Lovely Lillies, Lilium, Malvern, Worcestershire.

A warm start to August has really helped my lilies bloom magnificently. Grown from bulbs, these flowers are frost hardy and once planted require little from you to ensure they flower spectacularly every year. The only real problem I have faced is the lily beetle. This beetle is a jewel bright red colour when in its adult form. If you spot them you must remove them by hand and destroy. The beetles are quite pretty and easy to spot, but their young cause amazing amount of damage and will eat not only the flowers and leaves, but also bury down and devour the bulb. They are harder to spot, black brown in colour and maggot like, and as a defence they cover themselves with their own poo. Sadly these also need to be picked off by hand and destroyed.  It is all well worth it though as I hope these pictures from my garden show.

Priory Park, Malvern, Worcestershire.

Geranium

Yellow Rose

Hebe in flower

  Priory park is looking lovely
 at the moment. Here are just a view floral highlights.

Pink lupin

Rather fancy carnation

Less fancy but delightfully smelling carnation

Purple lupin

View across one of the ponds

My favourite walk, British Camp, Malvern, Worcestershire

At last the rain has stopped for a few hours, so I quickly decided to treat myself to my favourite walk.

The wood looks so lush this time of year

The reservoir

A patch of wild flowers

Wild flower detail

Wild flower panoramic

Rape seed fields as seen from top

British Camp earthworks 

View down from summit looking north

Peonies

Thrust from the earth
Phallic red columns
Hungry for warmth and light
Transformed into sturdy bushes
Green soft delicate foliage
Bearing expectant globes
Which open slowly to reveal
Puff balls or open bowl forms
Whites, yellows, reds and pinks
Light floral fragrant perfume
And then again they disappear
For winter they sleep
Warm and the hidden beneath      the soil
Buried treasure

A perfect bloom

Courageous camouflaged cat and wonderful wisteria

Cleverly camouflaged

Dangerously sleeping

Wonderful wisteria

This is my cat, full name Benjamin Dangerous Einstein Boo, or Benji-boo for short. Our vet said the reason he was so scared of everything when we first got him was because he lacked intelligence even by cat standards and so danger would never be his middle name. Well we decided to change that and give him something to live up to.

Here he is now cleverly camouflaged in the wisteria and dangerously daring to sleep on the top rail of the balcony.

Beautiful Benji Boo

A sunny spot with a glass of wine.

Mostly tulips

Aqueligia

A very busy day to end a very busy week.
But as my poem Perfect endings states,

Tulips and allium

The perfect end to a long week

 Sitting in a patch of sunshine

With a glass of wine

And time to unwind.

Allium

Chives

Mostly Bella

So I am doing just that and admiring the garden.

May's garden treasures. Malvern, Worcestershire.

Tulip tarda

Tulips

Tulip and daffodil display

 May is the month when the garden really starts to come into its own. Colour appears everywhere, blossom on trees, clematis climbing, flowers in the tubs and flowers beds. The sights and smells are a treat for the senses.

Cherry blossom

Not only is the overall effect magnificent, but each individual bloom is a work of art in itself.  The detail is particularly easy to see in the detail of the aqualigias structure and contrasting coloured petals.

Clematis

Aqualigia purple

Aqualigia pink

Hosta

Purple tulip and allium flower bed

London blue

Yellow poppy