L ast spring I came across a lilac shrub at our local nursery. Its blossoms had the strongest lilac fragrance I've ever smelled.
I brought her home and planted her by our old lilac bush so that they could blossom happily together.
But this has been a cool spring so our little baby lilac hasn't shown many signs of life. However, today I looked closer and saw that the poor leafless branches miraculously produced one single large blossom.
And she's beautiful. The variety is called Katherine Havemeyer and the flowers are described as 'lilac-blue, double and open from purple buds, with four to eight inch dense panicles appearing in late spring and early summer'. This species is also referred to as the French Lilac and is known for its extremely fragrant blossoms.
Perhaps as spring warms into summer, she'll come on stronger and grace us with more of her sweet blossoms.