Great story. At this same farm we have tons of lilac bushes. Funny how you love something and then after cutting them back and living with them for years it’s like, ugg, time to trim the lilacs again. Curse them. But once we were burning yard trash which we can still do out there and it got away from us and burned two of the lilac bushes. We were sort of sad. Now they are the biggest and happiest lilacs out there. Same with the wild roses. I can cut them out and down to the ground but unless we poison and mow them for a year, they come but very happy that we have pruned them back. And I don’t mean that they just sort of come back, they come roaring back and grow up to to a foot er month in the spring and summer.
I have a lilac that is tall but doesn’t blossom. In fact, it hasn’t blossomed in about five years. Hmmmm.... time to pull out the flame thrower! LOL!