Lilacs are a Hardy and long-lived shrub, Dear Readers, and because of this they are found nearly everywhere in New England, many specimens long outliving even the homesteads they were planted beside a hundred or more years ago! For most of the year they are unremarkable, enduring where they were planted, slowly growing and spreading, green in the summer and bare stems in the winter. But for one glorious week every May, they are unforgettable in their perfumed and lacy splendor! I walk under these lilacs every day at my place of work, and there have been lilac shrubs of various sizes at nearly every place I have lived, and there is even a small (badly damaged by last winter) specimen at my current home. So can it be any wonder that I should think of making a Lilac bush for the garden at the Folly?
And in my mind's eye it is tall and graceful
and covered in glorious clusters of blossoms!
Somewhere In blogland, a long time ago,
(I am sorry I don't remember whose blog it was!)
I saw a lilac shrub where the person had made all the blossoms individually
and I thought that Someday I would try to do that too to make my lilac for The Folly!
So it was that a while ago, when it was still deep and cold and snowy winter,
I started to make my miniature lilac blossoms....
one floret at a time!
I cut a punched circle into thirds,
and serrated the edge of each third into four sections..
and glued each section to a piece of thread.....
and then folded the section around the thread and splayed the petals.....
Here below you can see the florets attached to their threads....
And then I paint the florets....
a lovely lilac color!
But is it really small enough?
Is it truly 1:12 scale???
For this I had to get scientific, Dear Readers,
and go measure my own lilac blossom...
The single solitary blossom cluster
on my poor battered shrub this year!
And then trying to get a measure of an individual floret.....
It appears that each floret measures just under an inch across!
Here below you can see a floret up close with the mini versions....
But is the mini one one twelfth of the real one?
Perhaps we can judge better if we line up six of the mini florets....
Well, they might be still a tiny bit too large... six of them are 1/2 inch....
and the RL floret is less than one inch across...
Well, perhaps we will have to claim they are Robust and healthy lilacs!
And when the florets are glued onto the stems in clusters.....
there are eighteen florets on each of these clusters....
and I think they should have at least a half dozen more florets on each cluster....
at a minimum!
And so far I have made five of these clusters!
(Just how many clusters will I need for my shrub?)
Ah, Dear Readers, It is another one of those Projects
that I Will be working on for a very long time!
But Someday I will have my Tall and Graceful
Blossom covered Lilac bush growing beside The Folly porch!
It is Such a Sweet Dream...
Under the Lilacs!
