… as you stop to smell the Lilacs.
Yes, this sentence is a twist from the usual phrase “Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses” and a worthy reminder from Walter Hagen. In the two months since I visited the Ford Estate, the Lilacs are long gone and the roses in the massive Rose Garden, which once boasted 10,000 rosebushes, likely have their sweet scent diminished by the shroud of smoke from the 500 active Canadian wildfires.
It has been incredible to listen to weather reports stating that at times here in Southeast Michigan we were rated second in not only the nation, but the world, for poor air quality, so much so that even healthy residents were encouraged to don an N95 mask before going outside.
This trek on that lovely Spring day encompassed three venues: a path with woodsy vibes along the Rouge Gateway Trail, then off to meander around Henry and Clara Ford’s Estate and finally my first visit to the University of Michigan’s Environmental Interpretive Center, only to retrace my steps to head back to the car. I logged six miles and took a slew of photos that day. I’ve already written about the Environmental Interpretive Center and next week I’ll focus on the Ford Estate, but today ….
It is all about the Lilacs.
The primary reason for going to the Ford Estate was because I knew it was “peak week” for the lovely Lilacs. Clara Ford (Henry’s wife) had a huge Lilac garden and flagstone walkway. I spoke to a gardener who told me the Lilacs had their best blooming year since 2018, seemingly having overcome the disease called “Oystershell Scale” which, in 2020, nearly decimated 38 of the 150 Persian Lilac Bushes.
I entered the courtyard …
… and Lilacs lined the perimeter from the Tea House to the Fords’ residence where a Potentilla had burst into bright-yellow blooms.
Standing in the courtyard and walking along the flagstone path, the sight was exquisite and the scent was heavenly. Lilacs were cascading down …
… protruding around corners and …
… forming lovely arches along that fragrant flagstone path.
You may recall from prior posts that the lovely wrought-iron gate that graces the courtyard area was a gift from Henry Ford to his beloved Clara, after a 1930 visit to England whereby Clara admired the gate and asked Henry if he thought that estate’s owner would sell it to them for her garden. Henry said it was unlikely they would part with it, so Clara forgot about it, until two weeks later when they returned from their trip abroad, only to see that very same gate rising majestically parallel to her courtyard garden. Almost a century later, it is still a showpiece.
This year I contacted the administrator of the Ford Estate’s Facebook page to pinpoint when the peak blooming time would be since I was too early last time and missed a lot of the beauty.
I was alone in the Lilac gardens for a while until a group of young people showed up, all volunteers who were there to pull weeds, while this observer stood like a lady of leisure languishing among the showy blooms.
This Spring I missed seeing and smelling my Lilac tree and Miss Kim Lilac bush, lost in the downed wire fire on December 2, 2022 which burned my back garden and I lost everything. The Lilac tree was planted in the late 1960s and the rest of the garden I planted when I redid the landscaping in 1985. While I was sad to see my garden reduced to charred mulch and burned trees and bushes, I remain grateful that the downed wire and resulting large fire, a mere 25 feet from where I slept, did not damage my home and I was safe as well.
Next week, a hop, step and jump, er … jaunt through the rest of the Ford Estate which was aglow with Redbud trees and Spring flowers. I was excited to explore a new area of this massive properly I’d never known about!
Until then, I hope you enjoyed this peaceful post. Wouldn’t you like to while away an afternoon reading on this bench?
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
I love that title…as I read and looked at your photos I was thinking to myself, “Wow…I can almost smell the lilacs!” You scored the perfect time to go there and see them in full bloom. Your photos are stunning. Nice job, Linda!!
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Thank you Shelley! Glad you liked the photos. The scent was heavenly and they were beautiful. I hesitated to do another post on them as I did a Wordless Wednesday post last year, but I went too early and they weren’t all in bloom. So I’m glad I went this year … in fact, I will have two more posts on the Ford Estate.
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I bet it was heavenly to be there in person! YAY – I look forward to see those posts!
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It was heavenly Shelley. I had to split that part of the walk as I had tons of photos when I put it together … got a lot of mileage from this walk: four posts, five if you count a Wordless Wednesday.
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Wow – that’s impressive!
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People will probably be sick of looking at Ford Estate pics by the time I’m done. I decided to make them back-to-back posts so not to carry it over another week and make it three weeks in a row. I know I take a lot of pics, but it’s hard to choose which ones to leave out sometimes, especially if they’re pertinent to the “story line”.
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Your fans adore what you share!
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Thank you! Hope you feel the same after reading two posts in a row, Monday and Tuesday next week. 🙂 I may go back in Fall, but not as extensive of a post, but this was different as I found this whole portion of the Estate I’d never seen before after visiting that Interpretive Center woods that morphed into the meadow. Lots of discoveries.
