The bee is just bedded down, taking in the nectar.
My mother's lilacs that we brought here in 1981 from my childhood home.
The two bushes (trees?) - my mother's on the left - that border the old stone sidewalk up to the terrace and porch
This one is a touch faded from the heat. I think of it as the little lilac that could. We cut it down a couple times, but it always came back. It wanted to live in that flower garden so there it will stay!
And here are the rest of the lilacs in the yard. I can see them all from the patio. We planted them over the years. The only one that was here when we bought the farm was cut down because it was in the pasture and we couldn't stop the animals - read, goats - from eating them.
The ones on the left we brought down from up the hill where there used to be a farm, which was turned into one of the early ski lodges in the area.
Tom's mother gave us the white lilac years ago. It is the tallest in the yard.
And back to the lilac from which came the first picture
One of the most special times of the year for us in this area. Everywhere you look there are lilacs, which is why it is our state flower.
The wonderful fragrance of all those lilacs must be overwhelming and intoxicating. I am envious!
ReplyDeleteIt is so great!!
DeleteSuch beautiful pictures, Nan! Love them!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteVery lovely photos of a lovely area. My husband would go crazy taking photos every year if he lived in your place, as the plants bloomed and the landscape changed. Only problem is we could not adapt to your cold weather.
ReplyDeleteI like how you say "the landscape changed" - that's exactly right. Every single day it looks different around here. Yeah, you'd have to like or at least tolerate the cold if you lived here!
DeleteSuch lovely bushes and the fragrance must be lovely too. At the house I had planted a small lilac that youngest daughter had me purchase as a Mother's Day present one year. She was around the world in Harbin, China and the city flower is lilac. If we end up getting a house again in NH next year, I'll plant another one or hope there are ones there already. I'll also plant a Japanese maple my favorite tree and also one I left behind at the house that daughters gave me for another Mother's Day.
ReplyDeleteThe lilacs were out in the Lebanon maybe ten days ago. It is warmer there.
DeleteOh, you have so many huge bushes! I think the fragrance of lilacs (which I've always incorrectly pronounced as Lie-Licks instead of Lie-Lacks) has to be one of my all-time favorites. We had a few bushes in Nebraska, but not nearly as large as yours. So, so lovely, Nan!
ReplyDeleteSome people prune. Not me!
DeleteLilacs aren't common in south/central Kentucky where we know live. Although I have seen a few in bloom this spring, apparently our winters don't give lilacs the prolonged cold which promote bloom. Lilac time in New England is a wonderfully nostalgic memory.
ReplyDeleteI wondered why they bloom more here than in the south. Thank you for telling me!!
DeleteYour lilacs are magnificent! I've never even seen pictures of any better and definitely not in person. Ours bloom so early here in the South. How nice that yours can be counted on for Memorial Day--I remember when everyone celebrated it on the real day.
ReplyDeleteMe, too. And it wasn't just a military remembrance. All the family would travel around to cemetaries and put flowers on the graves.
DeleteYes, we always went to my grandparents where all the siblings and their families would gather at the old farmhouse and we all went to the cemetery and took flowers. That's when the old stories would get told.
DeleteHow I love that - the "old stories". As I am sure in your own family, there is no one left in mine to tell those stories.
DeleteWhat gorgeous pictures. I've never actually seen a lilac so I am drooling over all the pictures.
ReplyDeleteI know that you have plants that I have never seen!!!
DeleteYour lilac collection is gorgeous. I only have two lilacs. They have stories. :) I moved one last year. It took the insult well. It bloomed this year. My White one is a start from a very old shrub. Some people think it is a hundred years old or older. Neither of mine are as large as yours are. You obviously have the perfect soil and weather for these plants.
ReplyDeleteI really should cut off the spent flowers each year, but some are so high I can't reach! Some people clear all around them, and leave a few branches only. I couldn't bear that. I let them grow and grow!
DeleteI love these pictures, lilacs are gorgeous and you have so many!
ReplyDeleteThey are, as they say, "easy keepers"!
DeleteBeautiful! I can almost catch the wonderful aroma .... for some reason, lilacs are the one spring flower I am still missing this Spring. Maybe it blooms much earlier in Oregon...I have forgotten so much. (I have loved seeing flowers that we usually miss because most years lately we are not home yet.)
ReplyDeleteI know how you've missed spring flowers. Maybe you will come back earlier after being there for the flowers this year?
DeleteI love lilacs! I think, like many people, I am especially attracted to plants with a beautiful fragrance. I still have several in the yard, but not so large and glorious as yours, Nan! So wonderful.
ReplyDeleteAs I told someone above, I do not prune at all. That's probably why they are so big. I love the wild growth of them! Once in a while, we'll cut down a section so they will spread out a bit, but not often.
DeleteThey used to be very common here, you'd see them in every garden. Nowadays they seem to be a little out of fashion.
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered why in the British gardening shows they rarely, if ever, show violets. Also - daylilies which are so popular here. I never hear any of the gardeners there mention them. Interesting.
DeleteI love lilac in all shades, and it is wonderful that yours all come with their own history!
ReplyDeleteOver here, lilac was in bloom about a month ago and lasted not very long; I suppose it was too warm and dry (again) this year.