Have you visited the Descanso Garden in Southern California? If you are in the LA area, it is a gem worth seeking out. It has a gorgeous Camellia forest and if you are lucky enough to be there in the Spring, you will be blown away by the beauty of the Lilac garden.
Lilacs are hard to grow in Southern California but, in Descanso, they grow wonderfully. We visited them to wrap ourselves in their glorious perfume.
We drank in each and every bloom.
And decided that, for that day, Lilacs were our favorite flowers!
Lilacs are of the Olive family and are native to Europe and Western Asia. Their botanical name is Syringa. Lilacs symbolize first love and innocence.
The Lilacs Mother Planted
as the evening shadows fell,
While from the distance floated
While from the distance floated
the faint tinklings of a bell,
The night hawk circled overhead
The night hawk circled overhead
then dropped straight down below,
The same as when I first lived there,
The same as when I first lived there,
in childhood, long ago.
The trees have grown much taller
The trees have grown much taller
in the yard where once I played,
And now looked so majestic
And now looked so majestic
in their summer robes arrayed;
And near the walk the lilacs flung
And near the walk the lilacs flung
their fragrance to the air
The lilacs that my darling mother
The lilacs that my darling mother
planted for us there.
by Ed Blair
Blessings and magic to all Lilac Lovers!
11 Responses
How lovely! Lilac is one of my favorite smells!
Oh how I love lilacs! The third photo is so lovely! I love gardens in urban areas. We spend a lot of time at our local botanical gardens.
Happy Tuesday
Lisa
How beautiful Donni!
Love
Linda
Lilacs are one of my favs too! We had lilacs next to the house growing up. They were magical and always in an arrangement on our table while in bloom. They smell like my childhood.
Becca
Lilacs are springtime for me. I love them. And yes, we had them all around the perimeter of our house growing-up
beautiful photos! I can almost smell them!
Have I already told you how much I LOVE lilacs? A table with a huge vase over flowing is a childhood memory that I miss every spring. We used to have 4 trees in our yard. Oh I love those guys.
Thanks for sharing!
Amanda
I love the smell of Lilacs, cheers Marie
Lilacs take me back to my childhood where 100 year old bushes became part of growing up…I will be blogging about them soon as they are just, just starting to bloom here! Lovely pictures and I can just smell their perfume reading that poem – thank you!
I’m so glad to see your lovely lilac blooms! For some reason ours did not bloom this year. I do not know what may have caused their lack of blooms–and complete lack of smell. :(
So…I will live vicariously through yours! :)
Oh my itchy nose and watery eyes! The image of a nose buried in lilacs is torture to me. Ah choo!