Old friends in new places

When I lived in Alaska I had a lilac in my front yard. In spite of embarrassing neglect, it put on a spectacular show every spring and was the one thing I mourned the loss of when I moved away. We planted one in our yard in Oregon the following year, but it was too young to bloom for a while and only started putting out flowers the year we moved away. The California yard wouldn't support one, I never got one going in Kentucky, and of course we spent last spring in Horrible Apartment Hell without even a thought of flowers. When we moved to this house late last summer I started dreaming of landscape design again - with lilacs high on the list of 'hopes' - but with the drainage situation... well, you know what happened there - nothing but water and mud so far.

But miracles happen. There is a straggly shrub/tree in the corner of the yard, outside the kitchen window, that started showing signs of buds. Sure enough. They opened to great fragrance and fanfare - I have a lilac again!

We'll need to fertilize and maybe trim some, and try to make sure its feet don't get too wet. But if it bloomed this year, it will bloom again next year as well. I'm confident.

Actually, I'm thrilled!