Six Photos. Many More Plants

15 August 2026

I used ChatGTP to analyse this collage of six photographs. It was able to complete this task slightly faster than my 68-year-old processor. Here’s the bottom line…

  • Hylotelephium (Sedum) ‘Herbstfreude’ / Autumn Joy — the large rounded cream-pink flower heads throughout the foreground. These are especially prominent in the main photograph.
  • Hydrangea macrophylla — the large pink/mauve hydrangeas in pots at bottom left.
  • Pelargoniums (zonal geraniums) — the masses of red, pink, salmon and orange flowers in pots and window boxes.
  • Lavandula (English lavender) — the grey-green foliage and purple flower spikes against the wall.
  • Gaura lindheimeri — the delicate pink-and-white flowers on long, airy stems in the foreground.
  • Allium — the spherical white flower heads in the separate photograph; they appear to be flowering/going to seed. My assistant, realising that I’m addempting to dry the onions, offers solid advice: “Best to deadhead the lovely flowers, because they will interfere with the process.”
  • Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus agg.) — the ripening blackberries in the top-right photograph. Note: not my garden. These are Northern bla kberries, photographed on a recent journey to Belfast.
  • Pansies/violas — visible in the window boxes and among the pots.
  • Lobelia — the small blue-purple flowers trailing from the hanging pot/chair area.
  • Heuchera — some of the foliage plants around the containers look like heucheras, although the photograph isn’t quite detailed enough to identify cultivars.
  • Euonymus — the variegated cream-and-green shrub in the foreground looks very much like a variegated Euonymus.
  • Thuja/conifer — the upright evergreen in the left-hand container arrangement appears to be a small arborvitae-type conifer.
  • One particularly interesting plant
    The large white/pink flower heads that appear repeatedly in the foreground are almost certainly a stonecrop/Hylotelephium, rather than the old-fashioned annual sedums often called Sedum. The fleshy leaves and flat-topped flower clusters are characteristic.
  • The plant with the very airy pink flowers beside it is almost certainly Gaura (now often classified as Oenothera lindheimeri). It makes a lovely combination with the sedum because the two have such different flower structures.

They were my Six on Saturday, a meme originally started by The Propagator. For more Sixes on Saturday, from all around the world, head over to the blog of Six on Saturday host, Jim.