5/15/12 LILACS AND SCARED HORSES

COMMON AND HYBRID LILACS...

...COME  IN MANY COLORS

BE SURE YOUR SELECTIONS ARE FRAGRANT AND WILL LAST AS CUT FLOWERS

Tuesday, 7:45 AM.  59 degrees F, wind WNW, breezy.  The sky was somewhat overcast earlier. But the wind has cleared the clouds out, with only haze at present on the eastern horizon.  The barometer is again low, but so is the humidity, and it appears we are in a typical spring drought.
    Lilacs are bursting into bloom everywhere now, in colors from traditional lilac to deep purple and pinks and reds and whites.  One would think some yellows would have been bred along the way, but that color is evidently not in the Syringia gene pool.  The traditional old fashioned common lilac is S. vulgaris, in the olive family.  It is native to eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Afghanistan.  Selections have been much hybridized over the centuries, the most famous being the French hybrids.  There are at least another ten species of lilacs from all over the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, and there are too many selections and hybrids to mention.  The only true tree species is S Japonica, which we have been planting in Bayfield as an ornamental street tree, and I am quite pleased with it.  It is hardy, relatively trouble free, and is spectacular in bloom with its large panicles of creamy white flowers.
    Lilacs are best planted as background shrubs as they can get huge (except for a few dwarf varieties) and rather rank in growth habit.  They all need to be properly pruned to bloom well, and even occasionally rejuvenated, but they are very long lived.  Be sure you want them where you plant them, for that is where they will stay unless you rent a bulldozer.
    When choosing a lilac to plant, do some research to be sure the blossoms are fragrant and will keep well when cut and put in a vase…I see no point in growing lilacs that aren’t and won’t.
    Bill Clinton was touted by the media as “the first Black president,” and now it is claiming Barrack Obama as “the first Gay president, ” with his picture on the cover of Newsweek with a rainbow halo over his head.  President Obama “evolved” rather recently to favoring gay marriage.  This may or may not garner him some votes, but in so doing, and being celebrated in the media for doing it, he has stuck his thumb in the collective eye of millions of American voters who are not willing to abandon thousands of years of Western cultural tradition and hundreds of  years of US law defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
    My own opinion on the subject of homosexual liaisons can be summed up in the words of Queen Victoria, who famously said; “I care not what the common people do, as long as they do not do it in the street and scare the horses.”  Well, if not the horses… certainly millions of voters are pretty scared right now. Best hang onto your own horses, Mr. Gay President.