DESCRIPTION:
Music ~ Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Hélène Grimaud and Albrecht Mayer are playing Schumann Romanze Op.94
Photos ~ Chabe


April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain."
T.S. Eliot quotes

Location ~ Hulda Klager, Lilac Gardens Woodland, Washington USA
The Lilac Lady
Hulda Klager came to this country from Germany with her family in 1865 when she was two years old. She spoke often of her love for flowers and how as a little girl in Wisconsin she would wander through the woods near her home looking for wildflowers. Her family moved to Woodland, Washington in 1877 when Hulda was 13 years old, where they purchased farmland and built a home.

Years later, even though Hulda was busy with the demands of marriage, home and family, she continued to find time to work with flowers. While she was recovering from an illness in 1903, some of her friends brought her a book by Luther Burbank, a renowned hybridizer at the time. After reading the book, she was anxious to begin her own experiments with hybridizing plants — especially apples. Her interest in apples came from a desire to save time making pies, because she felt it took too long to peel all those little apples! So she set out to develop a bigger apple by crossing the mild Wolf River apple with the sour, juicy Bismarck apple, and was delighted with the result.

In 1905 she began hybridizing lilacs and by 1910 she had created 14 new varieties. By 1920 she had developed so many new varieties that she decided to hold an open house each spring when the lilacs were in full bloom to share her efforts with other lilac enthusiasts. This practice caused her to become known as "The Lilac Lady."
Around 1930 neighboring towns began sending delegations during Mrs. Klager's "Lilac Week" to choose one of the new varieties she had developed to be named for their community. In this manner lilac varieties such as the "City of Longview," "City of Kalama," "City of Gresham," and "City of Woodland" were designated. Through the years, Mrs. Klager was been honored by many organizations for her work as a leading hybridizer of lilacs including the State of Washington, the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University, the Federation of Garden Clubs in Washington and Oregon and the City of Portland, Oregon.

http://lilacgardens.com/index.html