You know Autumn is closing in when you see lovely flower seed heads like this.

I came across this lovely seedhead when I was out walking my dog with my husband almost two weeks ago on our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend here in Toronto.

We were at a local park that we often go to for long hikes with our Labrador Retriever. It was late in the afternoon and the sun was bright and low in the sky. I saw the seed head with the sun shining behind it and knew I had to take a photo. I hope that you appreciate it’s simple beauty as much as I do.

I couldn’t resist posting just one more photo of my favorite iris. Of course these flowers are long gone … they bloomed in the second week of April in my Toronto garden and were gone only a few days later … but this picture and other photos I took of them will make them last forever.

What’s your favorite spring flower?

I took this photo about a month ago and these lovely Chionodoxa are long gone now … but I was happy to see them as they began to emerge. I love how they can poke through dead leaves and other debris no matter how heavy and still end up blooming. I’ve even seen these flowers first leaf spikes and other spring flowering plants first growth poking up through ice or still frozen ground. Amazing.

As far as I’m concerned this is one of the prettiest irises of all. Oh sure, I love my Dover blue German iris too … but nothing beats the Danfordia iris for it’s combination of delicate blooms and vibrant colors.

Do you have a favorite iris or flower?

Glories of the Snow or Chionodoxa … a real close up of these lovely delicate blue flowers.

I love nothing more than seeing the first flowers of Spring after our long cold winters here in Toronto. Crocuses are usually the first to come up in late March, but these Glories of the snow are often the next flowers to grace my garden beds. I only wish that they bloomed in the fall too … that would be nice.

Who wouldn’t be happy seeing lovely pink striped hyacinths blooming in their garden? Especially once you got a whiff of their lovely scent!

Several years ago I planted at least 100 hyacinth bulbs in colors of blue, white, pink and coral. I still have lots of hyacinths blooming in my garden each spring, but unlike some tulips these bulbs don’t seem to multiply … they eventually die off … so I don’t have nearly as many hyacinths as I used to. I have to remember to get more this fall … Hyacinths are too pretty to NOT have in the garden and if I don’t replace them soon it won’t be long before I don’t have these lovelies in my garden.

Clumps of Glories of the snow dot my small backyard garden. I have white ones, blue ones and even pink! I do think the blue Glories of the snow are my favorite. The color of the flower looks so nice against the dark green of the plants leaves.

Here’s a close up of a Danfordia iris. I love these delicate little flowers.

The detail on the underside and deep within the petal is lovely. The vibrant yellow and white pattern in each petal is amazing isn’t it?

These are my favorite irises. They are called Danfordia irises and they are dwarf irises. I love their vibrant color, but hate that they only seem to bloom here for just a few days. Perhaps it’s because even though they bloom in early spring we’re usually warming up fast here in Toronto just as they begin to bloom … if it were colder I’m sure they’d last longer. Oh well … then I’d be complaining that Spring was too cold … can’t have it both ways, now can I?

A few days ago I posted a photo of a single hyacinth, if you read the post you might remember me discussing how my “purple” hyacinths seems to have different shades of color ranging from blue to deep purple in different lights … well this picture is a good example of that range of color.

Have you ever noticed the range of colors within a tiny hyacinth bloom?