Every year around this time I write about the flowers in the garden; every year the new growth amazes and inspires me.  Every day there are more leaves, more blooms and even more plants pushing their way into the world.  Nature really is clever!  This year though, what surprises me more than ever are all the wild and self-seeded flowers at Lou Messugo.

Lou Messugo

We named our house after a wild cistus (messuge) that grew in the area but the very fact of cutting down the forest and creating a building site looked like we might have wiped out pretty much all of them.  Five and a half years later however there are more cistus than ever.  This morning I counted 4 different types and we’ve only planted one of them.  They are all over the garden in great big bushes, small clumps and single stems, covering 4 different colours too. (Photos of the 3 wild types below)….

cistus messuge

This year for the first time we’ve also got plenty of wild valerian.  Last year there were one or two plants, now there are probably fifty or sixty dotted around the garden and the great thing is, they’ll flower for months and months.  I noticed too that there are two different shades of pink, which I don’t think I’ve seen before.

valerian at Lou Messugo

Walking around the garden with my camera this morning I found several plants I can’t identify, all wild and pretty.  I’d love help finding names for any of the flowers in the 2 collages below.

unidentified flowers

more unidentified flowers

And looking out from where I sit at my desk I can see a great big clump of self-seeded osteospermum.  We planted some of these at the front of the house and they’ve worked so well spreading beautifully over the dry stone wall.  But we never planted any in the gravel at the top of the steps, they did it themselves!

out of my window at Lou Messugo

Amongst all these wild flowers we also have the most spectacular display of jasmine which we did plant (tiny).  It gets better every year and this year it’s exploded over the railings of the pool too.

jasmine at Lou Messugo

I don’t think there’s much else I need to say…the flowers speak for themselves.  If anyone can identify any of the unidentified blooms, I’d love to hear from you.

Lou Messugo garden in May 5

Lou Messugo garden in May 6

Lou Messugo garden in May 2

Lou Messugo garden in May 4

Lou Messugo garden in May 3

Lou Messugo garden in May

What’s growing in your garden at the moment?  Do you have any wild flowers?

You might like these other posts about the garden at Lou Messugo:

September Mediterranean garden

Summer garden

Oleander – the flower with power

From forest to garden – 4 years in the making

Enjoyed this post? Please share it