Six on Saturday. Anticyclonic Gloom.

Are you familiar with Thomas Hood ’s poem about November ?

‘ No sun – no moon !

No morn – no noon-

Dahlia imperialishybrid

No dawn – no dusk – no right time of mean solar day . ’

That ’s what it feels like at the moment with the sun a distant memory . With these weird weather conditions the moist atmospheric condition is trapped beneath the level of high - imperativeness system and keeping us cocoon in gray . But it also have in mind that we have had no frost . In fact the first frosts follow subsequently and subsequently each twelvemonth and so the last part of Hood ’s poem:‘no fruits , noflowers , no leave of absence , no birds ! ‘ is no longer true for this month . It might be downcast but we still have stack to delight in the garden . Some sunshine to make the colouring glow would be lovely but you ca n’t have everything .

I am going to start out with my tree dahlia and when I say ’ tree ’ it is no exaggeration . Four years ago , Matthew Long of riverside bulbs need me to grow on some dahlia cum and state I could keep half of them . He got these seeds from Dr Keith Hammett of New Zealand who has done a lot of work breeding cannas , hedychiums and tree dahlia . I brought one of my resulting child with me when I moved house . The genus Tuber was absolutely enormous and hard to grind up . I was surprised it survived its first winter in a bag in the shed . This last wintertime it go quite easily outside . Dr. Hammett ’s estimate was to grow a tree Dahlia pinnata which would be sturdy than the very tenderDahlia imperialisso he span it with other garden varieties . By the first September I think that my Dahlia pinnata would n’t bloom but they made very pleasing leaf plants for my exotic garden and did n’t need staking .

Dahlia imperialishybrid

But then like all tree Dahlia pinnata they started blossom in October on very improbable plants and I was enchanted .

Last class my plant got so tall that it founder whilst I was in France , so this class I staked it with iron rods and tied it to the fencing . It grew to the top of the fence then break up and sprawled along the top . It quantify most 6 metre or 20 feet . I ca n’t imagine how tall it will be next year and how I will support it without scaffolding . I care dahlias with unmarried blossom and these are pretty but I am not sure whether my intercrossed Giraffa camelopardalis is entirely a good affair . Do I require flowers dangling 20 feet over my head ? But on the other script , as a gardener , I do secretly enjoy grow something that nobody else has .

Anyway , at least I can reach them hanging off the fence this year and they are pretty in a vase .

The chrysanthemum cuttings I bring with me have now made bigger and better plants than their parent although deplorably , I have lost some of them . I indicate a few a couple of weeks ago but now I have this prettyChrysanthemum‘Golden Greenheart ’ in bloom and I fuck its soft bang-up colour .

Well , it ’s fall so we need a bit of bright foliage and this genus Acer match the bill . in reality it need a bit of sunshine to make it sparkle . I think the good way to grease one’s palms an acer for autumn colour is to buy it when its firing up at this time of the year to be sure to get the bonfire effect that you are after . I have a problem with this acer because it has been grafted and the parent plant has grown rather big . Whenever I think about cut it back I ca n’t see which is the part I want to bump off because unless the foliage is red in fall there is no way of telling them asunder . I am not sure when is the best prison term to swerve it back and whether it will shock it too much to chop up it all back at once as the main stem is quite thickheaded . Any idea ?

Whilst I am sing about foliage , I ’d like to show you my favourite fern as I do n’t mean I ’ve mentioned it before . No seasonal colour here butPolystichum setiferum‘Pulcherrimum Bevis ’ is an all yr round beauty . It is quite large with elegant arching fronds and there is no time of the year when I do n’t enjoy it .

Dahlia imperialishybrid

Daphnes are mythical for wintertime and former outflow smell but I have one which blooms non - stop from bound right into autumn . It is not as powerfully fragrant as my beloved ‘ Jacqueline Postill ’ but for long- last flower power you ca n’t tick it . It is calledDaphne transatlantica ‘ Pink Fragrance ’ .

And now to finish I have chosen a winter - blossom bush which will flower for weeks if it does n’t get too cold . Pink winter inflorescence Viburnum are slap-up loyalist of the wintertime garden and a familiar sight . The snowy one , Vibuurnum farreri‘Candidissimum ’ is not find out so often but it is my favourite . The only trouble is that spartan frost can turn the flowers dark-brown but at the moment they are pristine .

So there we have my six on Saturday . Next hebdomad we could have frost and then we will all be inscribe around for plants to partake but for now despite the gloom there is so much to enjoy . Do link up Jim atPlantRuminationsfor more November please .

Chrysanthemum‘Golden Greenheart’

33 Responses toSix on Saturday. Anticyclonic Gloom.

Wow , that Tree Dahlia is telling . The Daphne and the other blooms / plants are beautiful , too . We have n’t had a hard frost here yet , either , which is late for us . We ’ve definitely had a mix of sunny and cloudy and rainy and clear days late . The temps have been warm than normal , so I ’m still “ delight ” the garden even though the flush are sparse .

Beth @ PlantPostings.com

Acer palmatum ‘Chitoseyama‘

Six on Saturday. Anticyclonic Gloom.