Stop and Smell The...

My neighbor and I were out for a walk the other night when we brushed past a beautiful fluffy lilac bush with large white flowers. At first I couldn't believe it was a lilac bush. With white flowers? But the aromatic perfume could NOT be mistaken for anything except what it was a LILAC! She picked a small branch off just to carry and inhale as we walked. it got me starting to think though, could I take a clipping of it to propagate a new lilac bush. Sure enough he answer came to me through my online research, and as it happens, it's the same technique I have used with some other cuttings.

Simply cut a stem and add rooting hormone powder to the stem, then stick it in the ground and water. I'm CERTAIN it's a little more complicated than that, but I'm willing to try. Just have to walk past the correct bush and make my clippings...

I'll keep you all posted, sometimes propagation with rooting hormones doesn't do well for me!

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!