The flowers were as fresh as i've ever seen. Light was sunny, just past midday and later. Earlier shots taken with the 70-200IS, then I switched to the 50mm 1.4 when I couldn't get the Japanese bridge in the field of view and kept it on the 10D for the rest of the session. All handheld.
I'm indecisive about selecting the "best" images here so I'm still editing.