This picture of a budding lilac is from May 17th.  I’ve lived on this cold, dry mountain for four years now and this is the first year I’ve seen blooming lilacs. Lilacs are in the olive family, which Phytophactor ruminated on a few weeks ago.  I love lilacs and this particular bush is on my daily walk home, so I think I would have noticed if it had bloomed in previous years.  Oddly enough, it’s been a very chilly and dry spring, two things I thought would make it less likely to bloom.  Perhaps it’s the lack of extremely cold nights alternating with warm weather that is the normal Flagstaff spring, or maybe the extremely wet winter we had helped it.  I do wonder what generally prevents them from blooming here.