Lilac Season

Guest post by Emira Mears

Sometime around last weekend the lilac in my backyard burst into bloom. Since then we’ve been enjoying stunning cut blooms and scent in the house. As I was bringing the cuttings into the house, I was reminded of last year around this time when I made my partner go out under the cover of night stealing blooms from alleyways for me (none of the neighbours I was friendly with on the block had lilacs).

Perhaps as evidenced by my willingness to push someone into theivery, lilacs are among my favorite flowers/plants, and when we found this house last summer the large health lilac tree beside the garage was among the “pros” on my feature list (it kind of made up for the very bad wall to wall brown carpeting). In fact, last Spring, when we were beginning to think about buying a place “must have, or have room to plant” lilac tree was on my list of qualities that would make the ideal home. And I’ve been looking forward to this season when I would get to experience its blooms since last summer.

Funnily enough though, while I’m certainly enjoying, it is no longer really the centre of the garden the way it was when I first identified it. As I continue to put work, thought and plans into the garden I’m finding that I’ve got so many favorite corners that delight me in slightly less ostentatious ways. Everything from my well monitored seeds in the veggie garden, to the successful reclaiming of my rosebushes from an aphid attack occupy my gardening thoughts deflecting my past obsession with the showy splendour of a lilac in bloom. I think I like it better this way.

Lilac in bloom
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7 thoughts on “Lilac Season

  1. Oh that makes me so nostalgic for the house I grew up in, there was a row of lilacs down one side of the backyard, and I looooved them! My parents ripped them all out a few years ago, crazy people.

  2. We had two lilacs growing up, and I always loved them and loved to play under them. You’ve got me wondering if I can get a dwarf one that will grow in shade on my dinky little property now… or maybe I can guerilla-plant one in the so-called common area behing my property…

  3. I put one in a container on my deck last year. It has not yet bloomed,but I expect it will soon. I live in a townhouse with a small amount of gardening space, but 2 decks.

  4. I have a lilac bush in the front of my house but there were only about a half dozen blossoms last year and this year there don’t seem to be any. Does it need to be fertilized or pruned (again)? Any ideas?

  5. Wondering why lilac bush has not produced blooms for past few years? Plant and leaves appear healthy but
    no blooms.

  6. Hi,
    My Descanso Angel White is blooming nicely in Fremont at one home. The other is 6 blocks away and a younger plant, but has buds ready to open in days. The Blue Skies lilac is about to bloom also. The others are a week or two behind. They are all nice for CA.
    Karen

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