The Dandelion That Wouldn’t Let Go

A wonderfully chaotic garden moment: a ripe tomato hiding beneath a tangle of fine dandelion parachutes. Looks very much like she has forgotten where she was supposed to land.

The tomato looks distinctly unimpressed.

The dandelion’s defence?
“I swear I only blew in for a minute…”


Discaimer: AI text assisted. Monday morning brain-think not yet activated.

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.

Begonia Delight; Oh What a Sight!

Begonia delight; oh what a sight!
A blaze of blooms in softest light.
As morning spills her silver dew,
The dreaming garden wakes in you.

From folds of crimson, rose, and gold,
A quiet tale is gently told.
Each petal, touched by breeze and sun,
Speaks of the day that’s just begun.

The blackbird pauses in his song,
The bees hum low as they belong.
A butterfly on painted wing
Makes silence seem a living thing.

No boastful call, no need for fame,
Yet gardens whisper just your name.
Where sun and shadow softly meet,
The earth grows gentler at your feet.

When twilight wraps the fading sky
And swallows homeward wheel and fly,
Your colours hold the evening’s glow,
Like embers burning far below.

So bloom until the autumn rain
Has sung its soft and sweet refrain.
Begonia delight; oh what a sight!
A little flame against the night.


Disclaimer: poem with AI-assist. Every garden should have it!

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