Gandle, I am profoundly sorry for the loss of those buds. I know how important the lilac blossoms in particular are to you and Leonne, and I envy you your proximity to such a collection, even if it is an off year. I was actually thinking of you this morning on my garden walk with Izzy (pictured below). Your postings have forever linked you in my mind with lilacs, and my little dwarfs are just beginning to open up. It was raining ever so lightly, and the lilacs were opening in the background while my tree peonies were opening in the foreground. The smell was amazing. (It was strong and pleasant enough to even mask the scent of "Eau de Wet Dog.") There are three different tree peonies in this picture: The one in the background has purple-y foliage, the one in the foreground has green foliage and identical flowers, and there is one lone bud snaking up on the left... this is the plant that Izzy chewed to the ground when she was a little bitty puppy, and after nearly three years, it is finally blooming for the first time ever... I have no idea what color it will be. I am sorry I do not know the html coding to post Scratch 'n Sniff photos, or I would. I envy you your rhubarb success. I got some clumps from my sister a couple years ago from plants that have been in my family for generations. I shared them with a neighbor, who planted them in a pile of compost and now has an amazing crop, and planted mine and forgot to water them. They're still (barely) alive, but won't be harvest-worthy for at least another year. Again, I am very sorry about the frost damage. Those of us who experience winter to the fullest extent should be entitled to every aspect of spring too. The promise of impending seasonal euphoria is the one thing that keeps me going during the dark months. Perhaps this is nature's gentle way of making you rest your hands? Heaven knows you'd be picking fruit and flowers if they were there. Take it easy, and rest up for fall canning season! The cold may have zapped the apples and such, but you'll still have tomatoes, peppers, and all that lot to look forward to!

did you fertilize it at planting .... is it in the lawn where you fert'd the lawn?? excessive green growth at the expense of flowering CAN BE a sign of too much nitrogen ... but that said ... i really dont expect much from recent tranplants until about year 3 .... its alive... and you got some flowers.. just give it another year ... the increased seed production.. aka flowers... may have been a reaction to the threat on its life that you put it through.. a survival mechanism .... to seed heavily before death .... and this year it just regressed to a normal attempt to get re-established after the torture ... or not.. who knows.. its green .. its growing.. its a shrub.. dont waste money on fertilizer ... just keep it properly watered .. and soon enough.. you will be complaining about all the seedlings in your yard.. like the rest of us... lol .... ken

I'm right in the center of the state, between Shawnee and Norman. In spite of what the climate has been doing, I've (finally) started getting a lot of bloom on my plants. It seems to be a lot later than last year, and I'm just now getting fruit to set. The Sweet 100 cherry toms seem to be doing a lot better than the big ones. The plants look good, but the setting crop is not at all what it normally is. I never hold back the water on tomatoes. Keep in mind that they can be grown hydroponically. It's pretty hard to over-water them, so mine get a good deep soak every couple of days. Even though they have a good layer of mulch, they begin to get pretty droopy if I let it go any longer than that. Growing them in pots is even more critical. It doesn't take any time at all for the pots to heat up and dry out if they get any sunlight in this kind of heat, and the plastic pots are infinitely worse than clay ones for building a terrific amount of heat inside. I automatically put in tomato fertilizer spikes when the plants go in the ground, and have found that they always seem to do a good job. The plants seem to be much more vigorous and productive than they are without them. It wouldn't be reasonable to do that with a large number of plants, but it works for my smaller garden. Some of the reasons you may be seeing fruit setting on those pitiful plants in a nursery are more controlled climate (water, the pots are stacked in so closely that the roots are shaded so they don't get too hot, etc) and the fact that they have most probably been fed with something like Bloom for blossom and root development. It's a pretty standard practice for the big commercial vendors, and an indication is always when you turn the tiny pots over and see that they are already becoming seriously root-bound. Even when they are struggling to survive, the plants are putting all their energy into growing roots and producing blossoms instead of lots of growth and foliage. The result is easy to see. It's a bizarre year for the vegetable gardens, but if you've put the toms into good, big, deep pots and planted them deep originally so that they can build a solid root structure, and given them a drink of a diluted liquid high P fertilizer, then about all you can do is keep them watered, protect the pots so the roots don't get cooked in the heat, and cross your fingers that you'll have home-grown tomatoes for your dinner. Pat

I think mine is doning the same thing. I planted it in my yard last year.. it was blossoming at the time, fully opened flowers, but this year, the flowers get to a stage just before opening, then fall off. I fertilized it as well. could the wrong fertilizer cause the flowers to not open fully. and NO the answer is not that it is a variety that doesnt open fully.