This week it's lilac, which is now at its peak. Proust describes lilac beautifully in A la recherche du temps perdu: "We would be met on our way by the scent of his [Swann's] lilac-trees...Out of the fresh little green hearts of their foliage the lilacs raised inquisitively over the fence of the park their plumes of white or mauve blossom...The nymphs of spring would have seemed coarse and vulgar in comparison with these young houris, who retained, in this French garden, the pure and vivid colouring of a Persian miniature." This is 'Proust's Lilacs', a wallpaper by Schumacher, which recalls botanical paintings by Redouté.