Lilacs

Photo of a neighbors lilac tree taken just a few days ago. According to Wikipedia, Lilacs "...produce more flowers if left unpruned. If pruned, the plant responds by producing fast-growing young vegetative growth with no flowers in an attempt to restore the removed branches."

We had a beautiful lilac tree at the house on Stevens. I remember Mom pointing it out to me when we moved there when I was three years old. After some years it stopped flowering. We didn't realize that pruning the flowers was detrimental to producing more. I pulled off way too many. It remained for many years but Dad eventually had it removed. It was probably more a lilac bush than a tree but we called it that anyway. 

"In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash’d palings, 

Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green, 

With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love, 

With every leaf a miracle—and from this bush in the dooryard, 

With delicate-color’d blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green, 

A sprig with its flower I break."

  -From When Lilacs Last In the Dooryard Bloom'd by Walt Whitman