Lilacs...Syringa vulgaris.
These are the wild original lilacs we all know. There are many hybrids that bloom in pink, blue and shades of lilac...and even yellow......with blossom floret sprays that are larger and there's more of 'em. They come in doubles and all sizes, and for almost any climate.
But this is one of the 2 old-fashioned bushes in my yard....
Here they are in early March....a bundle of sticks.....with the tiniest bits of leaf and flower. All winter they were ...sticks. I always wonder in December "Will you still love me?" "Will you come back to me?"
Finally ! they begin to open and lengthen...swelling ...with lots of purple delight!
This is mid-April.
Late April...they lengthen even more...in spite of the really cold days....
And the leaves are getting leafier.... Late April.
2 weeks later ...a week past 2011 Mother's Day....they open!
Why did I mention Mother's Day...well....
I always ask for a bouquet of lilacs on my bedside table on the morning of Mother's Day....I can't remember a Mother's Day...when I couldn't have them....they open for me on Mother's Day or shortly before.
Not this year....This year, open on May 12th....
In full leaf and bloom....not as many blooms as the hybrids....but I'll take 'em!
So fleeting...I wait for them...I remember them...I adore them.
One of the garden's rare pleasures...
and worth the wait for 2 weeks of glory....
------------------------- A tale of Perseverance --------------------------
We know this as wild hyancinth, virginia blue bells, Scilla ....but they are actually Endymion non-scriptus, and also known as English bluebell...and they do go wild. You see them everywhere....pretty, and dependable, and in a rare blue...with a touch of lilac.....Blue is the rarest color in the flower world.
I mowed over it a few times as you can see by the ragged ends of the leaves. But...due to the rains I wasn't able to mow the grass as often as I wanted......so in the week that I didn't mow...The Flower popped up! So, I carefully dug it up and put it out in my woodland garden between the trio of locust trees....
The woodland garden bed...
It looks like not much here....a collection of stuff...but I'm working on it....I believe. I'll persevere. This yard has great soil. It was once a lovely yard I'm sure...I've found the remnants of what it was...
To be continued......
;-)
