Finally Lilac Blooms

Finally our lilac bush has produced flowers.  14 years ago a good friend -Joyce House, who has since passed away,  sent us some money for Christmas and we decided we would invest it in two lilac bushes to remind us of her each time we looked at them.

The struggle has been considerable in keeping these two bushes alive over the years.  For years we would try different things to keep the voles from chewing the outer cover off the stems when they were buried under 6' + of snow  in the winter.  After the first winter and when the snow melted we noticed that our lilac bushes were totally devoid of any bark on all the stems. We checked with a local nursery  and they told us to trim the stems back and try to catch the voles with mouse traps baited with apple.  It has taken many years of cutting back and setting traps to finally after 14 years have one of the bushes finally bloom.

I don't know if we won or if the voles just gave up and moved on to another area.  Maybe they were tired of lilac bark, but the bushes survived this winter.  It is not easy to grow any shrub or plant at this altitude but this beauty just shows that perseverance pays off.  Joyce would be proud to see her bushes have finally bloomed and the fragrance is heavenly so I expect Joyce can smell them all the way up there in heaven.