Evening star., 1945-03-31
This and That
Bu Charles z. Trnce,oeu


This, undoubtedly, Is the best lilac
season in many years.
BUSHES in our own garden which had
not noWered In Is years are doing so
now.
This is welcome news to all lilac lovers
as who is not.
No flower of any sort, yard or hot
mouse, holds the esteem of its followers
minds.
NO one ever seems to have solved the
mystery of lilac blooming.
one year bush will flower nicely, the
next 1t Will set no buds. It is easv to
teii, long before lilac leafs out, whether
IL IS going to flower.
Inc shape of the terminal bud shows
Inns. II they are just leaf buds. they are
siiarp ana pointed, but If they are flower
ouds' they are quite plump and rounded
ano soon oegln to open little at the
ENDS to show bit of color.
IN oio-1ashioned llacs these bits of
color Will remind the imaginative of
grape jam. "a
We hold no brief for either old fash
loneo illacs or French hybrids, as some
are called. Anything in the lilac line is
ooa SAiooSd AOI any one.
we recall many years ago-about 1929
we oeneVe-When lilac bushes all over
Liie Dlstrlct OF Columbia broke into
oioom, covering the city and environs
WIN color and the sweetest fragrance
In all flowerland. '''''
rernaps IL Is too much to ask the
ousnes 10 do this every year.
HOW do they distill, out of dirt and
oio bones, such sweetness?
III the annual mystery of all flow
ers, but just little more so in the Jilac
ehan OF most we think. Something of
tne essence of strange lands comes ont
Oh the panicle. There is here a mixinp
OF tne OLD and the new, of the East and
west, redolent of adventure and of the
stay-at-home, too
rev mowers of any sort appeal to an
average mind more, and none attracts
tne writer as much Witness the great
ode which Walt Whitman wrote for
Lincoln, opening and ending in lilac
sprays. A"o
NO bush graces more the average
homestead The colonists did we'll In
plant them in their dooryards in days
wnen foundation planting, with its prim
stiff lines, was unknown.
Many Of those old lilacs still grow
now ver1table trees, often in deserted
yards Many city dweller who han
pens to pass by will wonder at how
well they do without care or cultiva-
ton of any sort.
Perhaps that is the answer to the
riddle. Maybe city dwellers fuss and
Iume too much over them. You can
get plg books which profess to tell Won
all about their care, but no two seem
TO go about it exactly the same wav
Lllacs do not take very kindly to
pruning. AS to fertilizing, many owners
speak up for bonemeal and lime. 9th
ers for garbage and old shoes, with some
bones mixed in.
A scale Is one Of the few troubles
they have. Miscible oil is what thew
need II 1T can be obtained This spray
should be used when the bush is dor
mant.
There is a wood borer which some
times gets in nlacs. One is sluposed
to run sharp wire down the hole
J ana spear them out. This trouble is not
SO bad on own-root bushes because
they have more canes and the loss of a
few Is not felt, but in budded stock.
where there are just few main canes.
the loss is more serious.
Lilacs budded on privet and other
stock often will send up suckers, and
these should be pruned or they will
finally take the entire bush.
Everything about a lilac is a mystery.
but nothing more so than its clean
scent, so heady and yet so delicate,
filled with dreams of Persia yet fitting
nicely into the American scene. =