Lilacs and More
I love lilacs. When I was a kid, it was a rare yard in my area that didn’t have an old lilac bush. Nobody went out to garden shops back then to actually buy bushes. You went to somebody’s yard who had one and asked if you could get a start. Out would come the grubbing hoe or shovel and soon you’d leave with a start of whatever bush or flower you’d been admiring. Forsythia. Japonica. Peonies. Lilacs. Iris. Butterfly bush. Day lilies. That’s how I got all those flowers and flowering bushes in my yard. Somebody gave me a start.
My grandparents had a lilac bush in a corner of their yard that seemed to be an old plant when I was a kid. It exploded in purple blooms each year. But I didn’t get my start from that bush. Instead I was visiting my brother-in-law who had a pretty lilac in the yard of a house he was renting after he married. I admired the flowers and out came that grubbing hoe. I babied that sprout and had finally gotten it to grow just a bit when we built a house on a farm we’d bought. You better believe out came the shovel and that little lilac bush moved with us.
I love having plants that come from the yards of my family. Those blooms are a reminder of the good times I had with those people and how much they loved the flowers of spring. Lilacs have always been one of my favorite flowers. That lovely lilac color. That wonderful aroma. And they look good in a vase on your table inside. Usually the lilacs bloom abundantly if no late frosts come. So that’s why when my character, Jocie, needed a sweet smelling flower in my first Heart of Hollyhill book, lilacs were the perfect choice.
A Start in Reading
Lilacs made it into the title. Scent of Lilacs. Lilacs made it on the cover of the book. Both the original cover and the new cover when the book was re-released after being out of print for a couple of years. Lilacs played a part in a major scene in the story.
Now, if you have an e-reader or like to read on your phone or iPad, you can grab that first Hollyhill book for 99 cents. In fact, just for fun, I’ll give five of you the download or if you already have the book on your e-reader, I’ll gift one of your e-reading friends. All you have to do is leave a comment saying you’d like the download or leave a friend’s e-mail (but you should ask their permission first) in a comment. First ten requests get a free e-book.
But I know some of you don’t like to e-read. So I’ll draw for a winner of a paper copy of Scent of Lilacs from those of you who comment and say you would rather have a copy you can hold in your hands. That’s sort of like giving you a “start” in books. I’ll pick the winners next Sunday if I have more requests than five for the downloads.
Thanks for reading.
Do you have flowers in your yard that you got the start for from a friend or relative?
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