There are many firsts of Spring, the first crocus, the first robin, the first tulip, the first day of a vacation week dedicated to gardening. But these pale beside the first whiff of lilacs in bloom.
Their scent is sweet and heavy and fresh, all at the same time. I can not walk by my lilacs in bloom without slowing down and pausing to breathe deeply the scent of Spring, the scent of lilacs in bloom.
In my own garden, I have four varieties of lilacs and weather permitting, I have lilac blooms in late April, early-mid May and the first of June.
But the star of my lilacs, the queen, the one I enjoy the most, is Syringa patula, ‘Miss Kim’ which has perfectly timed its blooms for me to enjoy this past week.
I can not imagine Spring without lilacs in bloom.
Your Lilacs are so beautiful, Carol – and when the sun first starts thinking about setting, and that scent comes rolling off from the top down, a person might be willing to trade all the bluebonnets in Texas for the ability to grow them once again.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I wish I had read your posts on lilacs before I bought mine. I just planted three common lilacs and one Miss Kim. None of them are going to bloom this year. I wish I had skipped the common lilacs and just bought more of the Miss Kim. Yours are beautiful.
Wow, what a gorgeous border of lilacs, Carol. And your description of the scent gives me at least an inkling of what they must smell like.
As a lifelong Southerner, I’ve never known a lilac spring. My quintessential springtime fragrances are Carolina jessamine, star jasmine, and Texas mountain laurel, which also has beautiful purple blooms.
Gosh, Carol, I go to bed early instead of blogging all week long trying to get well, and Google Reader tells me you have 7 new posts! How can I keep up with that? You’ve had a busy week and your garden looks fabulous. Oh, the lilacs, how I miss them. Don’t know why I never planted any here, maybe because my mother-in-law had a huge hedge of them which I enjoyed constantly.
I wish I had 10 extra bags of topsoil, I didn’t buy enough! And isn’t it hard to pull out plants that are still looking good? But I agree, the pansies have to go sometime so it might as well be now, especially since the colors don’t blend with your current plantings.
I have to admit you had me going with the snowman – for about 10 seconds! Then I realized this isn’t the Carol I know. It’s MY garden that is full of kitsch!
Happy one more day of full-time gardening!
I don’t know what kind of lilacs we have but they sure don’t look like yours. Beautiful.
The first time I ever saw lilacs was last year on our trip to England. As, Pam pointed out, we southerners don’t associate spring with lilacs…or robins either! (Ah. You photos show me what we miss! True we have an early spring but no tulips either.)
Redbuds are my harbingers of spring because they bloom first on bare branches, rather like forsythia. For scent, it’s the grape-soda scent of Texas mountain laurels. Then a few weeks layer, spring is in full bloom when the hills are blanketed in bluebonnets. For us, spring is long over now and summer is glaring at us.
Ohhhhhhhhhhh……and you know what happened to our lilacs…. 🙁
http://ourlittleacre.blogspot.com/2007/04/lamenting-lack-of-lilacs.html
I’ll have to live vicariously through yours, even if I can’t experience that wonderful fragrance. Yours are outstanding!
Lilacs mean spring to me, too.
Good morning NEIGHBOR!! Congratulations, Carol – you’ve given us so many fun things to do as internet gardeners, and would be even more fun in person, I’ll bet!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
[Bloglines didn’t say anything yet, but Pam has already put up her Mousie Post.]
Beautiful lilacs!
I loooove lilacs! I haven’t any in my garden yet, but they are definately in my dreams, scent as well!
Miss Kim is a lovely one.
I just want to stand in the middle of those lilacs and take a big deep breath.
All my lilacs have gone but the mock oranges are here and they are heavenly.
Love your Lilacs makes mine pale in comparison. Your shrub is beautifull. I think I have the same variety as in the photo’s. would love to find more to plant.
By the way I moved my blog to blogger. So my new address for my blog is http://growthumbs.blogspot.com/