Yes this is an old thread, but extremely relevant; especially in light of Covid and all the insanity it is breeding. I have two nasty neighbors, so I got the luck of the draw. One on each side. The neighbor to the left was syrupy sweet for a few months, but that turned. The neighbor to the right is anal as all get out but feels as if he is entitled to encroach on our property, move things, dig our fence up because he felt it wasn’t level, take deck tiles he agreed to buy from me, but never made good on, mow over my outdoor area rug, and “accidentally“ destroy various things. The man isn’t crazy, just anal and entitled at 50 plus years old. Worse than a toddler. Never apologies or offers to replace what was damaged. I have felt like retaliating in several occasions, but I always pull myself together. My husband is now seeing things more and more. You are not crazy. Those that are calling you crazy must be “that crazy neighbor” to someone else or just plain evil and nasty. There are so many people in the world like this. A person entitled and miserable is extremely difficult to live by. I pray your situation has improved. We are hoping to move in a year or so. I will be sure to pay extra careful attention to the neighborhood and make certain there is ample distance between property lines. I want peace!

I know I am ridiculously late on this discussion, but in case some crazy person comes and rereads it the way I did, I'll still post my thoughts. I had some comments on the original question of why Kathy is blind to Ruth's faults, but also some ideas about Kathy and Ruth's relationship (as was mentioned above), and the character of Ruth in general. Kathy and Ruth's relationship, and the way Kathy was blind to Ruth's personality flaws irritated me immensely throughout the novel. As many people have mentioned, perhaps Kathy is "blind" because she has been conditioned to accept the fact that she doesnÂt understand everything. From the time she was young, there were facts about Hailsham, her future, and about her life in general that she didnÂt know. Yet questioning was discouragedÂperhaps not explicitly (Kathy notes that the guardians never forbid it), but at least de facto. The students would punish each other for curiosity, so Kathy learned to keep her mouth shut and not to spend too much time wondering about it either. She doesnÂt question, she accepts. Perhaps that is why she doesnÂt analyze or look deeper into RuthÂs actions, doesnÂt realize how selfish motives are governing RuthÂs decisions. She just accepts that that is the way Ruth is, it is only when Ruth makes her angry that she confronts her. RuthÂacting manipulatively and selfishly throughout the novelÂirritates the hell out of the reader. Or at least me. Probably most people have known a person like Ruth, had a friend that was domineering, nice on the surface, but secretly deceptive and selfish. If I am honest with myself, I realize that, although I dislike it, I can identify with RuthÂs emotions and motives...if not her actions as well. Ruth isn't an unusual child. On virtually any playground, you could find a child who wanted to be the "boss", the one in charge. Especially among girls, it is common to find one child who establishes her importance by blatantly displaying and calling attention to some possession or quality that she has and the others donÂt. (RuthÂs horses and her knowledge about the plot to kidnap Miss Geraldine). It is also completely natural that the girl would then proceed to solidify her power and her importance by exercising control over the others. For example, which girls are "cool" enough to spend time with her, or which students are "favored" enough to play with or even look at her special toy or possession. In my opinion, it becomes clear to the reader throughout the novel that RuthÂs precious displays of her own importance are merely compensation for her insecurity and her fear that she is insignificant. (Which is completely logical when one realizes that they are seen by society as "creatures" not humans). This is subtley shown in the way she manipulates the other girls and alludes to being Miss GeraldineÂs favorite,. It becomes obvious during their years at the Cottages as she tries to impress the veterans. ...

