Miss Kim is a late bloomer

When we planted our front garden about ten years ago, we chose plants based on a landscape plan we had drawn up by a landscape designer. The plan called for all kinds of things I had never heard of: Cranberry Cotoneasters, Astilbe Fanale, and a Miss Kim Lilac. Of course, I'd seen lots of lilacs and loved them but I didn't know Miss Kim.

That first year we planted too late in the season to see what our plants would look like in full bloom. The following spring the grass greened up overnight, and up and down the street our neighbors' trees and bushes were alive with color. But nothing from Miss Kim. Just some seedy little, vaguely purple buds. Jeesh. Is that it? Is that all you got, Miss Kim?

I'm not going to lie. I was disappointed. Why would the designer recommend this dud? I wanted to like her - But I wanted the luscious blossoms of my childhood memory. Big, soft blue cones dripping from the branches. You call this a lilac bush? Hmmph.

Several weeks later when spring was giving way to summer, tulips and daffodils, long gone,  just like my expectations for this lilac bush, Miss Kim bloomed! Not a big, showy, BLOOM - but she presented us with some rather brief, timid blossoms. "Uh...here you go. I made these for you. I hope you like them."

Every year it's been kind of the same thing and I guess I've come to accept it. I stopped thinking of her as a disappointment and realized that's just how it is. She operates on her own timetable no matter what the other kids on the block are doing. She's persistent and serious - a bit restrained. She's working on her game. She's hangin' in. I like that is a lilac bush - and in a person.

This year she took me completely by surprise. I walked out the front door one morning last week, and was blown back by Miss Kim's spectacular appearance. Lovely pale lilac blossoms, full and round and everywhere. Why Miss Kim! Look at you! Nicely done!

Here's to Miss Kim, and late bloomers everywhere. Long may we reign.