Lilacs in bloom beautify grounds of First Congregational Church in Derby

Ralph and I are members of the First Congregational Church in Derby. 
When our pastor mentioned in his weekly email that the Lilacs were blooming we had to go there Sunday to see for ourselves!
The beautiful French Lilac is Derby's official bush.

Here they are blooming along a retaining wall next to the parking lot.

In May, 2004 our congregation planted a lilac bush in loving memory of longtime member Christine Ralph.

This is the bush 16 years later.

*The text below is shared from a Derby history quiz posted on the Electronic Valley.

On Thursday, May 13, 2004 (Derby's 329th birthday!) the Board of Aldermen named the French Lilac the official bush of the City of Derby.  See the information below to find out why.

When warm weather arrives, with it comes an array of beautiful spring shrubs and flowers. One of the loveliest and most fragrant is the Lilac which blossoms in May.
The story of the Lilac bush in the United States is a first for Derby, in fact, it's a Connecticut first. Dr. John Durand, a French Huguenot physician came to Derby about 1680. He purchased a house on Academy Hill now known to Derbyites as Brownie Castle. The house was supposedly built by Samuel Bowers, the son of one of Derby's first ministers. It is one of the oldest houses in Derby.
Derby was sparsely settled with only a few families. It was mostly wilderness. 
Dr. Durand missed the fragrant Lilac shrubs that grew in France, and upon making a return voyage back to France, he returned with a large number of Lilac roots which he planted on the grounds around his home. Thus, the first French Lilac bushes appeared in the United States. 
All of Dr. Durand's descendants were said to have the loveliest Lilac bushes surrounding their homes.
Dr. Durand is buried in the Olde Uptown Burial Ground.
The Encyclopedia Americana says that the most common and widely cultivated of the Lilac bushes in the United States is the French Lilac.

This quiz contributed by Joan Driscoll