If you have about ten hours to kill in a very pleasant and informative way, get over to The Propagator’s website to read his and everyone else’s blogs from around the world:
https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/05/six-on-saturday-05-05-2018/
Unusually, these pictures all come from my own garden this week. I hope you enjoy them.
- Molly the witch has opened. A day much anticipated for owners of this lovely Paeony. The blooms will only last a few days, so enjoy her while you can. This year I only have one bud, whereas last year there were three. Not quite sure why, but I love her all the same.
2. So metallic you could take a brass rubbing off it, this is the new foliage of Rogersia podophylla. Really needs shade and moisture to thrive, especially in August, but very hardy and reliable. I might have to move this over Winter from the foot of a slowly creeping bamboo which will suck up all her moisture over the Summer.
3. I am enjoying this new combination of Allium Purple Sensation and Geranium macrorrhizum. Sometimes I think alliums are better in bud than in flower.
4. Aquilega were in this garden when we came here thirteen years ago. I love the way that each year they are different due to their promiscuity. The predominant theme is blue and purple, but this one is a new one: pink and burgundy.
5. Isn’t he cute? Well no, actually, he is a box tree caterpillar with whom I have been waging a losing war over the last three years. Not fatal to a hedge or topiary, but very disfiguring. I tried some judiciously applied pesticide last year. They just laughed at me from inside their tightly spun cocoons. I will not plant any more box in East London as the whole area is riddled with them and I do not want to go down the pesticide drenching route. It is a shame, but there are alternatives: Lonicera nitida, Ilex crenata. Neither of which is quite the same as good old box, but neither of which are susceptible to blight or pest as far as I know. Bummer.
Tim Hewitt, Gardener 
Molly is lovely. It’s all lovely. Such a wonderful time of year!
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Aquilega are so pretty and dainty. I was just in a garden this afternoon where there were a lot growing in all different colours. Must try growing some myself.
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I find them very easy and generous plants, with dainty foliage too.
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I think it’s the first Molly I see this year. What lovely flowers !
I also like your aquilegia. Mine are coming soon and they will probably be in a future SoS
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Molly is gorgeous, mine is still shy to flower, perhaps next year. I agree with you about alliums in bud, although I think that of quite a few plant, it is all about the anticipation. Lovely shiny rodgersia. Lovely.
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Anticipation is such a massive part of gardening, isn’t it? Actual pleasure in the here and now is so empemeral and fleeting. This next three weeks is my favourite time of year.
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Ephemeral, for shame!
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What a shame about the box! I have box hedges, but I don’t think we have those caterpillars here- give us time though. I wish acqueligia would be promiscuous in my garden! It would fill up spaces beautifully. Molly the witch is lovely.
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Thanks, Jane. Box blight and caterpillar have ravaged the south of England. It really hurts, but you have to just look at it as a new opportunity. My Aquilegias are embarrassingly easy here on heavy, but well drained clay. I am always digging them out and passing them on!
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Columbine is rad! We do not grow it much because it only blooms in the spring and then dries up in summer.
How did that peony get that odd name?
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Thanks. I guess it is just horses for courses, you have to grow what works for you. I don’t have much choice with Columbine, they just do well here and I am often too soppy to weed them out. I believe Molly is a derivation of the name Mlokosewitschii, the name of the Polish fella who found her. Unpronounceable to English speakers, it was been bastardised to Molly the witch.
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You know . . . Anyone with a name like that needs to buy more vowels. I think ‘Molly the witch’ will do just fine.
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