Shining in the Rain...................

A brilliant orange lily sitting there to cheer us on another
dull and dreary morning. I also have a dark red one and was very undecided which one to photograph but as this one was more open - this one it is. Will have a look at the red one again in the morning.

There are over 200 species of lilies (liliacae) and loads and
loads of hybrids! They were first introduced as long ago as
1596 - which is a long time ago.

Last year they were attacked by the dreaded Lily Beetle
chomping all the leaves and made a real old mess of them.
This is a bright red beetle rather like a very slender ladybird but with no spots. It starts do do it's nasty job towards the middle/end of May. Last year I was away on holiday at the time. This year I kept watch very carefully and immediately I saw the first one, out came the spray. (I don't really like using insecticides but sometimes it can't be helped).
A well-known garden expert said the only way to get rid of them was to manually squash them but I discovered that one brand of bug killer that contained the word "ultimate" in it's name did the trick.