Lilies

I love lilies and several of mine are currently holding centre stage in the garden.

Lilium martagon 'pink'

The first time that I ever saw these pink martagon lilies was many, many, years ago. It was during a family holiday taken with our two sons in the Pyrenees. We were staying in Andorra, which is both the highest, and the smallest country in Europe. We had set off early one morning for a full day of trekking and suddenly caught sight of a large clump of them growing in the wild as we crossed a remote valley - it was then that I fell in love with them. 

Lilium martagon 'Album"

Lilium regale

Lilies most commonly mean devotion or purity. In Greek mythology, Zeus wanted baby Hercules to drink the milk of Hera, his wife, but Hercules was born of another woman. Even though Hera disagreed, Zeus brought him to drink her milk whilst she was sleeping, but she awoke and pushed him away. The drops of milk that spilled on the ground grew into lilies.

In China, lilies are used at weddings because they represent 100 years of love and also good luck. The Assyrians and Babylonians associated lilies with the goddess of fertility, Ishtar, and Christians associated lilies, especially Madonna lilies, with the Virgin Mary. Many Victorian painters along with members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood admired lilies and often included them in their paintings - the regale lily shown above being a great favourite.

Enjoying Lilium Leichtlinii in our July garden

Consider the lilies of the field whose bloom is brief:- We are as they; like them we fade away as doth a leaf - Christina Rossetti

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance - John Ruskin 

End of June 2017 in the Garden

 The tall flower spikes of the New Zealand Phormium tenax reach high into the sky

Closely followed by the Lilium regale also growing forever upwards

  Phygelius raspberry swirl

The refreshing scent of Lavandula hidcote drifts through the air

This Loquat Tree is a curiosity. When we travelled in the Galician region of Spain several years ago, there was a bowl of loquats on the breakfast table. Inside they had big brown seeds which I saved and carried back home with this result. I wonder if they will ever bear fruit?

 Echinops - Globe thistle will soon be flowering

Clematis Hagley hybrid 

Some of the figs are almost ready but these have still to fatten

I am happy that Californian poppies scatter themselves around - if necessary they are easily removed

Lilium martagon

There are two climbing Hydrangeas growing up our walls - this one is the regular Hydrangea petiolaris

but this one is a rare variety called Hydrangea seemannii. Native to the cloud forests of Mexico and named after the discoverer, Berthold Carl Seeman, a German botanist 1825-1871.

Centaurea montana

Leycesteria formosa - Himalayan honeysuckle

Australian Callistemon citrinus - bottlebrush. There was once a time when this plant would not have survived out of doors in my garden, but with our warmer climate this one has flourished outside for the past 20 years. 

"Consider the lilies of the field and how they grow" Matthew 6:28

Loving these balmy late summer days with breakfast on the terrace whilst watching the Morning Glories unfurling in the early sunshine.

However, for the past few weeks it has been lily time in the garden 

  Lilium Martagon 'album'

Lilium Martagon

Lilium regale 

White lilies symbolise purity - a flower that has been admired and painted across the centuries

Sandro Botticelli, The Cestello Annunciation 
 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti - The Annunciation 

Trumpet lily - copper king

 Lilium Leichtlinii

Lilium Davidii

Not true lilies but members of genus Zantedeschia - happily both Calla and Arum lilies live in our garden without the need to lift them for the winter - they were firm favourites of both....

.......Georgia O'Keeffe 

and Diego Revera.  This painting is called 'Nude with Calla Lilies', however, the nude is very recognisable as artist Frida Khalo, Diego's wife

Our lilies have delighted us over the last couple of months, but sadly they are now mostly finished.

Visitors to the Garden

Are humble Foxgloves on the rise? This year so many have planted themselves in our pots and borders wearing shades of pink, and white.

As dusk falls white Foxgloves seem to glow

Foxglove digitalis purpurea is lovely but can be toxic to some people so care should be taken. It has a whole host of common names reflecting an association with fairies - Fairy Caps, Fairy Gloves, Fairy Thimbles, Fairybells, and Fairy Herb.

Foxglove Fairy - Cicely Mary Barker
Digitalin, a cardiac glycoside that is extracted from Foxgloves is used to help steady rapid heartbeats and arrhythmias 

This one has even made itself at home inside a pot of my lilies.  
Some visitors, however, we are not so pleased to see.

I know this baby squirrel is very cute but he is trying to take the birds' nuts and seeds

but hasn't yet figured out how to get them

foiled at the moment

 but he'll be back

June is a month of pretty colours in the garden enjoy it whilst it lasts