When Mrs Dalloway buys the flowers herself for her party, she goes to Mulberry's the florists, where lilac is part of the "delicious scent, the exquisite coolness". "There were...delphiniums, sweet peas, bunches of lilac; and carnations...There were roses; there were irises...so she breathed in the earthy garden sweet smell...turning her head from side to side among the irises and roses and nodding tufts of lilac with her eyes half closed". These days it's rare to find lilac sold in shops, so we have to ''snuff in" the scent of lilac wherever we find it - in parks and in our own and other people's gardens. 'A Vase of Flowers' by Irene Hawkins includes lilac and is now, fittingly, in the Monk's House collection.