REAL LILACS

Lilacs should conjure up Walt Whitman's poem, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"
You should be able to capture their fragrance at 50 feet. They should tumble and spill almost as high as the roof like these in Canterbury N.H.Or they can look like this: on one side of the hedge, the streaming traffic along Rte. I93 in New Hampshire, on the other side, a gas station. Since lilac is the state flower, it shows up in some unusual places.
Photo© Alan & Linda Detrick, all rights reserved, Ellen Spector Platt design.
Lilacs, unsprayed make a tasty nibble, along with edible tulip petals and strawberries hand-dipped in dark chocolate.
But all the lilacs I showed above are for people who have land, property, gardens, room.
I, like some other New Yorkers have only CONTAINERS. I'm not complaining, even though it might sound that way. I know I'm extremely lucky to have a garden here, even if it's not 'mine'.
When a few years ago I was given a dwarf lilac 'Bloomerang' by the breeder Proven Winners, I secretly scoffed and sneered. This puny thing couldn't be a REAL lilac.
Low and behold, it is. Below is one small shrub, now three years old, blooming with vigor on my rooftop. In the foreground not quite ready to bud, are self sown seedlings of the bachelor button 'Blueboy', my favorite old variety. They'll be in bloom just when the lilacs tail off. I'll keep deaheading both lilac and bachelor buttons to get a few blooms through most of the summer. Hardy to Zone 3.'Bloomerang' even smells like a lilac, but you have to get up pretty close to sniff. Now could I have one a little bluer please, Sir or Ms Proven Winners?

BIG APPLE GARDEN KLUTZ

It's 7am on my newly replanted rooftop. The chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) is in full flower, promising a huge berry crop for fall. The dwarf lilac
'Bloomerang' is at peak
and will continue to
bloom throughout the
summer if I'm
assiduous about dead-
heading, a task I love.
All is serene.

But there's a snake in the Garden of Eden, a 150 foot garden hose, long enough to reach the far edges of the garden. It's just waiting for me to water in the transplants. I'm thinking of how I'll saw up the black bamboo and plant it in two containers, what I'll use to fertilize the roses, what variety of Monarda to order. I trip on the hose. I teeter and crash into the sharp edge of the new planter.Barely able to move without stabbing pain I finally go to my doctor, an avid gardener. He finds tears in the cartilage connecting my ribs to my sternum. We agree on the diagnosis, 'Garden Klutz'. He says he'll find the code in his directory of medical diseases so he can bill my insurance for the x-ray. He doesn't yet know if there is a sub-code reserved solely for New York City Garden Klutzes, but he rather thinks there is.

I've been called by many epithets, of course: ' herb lady', ' garden lady', 'wreath lady', 'lavender queen', and while still a psychologist, ' trouble maker' for whistle-blowing on the County Mental Health Administrator who was derelict in his duties.

I think 'Garden Klutz' has a certain ring to it. Daughter Jen says she once followed the Abbot & Costello routine and actually stepped on a rake and was hit on the head by the handle.
Have you ever been a Garden Klutz? Tell me please.

There's no picture of the actual accident. The image below is after the fall. Those planter edges look totally innocent don't they?

Central Park...my favorite restaurant

Ok, it's not really my favorite restaurant, but I think it's pretty cool to take a walk in the Park and pick up a few wild ingredients for a delicious batch of cookies or a special yogurt treat.

Sophia Brittan and Emma Piper-Burket are the brains (and beauty) behind Kitchen Caravan, an internet cooking show (and so much more!). We bonded last summer over a foraged meal and weekend of foodie indulgence at my home in PA, and this spring I contributed to their series of videos on edible flowers.

Sophia and I took a wet walk in Central Park, then headed back to her apartment to cook and eat.
The dandelion cookies are sneakily addictive. I took only two with me and they were gone by the time I walked home (a mere 3 blocks). They're not super sweet, but they ARE delicious. Thanks to Peter Gail for the recipe.

Our second edible floral was lilac flowers in yogurt. Think of it as a healthier, more sophisticated version of a DQ Blizzard (...mmm...DQ Blizzard...). Of course my favorite lilac flower recipe is lilac flower wine, but since that takes about 2 years from start to finish it doesn't make for great television. Sure makes for good drinking, though.

N.B. I didn't actually pick the lilacs for this project in Central Park. While I have no problem foraging in public places for things most people consider weeds, picking flowers just doesn't feel right. After all, people go to parks to see pretty flowers and if I harvested them, that might decrease someone else's enjoyment of the park. And that would be bad.

And please don't judge my hair. It was raining!