The Long-Awaited Lilacs

The lilacs in our yard here in the Berkshires are finally starting to bloom! (The photos here are of our lilacs in the rain this afternoon.) Growing up in Rochester, NY, I came to love lilacs more than any other flower and feel a certain hometown pride in them. An excerpt from Rochester's Highland Park Lilac Festival website:

Lilacs

Each May, the Lilac Festival signals spring as Highland Park's 1,200 lilac bushes display a floral rainbow of more than 500 varieties, from deepest purple to purest white, from lightly scented to irresistibly aromatic. They cover 22 of Highland Park's 155 acres.

John Dunbar planted the first lilacs at Highland Park in 1892. During his years as park horticulturist, he gradually expanded the collection and introduced more than 30 new varieties to the trade. Dunbar's successor, Bernard H. Slavin, built Highland Park's Lilac Collection into the largest in the world.

Many of the park's varieties were developed in Rochester and exported to other areas of the country. The deep sky-blue "President Lincoln," a 1916 Dunbar introduction, is still considered to be the best of the blue lilacs. "Rochester," a creamy white variety introduced in 1963, commemorates the city that has become synonymous with lilacs.

We had a huge—or so it seemed to my 3-year-old self—lilac bush in our backyard, outside my parents' bedroom window (or so I remember it). When my mother was pregnant with my younger sister, I was quite worried about her, sure that she was terribly ill as she bloated up and grew ever bigger and bigger. By May, she was 6 months along and I really wanted to help her somehow. My father suggested I bring her a glass of water, and according to my mom I proceeded to bring her so much water that she spent LOTS of time in the bathroom (she couldn't bring herself to refuse my offers).

On my own, I came up with the idea of bringing her some of her favorite flowers: lilacs. Maybe they were just my favorites, but I had a notion that they were hers, too. So I probably denuded the lilac bush that spring, trying to convince my mom to keep living and not succumb to whatever was taking over her body! Late that August, I found out that what was taking over her body was my little sister. A total surprise to me when Dad brought them home from the hospital. Here I'd been convinced my mother was dying, proven by her going to the hospital, only to have her come back home with this invader in her arms. Oh well, my sister turned out to be an o.k. person, and I was glad my mom wasn't dead. And lilacs still make me feel At Home in so many ways—mothered, sistered, and hometowned all in one. And they smell so good!!!