"When lilacs last..."

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,

And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night...

 Walt Whitman

  

Happy Birthday, Dave!  I hope you catch a big one today.

    The lilacs in our front door are blooming this week, and what could be lovelier than that?  It's interesting, since last year there wasn't a single flower on that big, healthy-looking bush.  Lilacs are tough shrubs (Syringa vulgaris) and they like plenty of sun, light watering and no fertilizer. Even fertilizer seeping from a nearby bed or lawn annoys them. Heavy pruning will set them back for years. As soon as they finish blooming, they set buds for next year, so timing is important for deadheading. This all sounds fussy, but they just like to be left alone. You have to love a plant that requires so little effort. Like many things in the garden, trying too hard with lilacs is the way to go wrong. 

 

    Their only fault is they bloom for such a short time and then turn brown in the rain. I picked some big bunches for the house yesterday, and these seem much more fragrant than usual. Why? Maybe the glorious hot sun we had this past week.

    

    Here's some lines from one of my favorite poems, "Portrait of a Lady" by T.S. Eliot.  Yes, indeed-- as any teacher will tell you, youth can be cruel.

    Now that lilacs are in bloom
She has a bowl of lilacs in her room
And twists one in his fingers while she talks.
"Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know
What life is, you who hold it in your hands";
(Slowly twisting the lilac stalks)
"You let it flow from you, you let it flow,
And youth is cruel, and has no remorse
And smiles at situations which it cannot see."
I smile, of course,
And go on drinking tea.
"Yet with these April sunsets, that somehow recall
My buried life, and Paris in the Spring,
I feel immeasurably at peace, and find the world
To be wonderful and youthful, after all."