the lore of lilacs

I am new to lilacs, I have never even seen one in a garden, much less grown my own, but our new house has 3 old lilacs. the first one I pruned in fall, the wrong thing to do but it was 12' high against the guest house and I just wanted to cut in half, I have since read you prune right after flowering... the second one is ancient with thick gnarled wood looking more like an oak than shrub, I think it might be pink, it is attempting to bloom, I am not sure if it will put on a show, but I can't wait to start hacking it up to rejuvenate! the third one is against my kitchen window, it must be 12' tall and 10' wide, it is in its full glory right now...
 

 

I must say I don't understand all the fuss about their scent, it is so faint it doesn't even register for me, all I get is a wee fresh scent... the flowers are pretty and profuse, but I have yet to understand the fragrance lore I so often read about. Despite my lack of fragrance woes, I still found the lilac a reason to celebrate, it is the first real color in my new garden. our land used to have a very old home, it was demolished for new construction, as you can imagine most of the plants were lost in construction, anything that is still alive was planted many decades ago and left to neglect. I look forward to restoring this land to a blaze of colors, today I celebrated the lilacs,

welcoming their blossoms of gorgeous color ~