One of my favorite flowers, always had shrubs of them when I lived in the Pac. NW
but down here in SW Ala we are just a touch too warm for them.
throw a couple of handfuls of fertilizer under them just before it rains, just as they are starting to show flower buds,
and you will be in heaven with all the sweet blooms.

The old woman who lived next door to me, and shares the lilac bushes on the property line, would have the bushes trimmed every late summer or fall. I told her a hundred times when she complained about never having flowers that you can only trim them right after they are done blooming, or not at all.....and every year she did it late. Well she passed away a few years ago and her lazy grandson now lives there. The bushes are not trimmed anymore and bloom well.....and I was just outside sniffing lilac.

Miss Kim has been a wonder - covered with sweet smelling blooms, nice compact slow grower, doesn't get mildewed. We have one other that I am growing from a cutting from one in my grandfather's yard - probably goes back more than 80 years - a tall growing one, woody stem, double dark violet, not as fragrant - but somehow, thrives here. Go figure....not easy to root slips, though.