I just need to vent...

[Donna]

The Lilac Festival is huge here in Rochester.  Check it out.

http://www.lilacfestival.com/

Wow, I didn't know there were so many varieties of Lilacs! Wow...cool party.

[Carol P.]

The Lilac Festival is huge here in Rochester.  Check it out.

http://www.lilacfestival.com/

Wow, I didn't know there were so many varieties of Lilacs! Wow...cool party.

I just love the Lilac Festival.  It brings back such great memories of my mom and Aunt taking me there for my birthday every year .  I LOVE the smell of Lilacs! 

[Carol P.]

and who has that wonderful picture of the beautiful Mariah amongst the Lilacs that Cornpoppy did?  Please post it if you have it.  I know I must have it at home.

[Patti from Kentucky]

Vent away! What a nasty trick! But on the bright side (IS there one?) - I need to trim one of our lilacs as it has got very tall and leggy, with blooms only at the top and out of reach. The website from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHA) says they can be pruned all at once... in which case you wait 3 yrs for more blossoms. OR - and this is what I plan to do - prune one-third each year for 3 years. While they say this should be done in autumn, perhaps something like this could work. Good ideas re insurance and pros, tho.

See if the insurance people will let you get a Lilac-Cam so you can catch the blighters!!

Slainte!
Bobbie

That is a major mean thing...hard to imagine why someone would have done that!  However, as Bobbie said, if you can do a nice job of cleaning it up, leaving some of the older wood for next year's blooms, it will eventually come back nicely.  We prune away about 1/4 to 1/3 of our lilac canes down to the ground (or within a foot) every year and they produce new canes that will make flowers in 3 years.  You probably already know all that if you're a lilac lover...

Anyway, I'm really sorry for your loss and understand how upset you must be.

[Donna]

and who has that wonderful picture of the beautiful Mariah amongst the Lilacs that Cornpoppy did?  Please post it if you have it.  I know I must have it at home.

Carol, this pic? Oh it's a beauty and it won 1st place in 2004.  

[Donna]

and who has that wonderful picture of the beautiful Mariah amongst the Lilacs that Cornpoppy did?  Please post it if you have it.  I know I must have it at home.

Carol, this pic? Oh it's a beauty and it won 1st place in 2004.  

I remember having this pic saved but when my PC crashed in 2006, I lost every pic. I've been searching on and off all day for this pic....googled Tom Hoehn, Cornpoppy....Mariah....finally, it dawned on me, I checked on KFC and found the contest link in Aafke's Kodak gallery and found it there. Phew...well worth the search. Stunning, isn't she?

2003, this pic was taken...sorry!

[Donna]

Ok, I'm over medicated on Zyrtec D...Cornpoppy's pic of Mariah won 3rd place... sent in by Paul. Shaky's pic won 1st place. Here it is. Great pic also. And 2nd place was a pic by Granny (Dana).

[MAK]

and who has that wonderful picture of the beautiful Mariah amongst the Lilacs that Cornpoppy did?  Please post it if you have it.  I know I must have it at home.

Carol, this pic? Oh it's a beauty and it won 1st place in 2004.  

Absolutely gorgeous!   

[Carol P.]

and who has that wonderful picture of the beautiful Mariah amongst the Lilacs that Cornpoppy did?  Please post it if you have it.  I know I must have it at home.

Carol, this pic? Oh it's a beauty and it won 1st place in 2004.  

Yes!  That's the one.  Thanks for posting it Donna.   

[jeanne]

My mom, whose gardening skills I inherited (ahem), loved lilacs.  For several years, she pulled out this one "weed" but later found out it was a lilac (must have been transplanted from a neighbor's yard).  After she found this out, one of our neighbors asked to weed the yard (a woman in her 80s who loved doing this and needed more than her yard).  Sure enough, the lilac got pulled again. Mom gave up.

[Bobbie Ireland]

My mom, whose gardening skills I inherited (ahem), loved lilacs.  For several years, she pulled out this one "weed" but later found out it was a lilac (must have been transplanted from a neighbor's yard).  After she found this out, one of our neighbors asked to weed the yard (a woman in her 80s who loved doing this and needed more than her yard).  Sure enough, the lilac got pulled again. Mom gave up.

Reminds me of when we had the teeniest of gardens in Dublin years ago... and I asked Rod to pull the weeds... NEVER thinking I had to identify these. When I got home, all my herbs and vegetables were on the compost heap! Most, tho, were rescued successfully... Ah, memories!

[Aafke]

Hi Ei, I feel very sorry for you! I hate it when such things happens, it makes me very angry.
Every year I have that problem in my little garden, with flowers but specially with vegetables. They take away your zucchinies and pumpkins, tomatoes etc.
Why are people doing such things? My neighbor always says, you have to think that they needed it more than you.

  greetings Aafke

[valhalla]

Hi Ei, I feel very sorry for you! I hate it when such things happens, it makes me very angry.
Every year I have that problem in my little garden, with flowers but specially with vegetables. They take away your zucchinies and pumpkins, tomatoes etc.
Why are people doing such things? My neighbor always says, you have to think that they needed it more than you.

  greetings Aafke

Your neighbor is kind - my reaction is, "and if they do, they should ask first"!  I think it is the taking that angers me the most.

[Bird Crazy]

There is taking a few flowers but that was mutilation. 

[Dumpsterkitty]

First & foremost, thank you all for your kind thoughts & support...it really has helped.  The bushes will come back eventually but I may not get any flowers next year-this is year 3 of the 1/3 per year revitalization project and they cut all the new growth-they left the old woody stuff that was scheduled to get cut back this year anyway.

But there is some good news.  The trooper did as he said he would & interviewed my other neighbors the next day.  One of them came over today & told me he told a friend in the next town over, who had the same thing happen the day after me-not his personal bushes, but the trailer park where he lives.  His trooper told him they sell them in NYC for $1500-$2000 a van load!     So guy #2 was on the lookout because they hadn't gotten all the flowers in the trailer park.  Sure enough, they were back the next day...pictures of the people, the white van & license plate # are now in the hands of the troopers.  Hopefully they'll catch the $^&%#@s!