Purchases are very rare in my garden. I acquire just about anything I want from friends and neighbors. However, I really wanted a particular brand and style of pruning shears.
1. Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’, bronze fennel is one of very few trendy plants in my garden. I dislike fads. It was infested with aphid earlier, but recovered enough to bloom.
2. Canna X generalis, canna is one of very few here that has not yet been featured on Six on Saturday. It is more of a vegetable than an ornamental, but its flowers are pretty also.
3. Canna X generalis ‘Alaska’ canna is a rare white canna, although it is really very pale yellow. I purchase almost nothing for my garden, but I coveted it enough to purchase it.
4. Amaryllis belladonna, naked lady is blooming splendidly, but not quite as abundantly as it did last year. I watch for white flowers so that I can relocate their bulbs after bloom.
5. New shears are the piece de resistance of my Six this week. They are not actually new, since I bought them used on eBay, in order to get the old style. Only their holster is new.
6. Rhody, who is as unimpressed as usual, has been absent from my Six on Saturdays for quite a while. Weekly, this really should be ‘Five and Rhody on Saturday’. Oh, priorities.
Anyone who would like to participate in this meme should peruse this participant guide for Six on Saturday.
Tony Tomeo 
Trendy or not, I love a good umbellifer!
I also really enjoy swapping plants with friends! Luckily many people now know about my garden and randomly drop round plants or seeds. As my stock grows, I will endeavour to reciprocate.
Rhody looks very comfortable and happy 🙂
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Swapping is the best. It gives the plants history. You can always remember who gave particular plants to you.
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I am not keen on the bronze fennel foliage (in trend here in Europe too) and prefer the normal one, although the flowers are just as pretty. Nice to see canna flowers up close. I rarely see them here as the ones at the garden centres are never flowering when they are on sale (as annuals). Good to see Rhody again – I missed him! How old is he now? And the new shears look great. It is hard to find quality tools these days so second-hand is a good idea!
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Yes, the green fennel looks more natural. Bronze fennel looks polluted somehow. I will keep it because it is here now. I am already learning to like it.
Canna used to be very common here. They are less common now only because they were too common before. I still like them though. They are so easy to grow and multiply.
I do not know how old Rhody is, but I would guess that he is about ten years old. He still thinks that he is a puppy though.
My favorite shears were 1985 Coronas. They were retired a few years ago. These new old shears are identical, so I am already pleased with them.
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I like the white canna, very unusual. Your amaryllis is looking wonderful. I have a white one which is not flowering this year, I don’t know why as it looks very healthy. A holster for your secateurs is a great idea, I waste hours looking for mine as I keep leaving them lying about.
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The white canna is . . . odd. It is as white as a canna can get, but is not quite white enough. I intend to grow more of it to mix with brighter colors. White amaryllis are rad! Of all the amaryllis here, only a few are white. I dug and canned them so that I can put them in their own colony, separate from the bright pink. The holster for the new old shears is actually new, so needs to be broken in. My other holster has many years of wear. I got it in 1985.
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I have missed lovely Rhody, nice to see him having a well earned kip. Lovely canna, especially the nearly white one. The amaryllis is gorgeous.
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I had to look up “kip”, but yes, Rhody earns them. We got a bit too overly zealous with the Canna a few years ago. I feel guilty about spending money on one. They are so easy to grow. The amaryllis certainly are nice, but underappreciated because they grow wild on the roadsides.
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I’m hopeful the Amaryllis you sent me seed of a few years back are big enough to flower this year but none of mine even have buds yet, let alone flowers.
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It takes a few years for them to bloom from seed. It may be too early for your established bulbs to bloom. Ours are at various stages, with some just beginning to extend floral stalks, and another type that blooms slightly later.
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doesn’t seem that long ago, I was enjoying the naked ladies in my garden and now their green foliage is giving dimension to an otherwise bleak landscape. Neighbours gave me all my pink ones, so I justified buying some white ones but whoa! they are twice as expensive as the pink bulbs. Rhody seems to enjoy spending time much the same way as my Darcie does. Very cute snoot!
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Yes, the white ones are expensive. We were fortunate that a few of the many feral bulbs bloomed white. I dug and canned them to put into their own separate colony. Rhody excels at cuteness.
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I’ve enjoyed growing bronze fennel; at first I didn’t realize it would be a perennial here, my patch grew very quickly over three years, and really took over almost an entire raised bed. So I cut it back and dug it out and planted seeds elsewhere. Unfortunately the new spot doesn’t seem to get enough sun as the new fennel plant, not in its second year, is very gangly with quite weak ‘branches.’
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Because of how this one was acquired, from someone who is now deceased, I feel obligated to keep it alive. It had been abandoned for a few years, so whether I like it or not (and I am learning to like it), I hope it continues to be reliably perennial. As it grows, I intend to propagate some from division, so if the primary specimen dies out, there will be more of it.
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