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 think this red tulip is a bit of an exhibitionist. There’s a clump of red tulips in the oval flower bed in the center of my garden and each year when they come up they look like nice normal tulips … for about a day … then they open their petals wide wide wide – just like the one above.

Why? I’m not sure … It doesn’t seem normal to me. These red tulips are certainly different in that manner than all the rest of my tulips. LOL

Oh and they don’t stand up straight either … their stems flop over and bend in odd directions – as if someone sat or fell on them. Very strange.

Do you have any flowers or plants in your garden that just never seem to grow or act quite right?

It seems to me that Helebores love their shade so much that even their flowers try to shy away from the light. I only have one Helebore plant left (I did have three once but two seem to have died out) and it’s flowers, when they bloom in late March or April, always hang their lovely faces downward.

It’s a shame because the flowers are so lovely. Delicate, pink, sweet.

To take a good picture of a Helebore bloom I often have to use one of my hands to push the flower stem backwards in order to get the flower to face upward or at least horizontal while I maneuver the camera with my other hand. It’s not easy! LOL

Do you ever have to do some strange moves to get the picture that you’re going for?

My back yard garden is divided into two distinct areas – one small patio just large enough to fit a nice patio table that seats four comfortably, and the back garden area lined with 3 to 4 foot deep garden beds along the edges, with grass in the center of the back garden area.

Between the patio and the back garden area is a an oval garden bed that attaches to the garden beds on the right side of the yard … it’s in this garden bed that you’ll find these lovely white tulips blooming away in April.

Have you landscaped your backyard? If so, do you have just one big backyard with plants (and maybe rocks) strategically placed in certain areas) or did you divide your yard as we did so you have a more functional relaxed area ie the patio for eating and entertaining, and a garden area?

These beautiful blue Glories of the snow are pretty much done blooming now. They came up so early this year … like near the beginning of April instead of mid to late April like they usually do!

I have several clumps of these flowers in white, pink and this lovely blue. Each year the clumps seem to get bigger and bigger. I guess I’ll have to try to separate the clumps some time in the near future. I have a few bare areas of my garden (it’s pretty full but there’s a few empty spaces) and I could put some of the divided clumps in these areas. At least in Spring they’d be full and lush!

How is your garden doing this spring? Any flowers blooming yet?

I took this photo of some of my Pink Hyacinth when it was just getting ready to bloom. This was mid-April … of course it’s been blooming it’s pretty little head off and smelling up my yard with it’s heady perfume for about two weeks now.

I have several clusters of Hyacinth growing in my back and front garden beds. Most of them are pink or purple, but I have a few that are a soft peach in color.

It’s been warm here in Toronto the last few days so we’ve had the windows and doors open and every once in a while (especially early morning and late at night) the smell of the hyacinths will come indoors. It’s lovely.

Do you grow Hyacinths too?

All of the spring flowers in my garden are coming up earlier than they usually do!

My crocuses came up on March 15th and bloomed until about the middle of April. They usually come up toward the end of March, but we had a beautiful winter this year with much warmer than average temperatures (above freezing most of the time) and absolutely NO snow in March at all! We set records!

So no wonder all my plants are ahead of themselves, eh?

Right now my garden has Tulips, Daffodils, Muscarii, Hyacinth and more in bloom and my roses are and many other perennial plants are all leafed out. All of these plants have been active and showing signs of life since mid to late March and the flowers that I just said were blooming started blooming in early April! Way earlier than normal.

How’s your garden this year? I know that a lot of my readers in the US had a terrible winter with lots of snow … but most of us here in The Great White North (Canada) had a fantastic winter with very little snow (uh remember the Olympics?).

I know, I’m gloating .. but we usually have worse winters than most, so give me this one, would ya?

I took this photo in September when the mums were in full bloom. Aren’t they lovely?

I used to not really like mums, not until I had a garden of my own anyway. They do make a nice fall flower as they add some color to the garden as most of the other plants begin to wind down (bloom wise) for the year.

Do you enjoy mums?

We had a short spell of warm weather two weeks ago, and my roses, the ones that should be shutting down for winter, are putting out new blooms! I think they are confused! LOL … well, what can I expect when it’s been a bit warmer than it usually is at this time of year eh?

The rose above is called Lavender Dreams and I think I like it’s autumn blooms better than it’s blooms any other time of year. I think it’s because their lavender color is much richer in Autumn where as it’s spring and summer blooms are more of a light pink or light mauve.

Do you garden? If you do, do you have any roses or other plants that are still blooming?

The Sedum and other flowers that I grow in my garden are beginning to fade away as Autumn brings cooler weather, but a few weeks ago, many of my garden plants were still in bloom.

The photo above is a picture of the Sedum that I grow in my front yard. I love it’s multi-coloured tiny pink flowers with their white highlights.

As I said the sedum are fading away now, but I usually leave them in the garden through winter as they look nice dried – even when they are partially covered in snow.