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😍🥰😉😊🤩
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Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses”!
Such a great smell of lilacs .
Wonderful all lilacs blooming. Wonderful all garden & park blooming. Beautiful & stunning all photos. Sounded photography.
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Thank you Raj – glad you liked the photos. They really are beautiful to see and smell.
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Thanks, Linda! Really I like too!
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I love lilacs. Sadly they don’t bloom very long. There are “rebloomers” that are supposed to put out flowers in the fall but I’ve never seen them.
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I love them too Kate. My neighbor’s Magnolia has not been the same since it bloomed about five years ago, then we had a hard freeze in early May and all the buds and blossoms got freezer burn. Now it blooms several times from Spring until Fall, something it never did before. It was just once and done. It is blooming right now.
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Oh my, there is nothing more delightful to look at and smell than blooming lilacs! Your pictures could almost make me smell them. 🙂 The contrast between the delicate purple and the heavy dark wrought-iron is beautiful. Imagine being rich enough to pay people for a gate on private property and have it shipped across the ocean! I know how much you miss your own long-loved lilac bush. That bench does look very inviting.
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My backyard used to smell wonderful Barbara, especially after the rain, but this was about 100 times better. I really like that wrought-iron gate. It is very tall and the lilacs looked stunning against it. I can’t imagine being that rich to convince people to sell their beautiful gate to ship across the ocean for a surprise for Clara, plus keeping it under wraps.
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I love this post. My one lilac bush bloomed nicely this year.
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Thank you Anne – I am glad you liked it. Lucky you – it must have been all that trimming that you did back in late Winter/early Spring that made it bloom so nicely.
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Actually, I did not trim this bush, because the buds had already set. The tree man is supposed to trim it as far back as possible. I won’t see him until he needs money. This plant and a large rhododendron were the two most damaged by the weeping cherry tree that was removed.
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That’s how our first handyman was – my mom kidded him as he always started calling to do his “Summer chores” in time for Mother’s Day.
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I breathed it in through your photos. Glorious. Xoxo
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Thank you Selma Martin – I’m glad you liked the photos and felt like you were there as well!
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forget the bench,…….I’d would want a hammock so I could sleep there. Talk about aromatherapy!
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You’re right Wayne – a nice hammock would be just as peaceful and a good dose of aromatherapy!
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I wonder what the affect would be? I’ve often thought about doing just that.
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I have read in the past that people can buy lavender-scented pillows or sachets to put into your puzzle as it sleep-inducing. So I’ll bet a little snooze in a hammock in that lilac garden would be tranquil.
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I love lilacs, we have a bunch in our backyard but they are there and then they aren’t ! That place looks wonderful to wander around the gardens as a “lady of leisure” as you call yourself lol
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My neighbor finally yanked his mother’s wisteria out a few years ago. I had to go to the back garden every week or so and clip the tendrils as the vines were reaching over the chain-link fence and literally choking it. I was happy when he removed it. It was nice to be a “lady of leisure” and watch the young people working. Gardening is hard work … I used to put in really long hours in the garden back in the day. I’ve not yet replaced all the perennials and butterfly bushes I lost during the 2013-2014 Polar Vortex yet. I have to have two trees and the burned bushes taken out and awaiting the tree cutter. So the backyard is blah now and I waver daily on just putting in sod versus another perennial garden next year. I will tell you Susan that I am definitely leaning toward going the lazy route!
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Lol yes I find gardening harder to do as I get older. I do not look forward to it yet I like the results.
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We both need gardeners – that settles it. 🙂
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Haha yes!
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What beautiful lilacs! I can only imagine the aroma that that many bushes put out.
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They are really stunning Rebecca and the aroma is just heavenly!
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I loved seeing all the beautiful lilac photos. I believe lilac is my favorite scent. Unfortunately, I am becoming sensitized to lilacs. If I bring them in my house, I sneeze and my throat begins to close up. Ugh!!! Lilacs remind me of my mom. They were her favorite too. I have 2 lilac bushes from her yard. I started them from cuttings of her lilac bushes. One is the typical pale lavender and one is deep purple. I also have a pink lilac that I bought a few years ago.
I would love to visit the Ford estate sometime. I visited the one down in Ft. Meyers Florida (I guess that was their winter home). They didn’t have lilacs there, though!
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I have a smaller lilac tree in the other corner and it is dark purple, but it never bloomed like the light purple one. That’s a shame that you can’t bring them in the house anymore Laurie. Many years ago, we had a wedding shower at work and I was helping to organize it. I brought in a couple of 5-gallon buckets of lilacs to put in smaller vases around the conference room. I put them out in the morning before work and closed the door and by noon the room smelled wonderful, but one of my coworkers had a sneezing fit and was asthmatic and had to leave the room – oops! I have read about their Florida home. Lucky them with two beautiful residences!
