Lilac
Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) has several similar meanings and, if you add the variations accorded to purple versus white lilac, the list grows longer. The common thread with white lilac seems to be ‘youth’ and ‘memories of youth’ or even, in some older flower dictionaries, the ‘innocent candour of youth’. As the lilac flowers early in the year, the metaphor of youthfulness is a natural one, but the slightly wistful and nostalgic aspect in its meaning has a few other possible sources: the first IS the little-known fact that burning lilac wood results In a smoke with the sweet fragrance of the open flowers – a memory of glorious youth in the blackening dead wood. A slightly less lugubrious link between lilac and memory might originate from the tradition among early American pioneers of planting bushes in front of their homesteads as a sign of civilization in the wilderness where they struggled to make a life. Lilacs are persistent and will regrow from the old roots of cut-down bushes. They can still be seen where the original farmhouses have long vanished – reminders of a time of youthful optimism and energy. Take your pick. Either way, white lilac has strong associations with memories of innocent youthful times, and is a great choice when thoughts are to be directed to the happy days of yore.
White lilac symbolizes memories of youth and the happy innocence of days long since past.
From a practical point of view it is important to know how to treat lilac. It is available nearly all year around on eerily long bare stems from greenhouse sources. These last best when the bottom 3 cm (1 in) of the woody stems are lightly bashed with a hammer, then placed in deep fresh water. If they begin to droop prematurely, place the re-cut stems in a bucket holding a few centimetres of boiling water. Allow the water to cool before arranging the lilac in deep water in a vase, either on their own or with other tall flowers.
For an all too brief period in spring, lilac is also available in delicious branchy bundles from garden sources. For these to last any length of time, you need to remove all the leaves and then bash and boil the stems as necessary. If you do not remove the leaves, garden lilac seems to be incapable of supporting both leaves and flowers in a cut state and simply gives up. It looks best arranged, as I have here, on short stems in the generous quantities in which it grows and simply heaped into a large bowl of water.
