I’ll lead off this GBBD posting with colchicum which has been spectacular this fall. They are hardy, reliable, and beautiful — the sort of qualities that beg for planting more.  So I did…

It’s been all in all a marvelous fall here in Maryland.  Mostly bright sunny fall days with just enough rain to keep everything going well.  Altogether we are 8 inches ahead of the usual rainfall here.  The annuals have continued to bloom and I noticed that the cosmos along the fence line have decided on a fall renewal of their blooms.

And the calendulas in the raised bed are bright and beautiful.

Under the cherry tree in the back yard a clump of cyclamen hederifolium is putting up flowers before the leaves are showing.

Japanese windflowers are spectacular as usual for this time of year.

And they are joined by various instances of toad lilies (such a strange name for exotically beautiful flowers).

The canna lily that returned from last year is soldiering on in a very crowded garden bed.

And month by month the cestrum continues a flowerful statement at the back gate.

I noticed that the beautyberry bush is covered with its distinctive purple berries right now.

In the alpine bed by the greenhouse there is a rather striking little saxifrage from Japan.

In the greenhouse itself the oxalis are dominating the show.

But there is also a rather special scilla that I brought into the house.

These are not easy to find, but they seem to be quite reliable bloomers.

While I was out in the vegetable garden I found many more dahlias still in bloom

and lots of monarch butterflies visiting the many tithonia.

In addition I found a very distinctive moth that I had never seen before.

Of course, it’s important to note that at this time of year, one does not live on flowers alone.

We have been bringing in bowl after bowl of raspberries for the last 6 weeks.

And finally to cap it off here is the apple pie that we made for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day…