It takes a great many lily-of-the-valley stalks to make a bouquet that’s going to leave an impression, but it’s always worth it to bring their sweet perfume indoors. Currently we have a couple of colonies of this beautiful, if slightly invasive, groundcover, and they are lending the spring air a delicious fragrance, mingling with the remnants of the American lilac as their bloom comes to a close, and heralding the start of the Korean lilac season.
Lily-of-the-valley was a favorite of my grandmother, and it retains an old-fashioned element that is well-deserved due to its hardiness and insistence on spanning the generations. I’ll let the flower spikes go to seed, as any diminishment or weakening of the swaths we have going is not a bad thing. The brilliant red berries that remain are a treat to find in autumn when color is more rare.
