Caution: Slow Blooming

All the other lilacs in town are blooming... I'm so jealous. We've got 4 or 5 big lilac bushes that grace the front of our house and they're not even close to blooming yet. We were told they're of the Japanese variety and tend to bloom later. About 3-4 weeks later than everyone else.

But when they bloom....! Wow. Color galore and when you walk up the path to the front door, the wonderful sweet aroma is thick in the air. You can practically feel it on your skin.

The ones in front of our dining room window needed some trimming one year. They had gotten so tall and bushy that we couldn't see the road when we stood up. This pic is about 6 months before I trimmed them.
So after they got done blooming, I went out to see if I could trim them back a little or thin them out. I got a saw... I had read up on trimming lilacs and read that if you cut out the larger stalks, it will allow the smaller ones to fill in. So I cut out a large stalk. Suddenly the lilac bush looked crippled. And not in a good way. This shot is about 6 months of growth after my whack job...

So after panicking, I read up on them again and found that if I trim them close to the ground, they'll grow back! Apparently they're hard to kill. Whew! So I trimmed it close to the ground and left it. It looked pitiful. Like short stumpy things in my careful landscape... Yuck. I was so embarrassed by them, that I bought some potted plants and set them around in the barren yard. That might have made it look worse. Oh well... When eating dinner, we suddenly felt SO exposed! After my mishap, I left the ones in front of my office alone.

They did grow back. With more smaller branches than before, and finally after a couple years of no blooms, we got billions more than we ever did before! The other set of bushes is in front of my home office windows. They're still blooming pretty good, but when they do, I can't see the road... or anyone walking up to the house. dang. I'm thinking about trimming those this year and starting from scratch on them. hmmm.My husband hates them during the bloom season, but likes the privacy they give us in the dining room and my office. If he can put up with the fragrant blooms for 2 weeks, then we're ok... He just has to dash from the car to the house holding his breath during those weeks. He can enjoy their privacy the rest of the year.As long as I get my 1-2 weeks of intoxicating fragrance, I'm happy!