Live long and prosper.

Lilacs will do just that: live long and usually prosper without a lot of effort. Just give a lilac a nice sunny spot, and it will grow quite happily for years.

Sometimes you’ll see old-fashioned lilacs thriving near the remains of an old farmhouse, outlasting the building.

Luckily we now have smaller varieties to go with our smaller lot sizes. Bloomerang® Dwarf Pink and Bloomerang® Dwarf Purple are two very nice reblooming lilacs.

These two varieties grow just 2.5-3′ tall and wide. That’s a lot more manageable than the 10′ common lilac. You can even grow these little fellows in a container as a patio plant.

Since they are reblooming Bloomerang® lilacs, they will flower in spring and then again later in summer. That makes them a good choice for smaller gardens where every plant really needs to earn its keep. They’re pretty low maintenance also – a light trim right after the spring bloom is a good idea. Both are hardy in USDA 3-7.

Live long and prosper, part two.

Gardening will do that, you know. Help you live longer. It helps to do other healthy things, like eating your vegetables and getting regular exercise. But gardening itself is one of the things that the world’s longest-lived people tend to do.

Is it the gardening? Or is it that having a garden to enjoy gives us some incentive to keep on keeping on? It’s hard to say. But much like having a salad with dinner tonight, planting a garden is a good decision. A garden is a kind of blessing for all who can share it.

Did you know that Mr. Spock’s famous greeting is a blessing as well? Here’s a charming interview where Leonard Nimoy explains the origin of that Vulcan phrase.