My Grandmother had a huge lilac in Mississippi and I'll never forget the wonder of this beautiful tree that it is said, "CANNOT BE GROWN IN CENTRAL TEXAS"!!! I live in a rural area West of Austin, and years ago I saw a lilac blooming in a yard in Johnson City near where I live. I've also been told of lilacs growing about 15 miles of here outside the town of Blanco. These trees would have been originally planted MANY years ago and somehow, are of a variety that WILL tolerate HEAT, DROUGHT, ALKALINE SOIL and other challenges faced by Central Texas Gardeners. I've wanted a lilac for as long as I can remember. Today, I passed the home where I first saw a tree blooming and the tree was putting out new growth! I thought the drought had killed it but it survived. The home is abandoned now and overgrown with weeds, but being unable to resist, I broke off a branch and have trimmed cuttings and dipped them in rooting hormone and will try to root them. I've read that they are easily rooted in water, so, being a FANATIC about owning a lilac, I will go back tomorrow and take pruning shears to get MORE. I looked in the weeds for suckers and didn't see any BUT, since the growing season is JUST beginning, MAYBE, there WILL be some later and I'll have a better chance of success! I INTEND to have a lilac and hope I just live long enough to see it bloom!!! YAY!!! I shall have a lilac tree!!!

Yes, I watched them. I had 15 tomato plans and those birds were sporadically hitting the tomatoes. There was water. I think the call of the color "red" on plants is too hard for birds to overcome as they know that color as food. But, I do appreciate your concern over God's little creatures, too. I couldn't get too upset, there were enough for them and me, too. I just hated to loose the biggest tomatoes. I just planted 2 for our 2nd tomato season here in Texas. But, left a couple of indetereminates for them. I hope they take that bate. I love my Rutgers tomatoes.

Does anyone have any extra seeds? I'm working hard to grow out a butterfly, hummingbird, and bee yard. This variety came highly recommended. Sorry I don't have my list of seeds posted on the GW. But, if you write me back, I'll try my best to give you the list of current seeds that I do have. Thanks a bunch and I hope you get all that you wanting, too. Xtal

Ken, I need to draw a sketch of what I intend this bed to look like. It will be inside my fenced yard even though I do plan to plant some of the same trees out in the hell strip. It's not what you'd normally think of when topiary comes to mind, but, I do love topiaries. I had thought about working on a topiary out front near the curb of an Aussie standing alert. If life-sized, it would be the place where I could hang all future dog collars of my deceased Aussies. Thought that a large water saucer in front would be a good touch for any little critters passing by. Just having got to that project yet. Also thought of putting a horse out front but decided that would not be the place for it since it would be too tempting for any child to want to climb upon it's back and break it. Might still do that, but it would be inside the yard. I'll draw out a sketch and post it to give a better idea of how I see this area coming together. Thx for jogging my memory into thinking about a topiary. In planting the leaning trees, they should give a break to the plants that would be under their airy shade from our blazing death start every summer. Those two will have to come first. Xtal