IN PRAISE OF THE ORDINARY

COMMON LILACS...
;

...OFTEN GROW VERY LARGE

A FRENCH HYBRID OF COMMON LILAC

SPRUCE BUD SCALES ARE DROPPING

Friday,  9:00 AM.  59 degrees F, wind NNE, light.  The sky is clear, the barometer is trending up at 30.16 in. and the humidity is 70%. on a scale of one to tenn, this morning has to be a 9.9.
   The poplar trees are shedding their cottony seeds now, and the Lupines are just beginning to bloom.  The other day we say a solitary trumpeter swan on the lower bay at Ashland, the main flocks evidently flying over without stopping on their way north.  I always feel sorry for those who have dropped out of the flock; all on their own, without their family and friends,

   There is nothing more ordinary in the world of horticulture and gardening, or in the home landscape, than the common lilac, Syringa vulgaris.  It has charmed kings, emperors, poets and philosophers for many centuries, and we all still want one somewhere in our home landscape, if not precisely at the kitchen door.  Because they are so common, even though there are many hybrids, we tend to dismiss them.  "Familiarity breeds   contempt," it is true. But there is comfort in the common things in life and in nature, and there is nothing quite like the scent of the lilac wafting on an early summer morning's breeze.

   The bud scales are falling from the new growth of white, Colorado and other spruces.  Don't try to move or trim spruce when the bud scales loosen and fall off, nor for a week or two afterward, as the new needle growth is very tender and easily damaged, and a young tree can be badly disfigured.