Yankee Candle, Glade air fresheners and multitudes of soap makers have all tried. But there's just no way to capture the heavenly fragrance that Minnesota is graced with for a short time each spring — the delicate perfume of the common lilac shrub.

The lavender, deep purple and white flowers are peaking in northern Minnesota and starting to show the first signs of rust in the state's south. There's no time to waste if you want to catch the pageantry this floral royalty puts on. True lilac devotees likely know where there's a bush with reliably abundant blooms in their neighborhood. Or where a farsighted homeowner has planted a row of lilacs.

A favorite Midwest experience: driving down a country road with the windows down and smelling the lilacs ringing a farmhouse up ahead before the purple flowers can be seen. But lilacs are no slouch when it comes to sprucing up the city.

There's a veritable forest of them in the yards off Hwy. 252 in Brooklyn Park just before Interstate 94, offering commuters a visual and olfactory treat. A row of energetic bloomers off University Avenue in north Minneapolis confers glamour on an otherwise ordinary corner.

Unlike tulips and daffodils, which can be forced to bloom year-round, lilacs are hard to find outside their normal season, adding to their allure. And the cut flowers regrettably don't last long in a vase. These blooms are best enjoyed here and now, exactly where they are.

There's a lesson in that for a hurried, worried world.

Forget about gathering rosebuds while ye may, as the poem goes. Those are available anytime, while lilacs come but once a year. A moment to savor their season is well spent.