I 
have this beautiful very tall...around 15 feet tall....white lilac tree. It started out being a small cutting from a friend's tree which was all of 25 feet tall. Usually they are called lilac bushes but not in this case. You could smell it from all parts of the yard. So, I planted the cutting and it grew over the years with the same effect. Though I love lilacs I cannot cut them and put them in the house. I get terrible headaches if I do. But I have other lilac bushed of the purple family, so I can walk around the yard and smell them. Anyway, during one of the more severe storms that we had this Winter the snow and wind split the white lilac in two places leaving the large limbs still attached to the tree but only barely. On the top part were leaf buds coming I showed the tree to my daughter and I said maybe I could get someone to cut off the limbs and put them in a large container of water to try to save them. She then reminded me (as she loves all flowers and fauna as I do) that she thought the lilac was one of the bushes (tree in this case) that if you just took and dug a hole and planted them they would root themselves. I then remembered hearing that but at my age some things just slip away. Well, no one was available or just shrugged it off as one of Mom's fantasies. So. last week during one, and I do mean one of the nice Spring days we had, I went out with a small handsaw and took the limbs off the tree. The buds were still there. I went down back with one of the limbs into the wetland area and dug a hole . Not too deep as I am not able to do that but did the best I could. I put a tall 2x2 stick next to it and tied it. I did the same thing with the other limb but in an area near a purple lilac bush and put lots of dirt around both of them. I figured I could get help later on doing the job right. I just went out this morning to check them out and the buds are still on both of them and they are growing. I don't know if they will produce lilacs, but, maybe next year. I just can't give up on such a beautiful thing of nature. So, that's my story and I hope it has a happy ending.
