My dream garden is part cottage, part little -old-lady with lots of roses, peonies and lilacs.  Unfortunately, our yard, which has enough space to plant loads of these items, is far too shady to actually be hospitable to them.  This doesn’t stop me from trying to grow those things though, in our limited full sun spots.

Close to a decade ago, I was given a lilac.  I planted it, but when it didn’t do anything, I moved it in one of my yard rearranging moments.  When it didn’t work there, I moved it again.  I do that – just ask the rose bush we got as a housewarming gift that bloomed for the first time last year.

I just move things around until I think I find the right home for it (which yes, can affect the blooms). This happened quite a bit with the lilac and along the way, it got some pretty harsh treatment.  I realized at one point I had prepped the soil incorrectly, so I went out there and dug it up one more time, reworking the soil.  I must have dumped half a wheelbarrow’s worth of compost into the soil before replanting the lilac the last time.  I figured I’d give it one more chance before finding it a new home.  The last two years, I’ve noticed new growth on the plant, but no indication of blooming.

Earlier this spring, as I was doing my daily walk through of my garden, I thought I saw tiny buds forming on the lilac.   I got really excited and ran back to the house yelling how I thought the lilac was going to bloom this year.  I checked it twice daily, so excited to finally have my own lilacs perfuming our house instead of cutting them from neighbor’s lilac bushes.   I watched as all the other lilacs around bloomed, but mine just sat there.  I started worrying something was wrong when it dawned on me I might have a later blooming lilac  (which actually makes so much sense on a few levels, doesn’t it?). Turns out, I do.

This past week, those tiny little buds finally opened up, to a most glorious pale pink, which smell divine.  Of course, now I need to rearrange all around the lilac so that it doesn’t get crowded out by anything, but I finally succeeded in making the lilac happy enough to bloom.  I cannot express how content this makes me.  My dream of a little old lady garden has arrived.