Blooming Lilacs

I went on a foraging expedition the other day to our local county property - I was HOPING to find Morels, but instead found several wild strawberry patches and raspberry brambles. I also returned home with a LARGE bunch of powdery purple old-style lilacs. The kind that have SO MUCH fragrance (insert smell-o-vision) that the entire house is filled with the sweet heady scent when the bouquet is brought into the house. The lilacs I cut are from an old bush near a farm house that was recently tore down.

Lilacs are my FAVORITE summer flower and it really is a shame they don't bloom all summer long. I haven't tried growing any of the ever blooming type lilacs, I'm just not sure they'd smell the same!

I learned through experience, how to keep my lilac bouquet fresh the longest:

• Collect flowers in early morning just as the dew starts to dry, or in the evening.
  
• Carry a small bucket of lukewarm water to place the newly cut stems immediately into water.
  
• Harvest "cluster-type" flowers before all the buds have opened.
  
• Once you have the lilacs at home, remove any foliage that would be submerged in water and re-cut the stems on a slant before putting them in the vase.
  
• One final tip I was taught was to split the branches, slitting them so that the water can more easily move up the woody stems!