Syringa vulgaris ‘Sensation’

Ah, Spring.

Spring has fully arrived here in central Indiana.  The tulips are fading and the crabapple blossoms are falling.  I just set out my tomato and pepper seedlings so they can harden off and get used to the great outdoors before I plant them out in the vegetable garden.

Out in the vegetable garden, the peas are close to a foot tall and it is well past time to thin out the lettuce and radish seedlings.  I just cut back the cover crop still growing on one of the beds and weeded my way through some of the other beds.

I have enjoyed this spring so far. It started out much slower than last year, when spring came out of the chute running like mad toward summer.

But after the slow start, this spring seems to be speeding up. It is now going at a speed that has caused me to again get to the point when I wonder if I will get everything planted, weeded, mulched, set up, set out, pruned, and otherwise readied for the onset of summer.

In other words, after watching it rain on yet another weekend day, I am in a full state of springtime panic, also know as “spranic”.

Are you spranicking?  Do you think you’ll get it all done this spring, completing all those gardening plans you made all winter?  Back in the winter, I imagined only sunny spring days, with no other activities, other than gardening, vying for my time, so my plans are big.

I was going to get it all done this spring. This beautiful spring.  Then I’d sit back and smell the lilacs. 

Right now, though, I have no time for smelling lilacs.  When I was mowing the lawn on Saturday, under overcast skies threatening rain every second, I noticed that a new-to-me lilac was blooming. I ran out later and took a picture of it just as it started to actually rain.

I puzzled over that lilac for a second or two. I didn’t remember buying a lilac with flowers edged in white. I thought I bought ‘President Lincoln’, which has almost blue flowers.

Thanks to friends on Facebook, I quickly found out that my new lilac is most likely ‘Sensation’.  That’s fine. It’s pretty. I’ll take it.  I assume it smells nice, though honestly, I only had a few seconds to snap the picture before the rain started, so I didn’t smell it to be sure.

Since I took that picture of the “hey you aren’t President Lincoln you are Sensation” lilac, I’ve been watching the rain. With each raindrop, I can feel that sense of spranic springing up within me.  I am spranicking about weeding.  I am spranicking about mulching. I am spranicking about even getting to the garden centers before the good plants are all sold.  I am spranicking about spranicking because I know better after all these years.

I know I’ll get this place whipped into shape before summer. I know I’ll find plants to buy. I know I’ll have a chance to enjoy the lilacs before they are bloomed out.

I just have to remind myself that I know these things so I can keep from spranicking…