Hey there Amijo, I'm from NY originally and miss lilacs sooo much! Stephanotis is probably right about lilacs not blooming properly here because of the heat. We did get snow (for one day!) here in Tucson last year, and there were a few more blooms than usual on our Arabian Lilac bushes, but nothing to write home about. When we moved here there were two Arabian Lilac bushes - quite large. One ended up needing to be cut down to about 1 foot because it died, we don't know why. The other is still 6-7 feet, but even with regular watering, it doesn't *look* right, and when it blooms, there aren't many and they don't look right either. They are nothing like the lilacs I grew up with in NY. :( We're planning to compost them this year, or next... They were planted up against a pond, which we drained and it's possible the evaporation from the pond helped them to look good before - but when we moved in we just couldn't take care of the pond. Even so, they were known to us only as foliage bushes until one year they finally bloomed. Now we're in the middle of switching over all the plantings to low-water usage and mostly native plants. I thought this might be depressing as all-get-out, but surprisingly, there are quite a few lovely shrubs that bloom here! I ordered some **free** booklets from the Phoenix Dept of Water (can't find the URL, sorry) one called "Landscape Plants for the AZ Desert" and the other "Xeriscape" - both were incredibly helpful since I longed for pretty flowers, but hated using so much water for what I'd have planted in either NY or CA. If you get the Crepe Myrtle I hope you post about it, especially how much water they really need here. They look like they'd make nice small trees, too! We have some Texas Sage bushes that are wonderful, and cover themselves in blooms when deeply watered. Some other shrubs you might be interested in - Texas Mountain Laurel - Sophia secundiflora Little-leaf Cordia - Cordia parvifolia Sky Flower - Duranta erecta Emu Bush - Eremophila maculata Apache Plume - Fallugia paradoxa Baja Fairyduster - Calliandra californica I'm in the midst of considering all of these to replace the lilacs, and found them in the book - Arizona Gardener's Guide (by Mary Irish) that has a section on shrubs. They are all low water, all with blooms, some with lots o scent, and some with berries for the birds. If you decide to use any of these and have any luck with them, please post about it :)

I always add a layer of compost on the top of the soil when I put in a new tree or shrub, water that in and then I add a layer of straw mulch. I think it gives the plant a necessary boost after being transplanted. My lilacs do very well in somewhat dry conditions so I hardly ever water unless there is a drought situation. Stop watering for a while and see what happens. It will probably start to perk up. Mine are doing very well so I must be doing something right. One more thought. When you planted, did you tease the roots apart? If you don't then the roots keep circling like they do in the pot. Teasing them apart will encourage the roots to spread. Marg

Here's a better pic of the branches... well, sort of better LOL.

Many thanks Lalala! That is exactly what it is! I have many hickory trees and other trees mentioned in this article on my property, so it makes sense. I'm going to free it from the pickle jar (where it is currently feeding on some apple leaves that I placed in with it). No matter how much rose foliage it eats, it can't hold a candle to the damage that the Japanese beetles are doing to the same rose bush. I'm glad for this verdict because I've gotten somewhat attached to the furry critter in the jar. Thanks for the warning too, but I managed to handle the little caterpillar without getting a rash. (It escaped from the bucket and I had to pick it up to put it in a more secure location. There was also some contact during our photography session, but I came away unscathed... so far.)