Four by Five Thousand

[solarbird]

Four by Five Thousand

I like this little tree; there are two of them at Murkworks South, fairly low-growing, with these large clusters of highly aromatic flowers I'd walk under in the spring. They've been on site at Murkworks South for a long time, though I don't know how long; we'll get a small number of seedlings every year, so last year I brought one up to Murkworks North and planted it. It must like the location, since it's flowered right away.

Comments

[lothie.livejournal.com]

Mmm. I grew up with lilacs. Miss them.

[solarbird]

I keep confusing "lilac" and "lavender." So these are lilacs, then. They certainly smell nice in the spring. ^_^

lilacs

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

And here you go, from one of the civil-society projects we kicked off way back when we lived in an inner-city neighbourhood in the next province to the east: www.4streetcalgary.com/lilacfestival/ IIRC it is now in its 19th year....

try messing with the pH of the soil near your tree and see what happens next year. Pretty [interesting] colour effects.... ^_^

Re: lilacs

[solarbird]

Hee. Soils here pretty much come in "acidic" and "acidic." I might manage a bit more acidic if that might do anything interesting...

Re: lilacs

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

nerp.

Okay, bad corvid moment. ^_^ But seriously, liming the soil will change the colour (and I do realise that most folks up our corner of the world don't bother with lime since we'd need so darned much of it!)

Depends on how acidic your soil is now; would hazard to guess moderately so, unless there are conifers actively shedding needles nearby/up-darcy. The colour is, IIRC, formed by two pigments, the ratio of which is quite sensitive to soil pH. Hydrangeas work the same way, yes?

Now, OTOH, would be very interested to have my own golden spruce, like the one that was recently cut down in the Charlottes. They did manage to take cuttings, UBC Botanical Garden was selling them for a while.

/nerp.