A pensioner has been left "devastated" after the flowers in a garden he tended in memory of his wife died "overnight".
Tony Gwilliam, 76, has looked after the flower beds close to Forte's Cafe in Limeslade Bay, Mumbles, since 2006 when his wife's ashes were scattered in the sea there.
It's suspected the flowers might have been killed as a result of a deliberate act, although the cause is not confirmed.
It was on Tuesday, September 1, that Mr Gwilliam went to water the plants and check on some pansies he had planted just days before.
He spoke to his son, Kevin Gwilliam, that evening and sounded "upset".
Kevin said: "He was really upset on Tuesday night when he told me what had happened.
"He went down in the morning to find dead vegetation and plants. He said they were fine last week when he planted them and now they're dead.
"Dad's always wanted it to look nice there because it's one of the places my parents used to go and they'd take us there as kids for ice cream on the beach.
"He's been looking after it for years and it's kept him busy in retirement. People know him down there and he chats to everyone when he goes for a coffee at Forte's."
Although it is not clear what killed the plants, Tony found a "white powder" on many of the dead flowers and initially thought "plant killer and lime" might have been to blame for the event because of how quickly the plants died.
Kevin, who lives in Cambridge, said he "couldn't go down and give his dad a hug" because of the distance between them but he posted on a local Facebook group for help after what had happened to the flowers.
There has bee a good response and a Gofundme page has been set up to fund replacement plants and raised over £200 in 24 hours.
Forte's Cafe has been supplying Tony and other volunteers who are reviving the flower beds with free tea and coffee and Norton Stores has donated plants.
As well as the possibility of it being a deliberate act, Kevin also said the extreme weather might be to blame for the flowers dying.
He said he thought it was possible that a mixture of stormy seas covering the flowers in salt and high temperatures might account for the plants dying so quickly, although it's understood nothing similar has happened previously.
"Whatever the cause, the aim now is to remove the dead plants and plant replacement ones to get it looking as lovely as it usually does," Kevin said.
