The day after my son was born, my hospital room was full of lilacs. Those were the days when everyone brought flowers, before they decided to ban anything that would brighten your world and smell better than an antiseptic. Since my son’s birthday (May 7th) and Mother’s day fall close together, they are also a celebration of Mother’s day.
Our lilacs grow on an old tree. It was old when we moved here 24 years ago. It has been twice crushed by falling trees and a third time by a big falling branch. Despite this, we’ve stuck by the tree. We pruned out the dead parts which encouraged new growth. We got a lot of blooms this year compared to the past five years. It’s hard to see them from the ground because they are high up in the tree, but I can see them well from the deck. It’s just a very long shot.
These are more buds than flowers, but it’s supposed to rain a lot for the next week. I don’t know whether I’ll be able to get outside to take pictures when they are fully in bloom.
They are a different color this year. Not the usual violet-lavender, they are dark mauve, though when they are fully flowering the color might change again. I know these are supposed to be bushes, but it’s got to be more than 20 feet tall. Most of the flowers are higher than the second floor deck.
As far as I am concerned, it’s a tree.
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Categories: #Flowers, #FOTD, Anecdote, Cee's Photo Challenge, Flower of the day
SUNSHINE THIS MORNING 
BLOOMING RHODODENDRONS 
DAFFODILS FINALLY! 
OFF-SEASON CACTUS & MORE 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Wonderful lilacs for the day 😀
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Thanks, Cee. We have a break between rainstorms, so I got out there and took more pictures. Even with my longest lens, the lilacs are too far away for closeups, though sometimes a heavy cropping almost works. Whatever was budding yesterday is blooming today.
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Happy Birthday to Owen!
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He has hit that double nickel, so he’s happy to have a birthday, but not happy about being in that middle ground between 50 and 60.
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Happy birthday Owen! 🙂
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I think he’s still in shock. How did he get this old? Don’t we all feel like that?
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My mum is still in shock that I’m 60! 🙂
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how lovely and great timing
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They always bloom for his birthday. I still remember my room in the hospital, filled to overflowing with lilacs from everyone’s gardens.
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What a lovely symbol of his birthday
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Lilacs are lovely, chrysanthemums are the traditional Mothers Day flower here though.
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Mums are a fall flower here, so it’s — when store bought — lilies and carnations. Lilacs are never sold. You have to grow them yourself
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How lovely.
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If they are luck, so far so good. We have many crises and seem to survive them — and often I really have no idea HOW we did that. But this year, that we have lilacs at all is wonderful. That’s such an old tree. Before our house was built here, there had been another house here, probably a farmhouse because this land was originally farmed until about 100 years ago when farmers gave up on the bad weather and hard, rooty soil and moved west to flatter land with better soil.
The land here is not good for growing much of anything, so I can’t imagine how hard farming had to have been. But somewhere along the way, they planted this lilac. It is old and has been broken many times but lives on.
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Some plants thrive despite the soil and weather conditions.
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I love lilac, l have several growing in client’s gardens, wonderfully vibrant.
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Lilacs in view from a kitchen window are considered lucky. I don’t know about lucky, but beautiful for sure.
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I had never heard that before, l agree may not be lucky but wonderfully gorgeous to view 🙂
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Hi Marilyn, the flowers are delightful.
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And they smell heavenly. I wish I could postpone the rain and let them bloom in sunshine.
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That would be lovely. We had a week of rain and now nothing again. We are still having very hot weather. It’s 28C today.
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It rained hard all morning, but now it’s just dark, grey and humid. I have no idea what’s coming, but it looks like rain through my windows. The weather has been pretty strange.
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Our weather is strange too. It was 28C today. Like a summer day 🌞
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