with black aphids last year and eventually rotted. And the pinkish yarrow has yet to flower though there are a lot of pretty ferny foliage on the Cornish hedge.

(1) Such excitement when I noticed a flower spike on one of my three Amarine ‘Anastasia’ bulbs. I bought and planted these in a container in the spring of 2019. For two years they have produced leaves, but no flowers. This year I was wondering whether to find somewhere in the garden to plant them, but I ended up shoving the pot on the wall which gets full sun most of the day. And then this week I noticed a second spike! I’m just hoping that we don’t have any awful gales or that some creature will take a fancy to the flowers. I also noticed that they are heliotropic – tracking the sun as it moves.

Not the best of photos, but I just had to take one (just in case). If you are wondering what is an Amarine  it is a cross between the elusive Nerine with the showy Amaryllis. Another name is Belladiva and I am hoping to see this diva in full bloom before long!

(2) Japanese anemones ¹. The common pink one by the Zen patio above is flowering well. I still need to remove a few clumps of this one and I still hate the way that a lot of the leaves get black spots and look very ugly, but it doesn’t seem to affect the flowers in any way. ‘Wild Swan’ is forming a decent clump in the raised bed and is a much shorter variety, I love the blueish-purple back. ‘Pamina’ is a lovely double and deep pink, but this year’s flowers are much smaller than usual though it is also forming a decent clump.

Pink Japanese Anemone

Japanese Anemone ‘Wild Swan’

Japanese Anemone ‘Wild Swan’

Japanese Anemone ‘Pamina’

Japanese Anemone ‘Pamina’

(3) Cyclamen have popped up under the Kilmarnock Willow tree. A lovely complementary colour to the dappled shade bed, though darn difficult to photograph!

(4) Clematis. These two grow down the side of my conservatory and clamber over and through the Jasmine and white roses and my neighbour’s bay tree. I think the reddish-purple one is Clematis viticella ‘Etoile Violette’ Madame Julia Correvon, but I didn’t plant it. The pretty white and purple texensis is ‘Princess Kate’ with her lovely nodding bell-shaped blooms. I think they look lovely together and they flower for ages, beginning in July until the end of September.

(5) Scented pelargoniums. I bought a collection of scented pelargoniums from Sarah Raven in 2018. There were four varieties though I seem to have lost ‘Prince of Orange’. This one is ‘Pink Capricorn’ (often labelled ‘Capitatum’) whose rose scented leaves and flowers last for months. I left this one outside last year (I do have some more plants taken as cuttings which came indoors) and after cutting it back in the spring it has flowered continuously throughout the summer.

(6) Zinnias. I never thought I would be able to put these in a SoS post. Twice I have tried to grow them from seed and they just got munched. This year I sowed them inside the conservatory in individual coir pots and left them there until they were several inches tall. I potted them on into a wall trough and kept them on a seat throughout June and July, not really expecting them to flower, but they did! They really should be in a border or at least more of them in a container as they look a bit like soldiers on parade in the trough. Never mind. I have got zinnia flowers and that has to be a plus!

As always, if you want a peek over other people’s garden walls then please pop over to our host, the lovely Jon, AKA ‘The Propagator’ where you find links to many more wonderful garden enthusiasts from all over the world.

See here for the participant’s guide.

Six on Saturday