Garden Gram #8: An Uncommon Lilac

One lilac leads to another.

My relationship with lilacs is one of longing. As I have bounced around the Island over the last 16 years, I’ve had lilacs come into my life and then go away. Like asparagus and blueberry bushes, I have left them behind in places where I touched down, only to take off in a few years.

But I love them so.

Lilacs are the quintessential country flower, often planted at the corners of farmhouses, where you can sometimes find the old broads still hanging around when nothing is left of the house but a foundation. They are tough and gangly, and can be rather unattractive when they are not in bloom – if you care about that kind of thing. But if you give them a home in a hedge or along a fence, they will fit right in. In fact, the more lilacs the better – a row of them is beautiful in bloom, and a giant hotel for wildlife when not. (Bonus: deer don’t like them.)