Today I went into the garden to cut lilacs.
I chose the ones from two of the bushes that we retrieved from my great-grandparent's home
that is just down the road from where I live now.
These are the very lilacs that I remember hanging over the walk when my grandparents
lived in the house and we would visit. My father told me were planted
by my great-grandmother Katie Dix and he remembered them as a boy.
When my parents first moved to this small town in 1970, they moved us into my great-grandparent's
home. This was the house that my grandparent's also lived in when my father was born.
I remember Dale's and my first kiss under these bushes the night he walked me to
the door after our first date.
The house was sold many years ago.
When the family living there now decided to remove the lilacs they asked if I would
want to try to save them.
Dale and I plunked them into the ground and of course have had to move them
Dale and I plunked them into the ground and of course have had to move them
two more times before they would find a permanent place here in the garden.
They are hardy old plants.
We cut them all the way down to the ground to give them a
new start and get all of the old wood out.
Last year was the first year that they bloomed well enough for me to cut an armload to
take to place on my father's grave.
He loved them, but couldn't have them around him in the house because they
would make his allergy symptoms unbearable.
Thankfully they don't have that effect on me.
To think that these lilacs are well over 140 years old. I'm sure my great-grandmother
got the cuttings from a friend, or maybe even from her own parent's yard.
They are special.
Special because I think of my father every time I walk near them.
Special because I think of my grandmother Ethel walking under them whenever she left the house.
Special because my great-grandmother Katie, who I never knew, planted them.
For me
(I would like to think)
My granddaughter was helping me in the garden this week and I was able to share the history
of these lilacs with her.
She loved the fact that they were the very lilacs that her gram and gramps had their
first kiss under.
Now for more of the beautiful lilacs blooming in the garden now.
President Lincoln
Primrose
Beauty of Moscow (foreground) Avalanche (background)
The beautiful Beauty of Moscow
The Brandywine crab apple started blooming this week.
We have two of these in the garden.
These don't have the scent that the other crab apples have,
but the bloom is huge!
and GORGEOUS!
Both of these trees are very young.
I can't wait for them to mature a little more.
They will be beautiful.
So I think you can tell I love this tree by all the pictures I took of it.
They never bloom long enough to suit me.
(but then nothing does, come to think of it)
The picture below gives you an idea of how large the blooms are.
I can't believe that I was able to get two months work in the garden done in about ten days!
I am pooped!
I need to pretend I am having surgery every Summer.
I get so much more done when I have a deadline!
Now I am just going to sit back and enjoy walking through it
with pruners in hand.
It will probably be the only Summer that the deadheading gets done like
it should.