Where do you live? Has the apex been pinched out? By that, I mean, is the growing tip of the trunk been removed? It looks like there is a wound there. Whenever trees make more energy/food (during photosynthesis) than they need to keep their systems orderly they create new cells in which the food/energy can be stored. These new cells are visually conspicuous in the lengthening and thickening of branches (additive growth) and in the number of leaves and branches (multiplicative growth). If your plant is not growing, it is making barely enough energy to keep itself afloat - not a good position for a tree to be in. What's limiting growth are cultural conditions the tree doesn't like. The main culprits are usually A) a combination of a poor soil and a heavy hand on the watering can, B) lack of sufficient light, C) poor nutrition. I would move the plant outdoors in open or dappled shade as soon as night temps are reliably above 50-55*, flush the soil and fertilize (Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 is excellent) the plant when it next needs watering, and repot at the first appropriate opportunity. "Appropriate" will depend in large part on where you live. I would also use a "tell" to "tell" you when it's time to water. Some things I wrote and saved that should help will follow below. Also, I wrote a thread about Good Growing Practices that will help you avoid all the pitfalls every container gardener confronts at one time or another on the journey toward green thumb status. Flushing Soils When you water, you should be able to flush planting's soil to eliminate the potentiality of salts from fertilizers and tapwater accumulating in the soil, thereby limiting the plant's ability to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in the water. If you think you shouldn't flush the soil during your regular water applications for fear the soil will remain saturated for a lengthy period, limiting root function or worse, you should consider a different soil or take steps to reduce the amount of excess water your soil can hold. By whatever means necessary, getting to the point you can water correctly is going to make a very big difference in the opportunity to realize as much of it's genetic potential as possible. Once you can water correctly, you no longer have to do battle with a water-retentive medium over control of your plant's vitality. There are several methods of limiting how much water your planting can hold, all but 1 or 2 are completely passive, requiring no effort on your part other than set-up, which is monkey easy. I can help if you have interest in that, I'm continually improving my proficiency at monkey easy tasks. To flush the soil of a planting: Water with room temperature water until the soil is completely saturated. Allow the planting to rest for 15 minutes to an hour to allow as much of the salt accumulation as possible to go into solution, then pour a volume of room temp water equal to at least 10X the volume of the pot the plant is in slowly through the soil. This will remove most of any accumulation of offending salts and resolve any skewing of nutrient ratios. It's a good idea, no matter what time of year, to fertilize most plants immediately after flushing the soil. Try to be sure you're using a fertilizer that has a ratio as close as possible to the ratio at which the plant uses nutrients. The NPK % listed on fertilizer packaging is not its ratio. 7-7-7 and 14-14-14 are 1:1:1 ratios. 9-3-6, 12-4-8, and 24-8-16, are all 3:1:3 ratios. Container growers should try very hard to avoid use of fertilizers advertised as 'bloom-boosters', or any number with a middle number (Phosphorous) higher than either the first or third numbers (Nitrogen or Potassium). These fertilizers can badly skew nutrient ratios with even the first application). On average, plants use about 6x as much N as P, so there is NO potential for a positive outcome when supplying many times as much P as the plant requires. I, and a large number of other members, use Dyna-Gro's Foliage Pro 9-3-6. It's designed to closely mimic the uptake ratio of the average plant, and has many other attributes not commonly found in other fertilizers. It also has ALL of the nutrients essential to normal growth. Summarized, it makes fertilizing as easy as it can be, and from 1 container. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support good root health, which is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to a build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al

Could be that it is competing for nutrients with other trees in the vicinity or it’s not getting full day (6+ hours) of direct sun. is your soil too acidic? Adding some sweetener can help in that case. The lush look indicates plant is healthy and may be getting too much nitrogen? As others correctly pointed out doesn’t look like a bloomerang lilac. I own one that I ordered from Burpee back in spring of 2016. It was barely 6” talk back then. but it did decide to bloom in November with a tiny bunch of may be 10 flowers. I was thrilled nevertheless. I noticed it had much tinier flowers as compared to my other traditional lilac that came with the house. Leaves too are smaller in size compared to the traditional Syringa. Here is my experience with the bloomerang: the plant bloomed scantily in the following spring (2017), no bloom in fall and was about 1.5 feet tall with two scraggly branches at the end of fall. It looked like something that would take zillion years to attain full size. I decided to remove all creeping ground covers from underneath, added some wood ash from our fireplace and mulched the plant with about 2” regular mulch. Over following two springs it grew to about 3 feet height with decent amount of flowers. No fall bloom again. But the next spring (2020) it went on a growth spurt and was about 5 feet tall by beginning of summer. Flowers were impressive yet nothing like what I saw in pictures. I lightly sheared the plant after first flush of blooms and got noticeable fall blooms. What happened this year is simply spectacular- finally the plant has established itself to its full glory- already over 6 feet tall and literally covered in clusters of deep purple flowers which are perfuming my entire backyard with honey -nectar kind of fragrance. blooms tend to start opening two weeks after the traditional lilac and smell much sweeter. This time it peaked long after the other lilac blooms died. As a result I am enjoying an amazing lengthy lilac season. From the look of it I will get at least another week of decent flowering out of my Bloomeran. I am in Zone 6b (NJ) with alkaline leaning soil. I don’t fertiliz the plant and did not add anything but the wood ash 4 seasons ago. But my soil has plenty of organic matter and worms everywhere. May be that did the trick. I also must note that I created a bed for this plant out of compact lawn area by my brick patio and it gets full day of sun (9 hours or more). No taller tree in the vicinity. You can try digging around the plant at about 3 feet radius and remove any tree root you may find. I did the same with my other lilac as it was not blooming even after getting 5 hours of sun when we bought the house. That seemed to have helped (and a handful wood ash of course). after digging add 2” layer of compost mixed with 2-4 tbs organic bloom booster like Dr. Earth’s. If you notice any arching branch hanging right over the lilac, cutting those back should also help. I don’t know the scientific reason behind, but tree branches directly on top of a shrub seems to obstruct growth even if the plant gets plenty of sun - but that’s my observation. Hopefully these steps help set buds and we get to see a picture of your blooming syringa next season. here are some pictures of my slow-but-steady bloomerang: May 4: buds ready to open May 17th - almost peaked