Lilacs

I have been blog distracted since we returned home.  It does take a bit to resettle and we have had house guests all week which has sidetracked me.  But I did want to end my blogs about our trip with a post of the lilacs.  It is the lilacs that drew me to Mackinac.  I had read a magazine article years ago about the lilacs and have always wanted to go.  So we decided to make it an anniversary trip since our 30th is this August.  I think we timed it about right…you can never be sure about when things will blossom.  And Mackinac is further north and colder so it is hard to gauge.

The lilacs were all over the island…at the Grand, in the town and all around the Park.

These steps are at the Grand and lead to the garden, lawn games and swimming pool.  The lilacs here were not open yet, but I can imagine walking down these steps in another week and being overcome by their fragrance! 

What amazed me was that the lilacs were more like a tree than a bush.  Around here the lilacs are taken for granted accept the couple of weeks they are in bloom.  They are just overgrown and not very attractive in people’s yards.  Also on Mackinac the lilacs are quite old. I read most are in the sixty year range but some are close to 200 years old.  It is believed that these were planted by the Jesuits.  Just look at these lilacs…

This is believed to be the oldest lilac on the island. 

And this is the top of it…

Our last morning we took a quick walk through the gardens at the Grand.  They were putting in the flowers for the summer display where the tulips had been.  We met the head gardener, she was rather young!  It was interesting to chat with her.  Here’s some advice if you have a lilac bush…she said after it blooms you cut it back by a third.  We’re going to try and train ours so it might look nicer and have more blooms.  I absolutely loved looking at the lilacs and enjoying their fragrance!