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Miss Linda…………………………….yes this is a very peaceful blog………………..lilacs are my favorite because they remind me of my mother………………………………..she liked them…………………………….thank you
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Thank you Ann Marie. I am glad the pictures evoked some pleasant memories of your mother for you. It is a very tranquil setting there.
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You did not miss the flowers this year. Such a shame the camera can not capture the smells.
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Very true Andy – I wish I could do a “scratch and sniff” post so everyone could enjoy the smell.
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that would be nice.
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such a heavenly scent. It was a great year for lilacs. I think my husband commented every day when they were blossoming about how fragrant they were. Now how do I get some volunteers to help maintain my gardens? 😃
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Yes, it is and I wonder if the cooler Spring had anything to do with it – just a guess on my part. The gardener at the Ford Estate told me it was the best blooms since 2018. If I find some volunteers, I’ll be sure to share them with you Ruth. My guess is volunteering at your place and mine won’t look as good on someone’s resume as volunteering at the Ford Estate. 🙂
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I don’t think I knew Hagen was credited with the “… smell the roses” quote (or one like it). If you ever saw the wonderful movie “The Legend of Bagger Vance”, you’d agree the quote is in line with the character of the man. Unflappable.
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I knew I had used the quote before and searched my blog to find it and whom to attribute the quote to. Sometimes there are versions of a quote – this was the original quotation to my knowledge. I have never seen “The Legand of Bagger Vance” Dave, nor read the book. I just Googled to read a review of it. It sounds interesting … a story which does not require a knowledge of golf to enjoy it.
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Indeed, “Bagger” is about so much more than golf. It’s a period piece, with Will Smith as the delightful soothsayer caddie. Worth the watch, including Hagen in the supporting cast.
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Thanks for the recommendation Dave. I put it on my Amazon Watch List. I cancelled my cable in 2010 and my TV is ancient, so I stream movies/shows from Amazon and it is available to rent.
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I have never cultivated them or lived around them, but I would imagine that the fragrance is lovely. As are your photos.
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Thank you J.P. – they are lovely here at the Estate or in a backyard and they smell heavenly on a humid morning or after the rain. Unfortunately, the blooms don’t last all that long, a week or two at the most. Glad you liked the photos – it is a very peaceful place to visit.
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I can only imagine the wonderful scent coming from those beautiful lilacs Linda. I have a large purple lilac bush that is old but still gives me some flowers every spring. That wrought iron gate is gorgeous!
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Oh, very beautiful to see and smell Diane. I knew you, such an avid gardener, would appreciate seeing these lilacs. This morning the tree cutters cut down two trees, three “mini trees that grew taller than me from seeds” and removed all the bushes that were burned in downed wire fire – one was the lilac tree planted in the late 60s by my father and also my Miss Kim mini lilac bush … all never came back. The backyard looks very open and different … now to decide what to do landscaping wise, probably next year in the Spring.
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Don’t give up on the lilacs yet Linda! When mine don’t produce enough flowers or the bush starts to look bad from age, I cut them down close to the ground and they come back better. Unless they tore out the roots, they may still come back.
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Oh Diane – the tree cutters were here Thursday to cut down the trees, the wannabee trees that grew inside other bushes, a few way out of control, plus all the garden bushes etc. that burned from the downed wire. It took them two hours and I was amazed how it looked when I went out … that Lilac tree was there since the late 60s. It looks like a new yard (not all for the better though … it needs a ton of work now.)
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Ah, the enchanting aroma of the place! 😊
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The epitome of tranquility Tom!
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The pictures are lovely!! I’d love to sit on that bench and smell the lilacs. I did not know that lilacs could grow that tall to make an arch. Nature is full is surprises.
What a wonderful surprise gift for his wife to adorn her garden. Sweet and romantic.
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I know … such a tranquil setting Esther. I’d just sit and take it all in. It could be they are so old that they just keep getting taller and taller and form that arch and I don’t think they are trained to do that, nor wired to anything – just on their own. Yes, nature is amazing. It seems from all I’ve read Henry Ford was a romantic … it counter-balanced all the business and inventing things he accomplished, plus he was an avid birder. More on that in my next long post.
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Yes to sitting on the bench, yes to enjoying the scent of lilacs. Such a soothing quiet post. Thank you.
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Glad to infuse some tranquility in your day Ally, especially if you’ve been listening to a lot of hammering and dealing with commotion all week. What a blissful place to be.
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