Lilac in the Morning
Spring has presented me with a stunning surprise, and I’m a little bit flabbergasted that I did not recognize the leaves on these 3 bushes last summer.
I woke this morning to the entire house filled with their perfume and am drunk on the sweetness as I sit here and type. There are three of them on the south side of the house, directly under windows. Have I told you how much I love this fragrance? How I remember our next door neighbors, when I was just a string bean of a squirt? They had a ring of ancient Lilacs planted in the side yard between our houses, and I carried my dolls and books to sit inside the faerie ring, in the heavenly scent and dappled green, protected from the world. Entire afternoons slipped away inside that velvety green and purple haven while I lost myself in the pages of Nancy Drew and The Bobbsey Twins. Have I mentioned that I’ve dreamed forever of having just such a ring of Lilacs for my own children, or maybe grandchildren to private away their secret thoughts and lose themselves to the green and purple afternoons? No? Ah, well, there it is. I know just the spot to plant them, too.
What a sweet gift, and this on top of all of the abundance in my life. Hoo boy, am I spoiled.
Technorati Tags: Lilac, childhood, memory, sense memory, fragrance
"Grass is the cheapest plant to install and the most expensive to maintain."
~Pat Howell
May 24th, 2007 at 8:00 am
One of the first things I did when I moved into this house was head out to a now-closed lilac nursery and bought ten one-gallon lilacs to plant along the fence line. Three years later they’re all about four feet tall and after a couple years of patchy blooms, they bloomed in earnest. The smell is fantastic, but it comes with a bit of concern because I haven’t seen a single european honeybee, only the smaller native bees and a few carpenter bees.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Steven, that’s going to be an impressive fence line in another ten years! I’ve noticed the same thing around here about the european honeybees. I’m afraid.
May 26th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Don’t the native bees pollinate the lilacs? I have lilac dreams. They grow phenomenally well around here and everyone has one or two except for me. I planned on planting one this year, but, well, you know, it just keeps slipping away from my mind until it’s too late.
the good news is that a good friend of mine has a bunch of lilac volunteers sprouting up along the root line so she’s going to dig up a couple of them to give to me.
Maybe next year you’ll have the time to plant your lilac ring.