I'm trying to write about these lilies.
Lilies that I received a couple of months ago as a house gift and whose fragrance filled the apartment for a couple of weeks at least as every two days I changed the water and refilled the vase with cold, refrigerated water.
Yet, for some complicated reason, despite the fact that they are so fresh and so beautiful, despite the fact that their petals are firm and strong and full of garden bloom freshness, I don't know where to start.
It's ridiculous, because, seriously, how difficult can it be to write about a bouquet of white stargazer lilies?
How difficult can it be to write about a flower that's been my favorite since I was first gifted a bouquet more than ten years ago?
Yet for this article alone I've erased paragraphs three, no, four times, and I don't know how else I should continue.
Perhaps I should just plonk the pictures here and let them speak for themselves.
And yet, I can't.
I can't just place a picture of blooms as beautiful as these and then not say anything about them.
I also cannot just place a picture of flowers as pure and strong and white as these and not say anything about them either.
Because to me that's what stargazer lilies are.
They're the kind of flower that hold quiet dominance in any space that they're in.
Whether they be a single bloom at the reception counter of a Downtown office tower, whether they be the centerpiece of a room, or placed at a corner, or on a table at a staircase landing, stargazer lilies are a flower that you will notice (sooner or later).
They are a flower you cannot ignore.
I discovered this the first time I was gifted a bouquet over more than a decade ago
At first, not knowing what to do with it, I placed it on the floor between the work desk and the cabinet with the air conditioning blowing above.
Later I began to realize that these flowers needed a lot of water, so a lot of cold water I started giving them, and not long after there came their fragrance, their unmistakable, distinctive scent.
Never had I experienced a flower scent like what these blooms revealed.
Complete immersion, at once.
Immediate love.
Perhaps it was this very attribute- their distinctive, unmistakable scent- be what that made me fall in love with them.
But then again there was more than that.
I loved the fact that the stargazer lily wasn't classified as a super feminine, super girly kind of flower.
I also loved the fact that she was what I hoped to be- sympathetic (white), and feminine (white, pink and yellow), both of which were very remarkable traits, yet at the same time exuded a strength and a graceful presence like no other flower I knew.
I loved her petals strong, firm and white.
I loved the way her buds opened up to the surrounding air, letting you know of her presence without needing to let you know she was there.
And most of all, I loved her strength.
Stargazer lilies are surprisingly resilient.
Not only do they look the part, they also seem to be able to last everywhere and anywhere.
Maybe probably last longer in temperate temperatures- like those of air-conditioned rooms, and in Los Angeles and San Francisco- but as I found out earlier this year, they actually can last remarkably long in warm temperatures too.