It's a Lilac Year

I've never cared for the color lilac nor the color purple for that matter.    I've seen bloggers post about amethyst glassware but it, too, leaves me cold.    Eggplant is a good vegetable but not a good color.  

There wasn't any purple or lavender in any of the houses in which I grew up so it can't be that I had an overdose of purple/lavender when I was a child, scaring me for life.    It's just not a color I care for . . .

But, I do adore . . .

the lilac flower.    Lilacs grow easily on the prairie.    And driving in the country, you'll often find them in yards of abandoned farmhouses.     Every grandmother had a lilac!

And the fragrance . . . is heavenly.    Which is why during lilacs short bloom time, I pick armfuls to bring inside.    

Some for the Waterford vase on the sideboard.     The Easter egg tree has pride of place on the dining room table so alas, any flowers are on the sideboard.

And a big bouquet in a blue and white pitcher on the breakfast porch table.    The jasmine is blooming as well and between the two the aroma is almost overpowering in that room!

Linderhof's lilacs are old fashioned lilacs.    Not bought but dug up from one of those abandoned farmhouses (shhh -- don't tell) 20 plus years ago.    Three plants.    Two between the drives and one by the dining room window.

And when my mother passed away, 13 years ago, I dug up a plant from the one in her yard.    That plant has a history -- for it came from a plant that came from a plant that was outside the bedroom in the apartment that my parents lived in for the first 9 years of their married life.     Mother loved lilacs as well and when she moved to the big house, a start of that lilac came with her.     When we moved to the suburbs, a start of that lilac came with her.     And when she passed away and we had sold the house, I dug up a start from that lilac.

The interesting thing is that the next year there were two blooms on that plant.    I've never had a lilac bloom the year after planting.    I think it was a message from mother!

I've been going up and down the stairs a lot the last few days for . . .

This is the view from the upstairs window.    The lilacs in full bloom!    I've never seen so many blossoms on the lilacs in all the years I've had them.     And when one goes outside, the aroma is heady -- the fragrance is almost overpowering!

We don't get many Lilac Years on the prairie for often once the buds are set a cold front moves in -- some survive but not all and even when we do have blooms, we often get a late frost.     Sigh -- lilac years are rare, rare indeed!

I love my lilacs and really wish I had room for more.    For during that magical week in the Spring, there isn't a better plant on earth!

It's Wednesday and I'm joining Susan at A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday