Episode 14: Brainiac Babies & Sips of Spring

Apr 5

Hello there, and welcome to yet another episode of Rooted! This week we are diving into one of my all time favorites- lilacs. This lovely spring bloomer is wonderfully fragrant and full of stories, so without further ado, let's dive in!

Lilacs, or Syringa Vulgaris are native to the Balkan Peninsula, where they grow on the rocky hills. They really aren’t too picky when it comes to soil, and are fairly drought tolerant, which is what has made this plant SUCH a popular choice for gardens everywhere.

Lilacs are a part of the olive family, so their famous relatives include olives (duh), jasmine, and forsythia!

Lilacs are large shrubs that have a silvery gray bark with green heart-shaped leaves. In mid spring to early summer they put on their infamously fragrant blooms- clusters of purple, white, or pink blooms made up of tiny 4-leafed flowers. The blooms are short lived- only sticking around for a week or so, but even that short season is SO worth it.

They can get up to 23 feet tall by 10-15 ft wide, so it’s definitely a monster of a shrub if left to their own devices…but like a delightful monster, like sully from Monster’s Inc.

And they can live for a while too- up to 100 years in some cases! So they are a really wonderful choice for landscapes, as they don’t require much care, aren’t prone to too many diseases (other than powdery mildew), and can live for a VERY long time.
But they aren’t just important to the garden- they also have a LOT of history!

In greek mythology, the story goes that Pan- the god of the forest, was deeply in love with a nymph named Syringa, who was not particularly interested in him. Not one to be denied, Pan continued to pursue Syringa relentlessly. To the point where one day, in order to evade him, Syringa turned herself into a lilac bush. Once pan stumbled upon the bush in search of Syringa, he noted that the hollow stems of the lilac would be perfect for a flute, and then proceed to cut off her branches to make a pan flute, not realizing he was literally hacking pieces of the person he claimed to love so much.

Honestly, there is some debate on this story, as the stems of lilacs arent actually hollow, and it is unlikely that lilacs would have been widespread enough to reach greece until MUCH later.. In fact, a lot of historians think this was actually initially about reeds, which are much easier to work with, commonly found in the area,, and were most often used for pan flutes!

But here are some interesting AND true stories from Lilac history

In Russia it was common practice to hang a bouquet of lilacs above babies cribs so that the plant could impart its wisdom on the baby.

England has kind of a complicated relationship with lilacs……it was Bad luck to bring them in house because they had close ties to death.

Their bright purple blooms were said to ward off evil spirits, and the strong scent helped to mask the scent of death, so they were a very popular choice for funeral arrangements at that time. Which is why most people didn't have warm and fuzzy memories tied to them….

But in floriography, lilacs were often used to symbolize new feelings of love, due to their bright color and sweet smell. but they were also commonly worn by widows to show remembrance of the love between them and their partner…so it really is just a tangled web of feelings here….

It’s interesting that the lilac is both at once a symbol of life, fresh beginnings, or early love, and yet also so closely tied to death and remembrance. But it goes beyond just the stories we have attached- as lilacs age, so does their scent.

If you’ve ever been in an area where lilacs are planted closely, you may have noticed that they start as a very light fragrance- one you’ll only notice if the wind is just right and the sun has hit them for just long enough….but as they age, it becomes a rather strong scent- one you basically can't miss. Astute noses might even notice that there is a strange kind of sickly-sweet and heavy characteristic to the smell- this is because of a natural compound they contain called indole, that is also found in feces and coal tar…

Interestingly , indole has a very strong fecal smell in large concentrations, but can be more floral in smaller doses. But no matter what, if you have a super sensitive sniffer, you might be picking up on some less-than-pleasant smells as the blooms die back…and because our sense of smell is so closely tied to memory and interpretation, this may play a part in why lilacs can be both symbols of new life and death.

Here in the United States, Lilacs also have a few different meanings and roles!

In New England, many houses have lilacs planted in front of them to bring about protection and ward off evil spirits, as it was widely believed that lilacs were powerful and protective. It’s also a very common part of bouquets for recent graduates, as they symbolize new, fresh, and prosperous beginnings!

Lilacs aren’t just used for story telling though! There are a ton of ways were and still are being used today!

In witchcraft both way back when AND now, lilacs have been used in both protection and banishing rituals and spells.

Oftentimes lilacs are used for protection in their natural form, so it’s not uncommon to see them planted outside the home to protect from negative energies and to protect the home from anyone or anything who may wish to cause harm. They can also be placed in the home to ward off any ghosts or other malevolent spirits who may be lurking.

Other ways they are typically used include: intention setting and manifestation, as it is believed that the freshness and seasonality of lilac can help to bring new prosperity. Oftentimes this is done by making an oil out of the fresh blooms, and using that in spellwork, cleaning, and even as a perfume.

Additionally, some witches make a facial toner out of witch hazel and lilac to incorporate the scent and astringency into their daily self-care routines, which is often where a lot of witches practice manifestation.

In traditional folk medicine, lilacs have been used to treat a variety of ailments like kidney problems, insect bites, muscle swelling, and even sunburn. This is all likely because of the astringent properties of the blooms, as well as the leaves. Apparently children would also sometimes chew on a bit of the leaves or bark to help with sore mouths, and sometimes the leaves would even be steeped into a tea to help get rid of parasitic worms or to treat malaria.

While lilacs have a lovely scent, they are VERY very hard to work with, as the scent is very light, and tends to vanish quickly.

Because of this, most of the lilac scents on the market are actually synthetic and while they are close, they rarely capture the true scent of lilac.

Only way to naturally capture the true scent of lilac is enflurge, which is an traditional french technique that fell out of fashion due to the amount of time, work, and skill that goes into it-

Basically the flowers are left to sit on top of a fat for a few days, to charge it with the scent. Then, those flowers will be removed and another set added- sometimes taking upwards of 20 charges…..then that fat is placed into an alcohol solution, where it will be sealed into a jar for at least a year. That jar will need to be shaken at least once a day until the mixture is ready to be used in a product.

Understandably, nearly impossible to do on a massive scale…but some places, like one of my FAVORITE small businesses dryland wilds still do this! If you want to learn more about the process, be sure to check them out because they do such an amazing job explaining the process, and are honestly just an amazing company!

Perhaps the most common (and delightful) use for lilacs aside from gardening is in food! This is my very favorite time of year almost exclusively because of my love of lilac lemonade. I can only make it fresh for like one week a year, and while it is a VERY intensive process, I promise it’s worth it!

To make any kind of lilac dish, a lot of folks choose to make an infused sugar, a simple syrup, or a cordial!

I make lilac simple syrup and sugar every year, which I then use in cookies, matcha, and lemonade. It is a kind of involved process, but it is SO worth it. It is light, floral, and refreshing…it’s basically as close as I have ever gotten to drinking spring, and it also makes me feel so fancy.

If you want the actual step by step instructions, they will be on the blog! You can check it out at www.rootedpod.com with all of the other episode transcripts!

While lilacs won’t even THINK about blooming for another month or so for most of us, I hope you start scoping out the best walking paths for when they do, and give yourself plenty of time during that week or two when they bloom to be outside and surrounded by them! And if you live near Spokane and go to the lilac festival May 15th - 20th, just know that I am wildly jealous, living vicariously through you, and desperately hoping you will tell me all about it.

Additionally, if you want to check out dryland wilds and support a small, woman owned, lgbtq+ business, I will have a link to them in the show notes!

Sources:

https://www.learnreligions.com/lilac-magic-and-folklore-4064885

https://annafranklinhearthwitch.wordpress.com/2022/04/25/the-lore-magic-of-lilacs/

https://www.bhg.com/gardening/flowers/lilac-facts/

https://lilygrass.com/blog/flower-spotlight-lilac

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syringa_vulgaris

http://www.allflorists.co.uk/advice_flowerMeanings.asp

https://www.literaturelust.com/post/the-strange-connection-of-lilacs-to-life-and-death

https://www.flowersofthefieldlv.com/%EF%BB%BFthe-story-of-the-lilac-springs-most-loved-flower/

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Indole

https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/common-lilac/