YOU know summer is drawing to an end, when the flower beds are dug up and prepared for re-planting.

Worcester City Council’s workers have been busy clearing the beds across the city centre, from North Quay to the City Walls Road.

With the beds turned over they are ready to take the new buds which were ordered at nurseries earlier this year.

Your Worcester News has received several calls from readers this week asking why plants have been dug up while apparently in full bloom.

But the city council’s parks chief, Ian Yates, insisted it was all a matter of timing.

“The problem is you’re ordering seeds to come up in the spring and so you need to plant for when that will happen,” he said.

“We could arguably have left them growing now, but that would have led to problems when plants come from the nurseries.”

Beds across the city have been dug up including Cripplegate, Gheluvelt and Fort Royal parks.

It means next spring the city should be be blooming with pansies and wallflowers.

“We do our planning two or three years in advance. We try and move with the times,” said Mr Yates.