Lilac Season Ends Soon

There is a golden spring season from the appearance of first buds to full leafing out of deciduous trees, flowers, and bushes. Later in May, insects descend upon us and start spoiling the pure beauty of trees especially, but every living plant in our yard. A gardener does the best they can to keep them away from the good stuff. The fragrance and beauty of lilacs is a fleeting spring pleasure.

Spring shows us where nature is if we have the eyes and mind to see it. Our Autumn Blaze maple tree was damaged in the 2020 derecho, and the years since then have taken their toll.The bark is shedding around the main trunk, and there are cracks in the trunk where the derecho twisted the tree around in high winds. I suppose insects crawled into the cracks. The tree can sense something is wrong and this spring grew many more seeds than used to be normal. Their presence indicates the trauma of the derecho and that something is wrong so it needs to propagate. While I may have to climb up on the roof to clean the windblown seeds out of the gutter, the true meaning is that the time left for this tree is limited.

I planted two Green Ash trees before the Emerald Ash Borer was known in popular media to be a threat. The first one succumbed last year and the second did not leaf out this spring. I examined the tree trunks and branches and the tell-tale boring holes where the insects enter underneath the bark are evident everywhere. Luckily the trees are small enough I can remove them myself.

We enjoy the lilac flowers while we can. They are truly a spring blessing.