Birth Flower for July - Delphinium (Larkspur)

This month the flower in the spotlight for birth flower of the month, is the Delphinium or Larkspur as it is also known as in the US.

The Delphinium represents levity and lightness, feelings of love and an open heart.

Delphiniums, despite their stature, are quite delicate in nature. Their perfume is subtle and their blooms can be easily marked by the lightest touch of rain.

I think plant breeders love them, as this one with its iridescent flashes of purple on the blue is quite striking but looks quite unnatural.

Apart from my love of them, they are also adored by slugs and snails and need to be protected from them, from the minute they appear in the soil in spring right through until they finish flowering.

After visiting this beauty in a garden this year, I have been inspired to buy a couple from the garden centre. I shall have to be on my guard though next spring, if I want to see them in all their glory next year but it's definitely a plant worth the trouble and slug pellets.

Upton Country Park Walled Garden

Since a child, I have been enthralled by walled gardens. I loved the paintings in the Ladybird book Rapunzel, of the fabulous rows of flowers and vegetables in the forbidden garden and I loved the children's programme The Herbs and all the goings on behind the gate.

Upton Country Park, a 100 acre award winning woodland and garden, is not 10 minutes from where I live in Poole and has the most wonderful walled garden. Restored in 2012, it originally provided fruit and vegetables for the house, an impressive Georgian grade II listed building.

Around two sides of the parameter, are two avenues of herbaceous borders and inside the sides are lined with more herbaceous borders and a tea room.

I've yet to see the fountain in the middle in use but it looks fantastic fun for the children to run through.

Early this morning, not long after it had opened, I had the joy of walking in solitude and to photograph the plants - a simple pleasure, although I could hear the faint sound of school children visiting the woodland in the distance, they gave me long enough on my own, to get up close and personal with the plants and to enjoy and photograph their beauty before the moment was gone.

Birth Flower For June - Rose

Pink Rose

Lemon Rose

Soft Pink Rose

Vintage Roses

Pink Rose

Salmon Pink Rose

Just snuck in on the last day of June, as this month it is the turn of the Rose as the birth flower.

As you can tell by the amount of photographs, roses are one of my favour flowers. Full of nostalgia for long summers days past, when as a child I would collect the petals and put them in water, thinking I could make perfume.

The rose symbolises love and affection. Red roses mean love, passion, beauty and perfection and white roses mean innocence, purity and remembrance.

I love pink roses, which have to be scented. I can't understand the purpose of a rose without scent though.
It's impossible to walk by a rose without first having a sniff and it's so disappointing when there is no scent, however beautiful the bloom.

Over the next few weeks, is the best time for the beautiful, graceful rose. Keep dead heading them, to keep them going as long as possible and enjoy them whilst they're here.

Birth Flower For May - Lily of the valley

Lily of the valley

With a very wet spring, Lily of the valley have been in very short supply, so I had started to wonder if my project of photographing the birth flowers, would come to an abrupt end.

Luckily, whist out on a job, my client had some in her garden.

The Lily of the valley signifies humility, chastity and sweetness. In Victorian times, a gift of Lily of the valley counted as a romantic message and it also signifies a return of happiness.

This delicate, sweetly scented flower, was indeed rare this year but that made it all the more special once found.

Birth Flower For April - Sweet Pea

Sweet Peas in a vase

Sweet Pea

I'm not quite sure why Sweet Peas were chosen to represent April as a birth flower, as it's going to be a couple of months before they are flowering but there is no mistaking why they were chosen, for their beauty and fragrance.

The Sweet Pea represents pleasure or goodbye and the Victorians used them in their bouquets, to show their gratefulness.

My summer garden wouldn't be complete without Sweet Peas, for me the most quintessential summer flower.

Birth Flower for March - The Daffodil

Daffodil

Daffodils

Nothing says spring is here, like the humble daffodil. After a mild but very wet winter we've had, it's the shot in the arm we all need to rescue us from the dark nights and into the light evenings, now the clocks have moved forward.

Daffodils being the birth flower for March, signifies modesty and simplicity and those two words pretty much sum up the daffodil. There are always lots of new cultivars but I'm a bit of a purist, I don't like my daffodils tampered with and love the yellow ones the best.

Birth Flower For February - Violet

Violet

Violet Bud

As February draws to a close, I had started to get into a lather about not photographing the birth flower for this month, the beautiful if understated violet.

I've just ventured out to the bottom of the garden, between showers and I spotted a little clump growing amongst the scrubby grass.

The violet symbolises faithfulness, wisdom and hope.
A beautiful flower which truly heralds the coming of spring.