Award-winning author Jane Kirkpatrick takes readers for the journey of a lifetime – the lifetime of Hulda Klager, wife, mother, gardener and amateur botanist – in her fictionalized biography “Where Lilacs Still Bloom.” Based on the life of the woman who developed hundreds of new lilac cultivars, the story carries us from 1889 to 1958.
Klager lived in a small town in Washington, between the Lewis and Columbia Rivers. The currents of the rivers provide some of the currents of her life as she seeks to balance the pulls of duty, faith and dreaming of new plant varieties. For Klager, the garden is a metaphor for her spiritual life and the tasks necessary to develop and maintain a strong, productive plant mirror the work of growing as a person.
Within her world, Klager was a little bit of an oddity. Her eighth-grade education shouldn’t have set her on a course as a botanist. The demands of her life shouldn’t have left time for dreaming of new cultivars. The losses she sustained should have made her hard and bitter.
Instead, we find a strong woman who charts a course and follows it. Her faith guides her and sustains her. Her generous heart gives away the fruit of her labors so that Klager lilacs can be found all over the country.
This isn’t a “read it once” kind of a book. Klager’s faith in action will bring you back again and again. The testimony is quiet and subtle, more Mother Teresa than pulpit-pounding preacher. “Where Lilacs Still Bloom” is easy to read, but provides much to consider. It offers a quiet respite for the reader, an oasis of peace in an often un-peaceful world.
Check out “Where Lilacs Still Bloom” by Jane Kirkpatrick. Your heart will be glad you did.

“Where Lilacs Still Bloom” by Jane Kirkpatrick
Published by Waterbrook Press
ISBN 978-1-4000-7430-3

Disclosure: This review is based on a review copy provided by the publisher with no constraints placed on its content. All opinions are my own.