Sunday, May 28, 2006

LILAC, LILACS, EVERYWHERE


When I was a little girl, our next door neighbors had huge lilac bushes. My sister, their kids, and I used to play in those lilac groves for hours and we beat a path in amongst them that allowed us to wind our way through. We had different areas with different names and spent hours roaming through them playing games. I can still close my eyes and remember the smell of those sweet flowers. I always felt so safe sitting amongst those lilacs - like no one could hurt me and it was peaceful.
As a grown up, we moved to a house with a few of the old fashioned lilacs that seemed to be mistreated, without much love and attention and little nutrients for them to grow big and flower grandly every spring. My husband is a lovely man - who loves to tend to flowers and bushes. He will move a sapling or small sprig of perrenial 700 times - until he finds the perfect light and soil for it.
He has taught me some of his gardening skills and I am fortunate to have found out that there are more than one kind of lilac! There are single, double, triple petal flowers . There are ton's of colors from mauve, pink, white, yellow, deep purple magenta, and the list goes on. The nurseries claim that there is a blue lilac - but it always looks purple to me.
As my husband and I build a life without small children and move gracefully into those years, you can often find us searching for a new lilac, hosta, or lily. We travel to antique stores, yard sales, nurseries, and flea markets to collect the things we love.
Enjoy the picture and look closely at the blossoms for the subtle differences!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous lilacs! I have one lilac tree, and the flowers are like the pale mauve in the bottom row of your photo. I LOVE the dark purple and the one with the white edges, they are so pretty. My second favourite thing about lilacs is their amazing scent, it reminds me of my childhood as well. Thanks for showing off your beautiful lilac assortment.

PURLPOWER said...

I have also been suffering vertigo recently and am waiting for endless tests so sympathy coming your way. I really love the ladybird jumper you made.