Lilacs are pretty hardy. I started out with a little twig in a coffee can somewhere between 20 and 25 years ago. It did well, so we moved it (complete with coffee can) into a cut off 55 gal barrel. 16 years ago we scooped up that half barrel with a tractor and moved it from Oregon to Washington. About 10 years ago, we decided it needed to be moved again. Scooped up that same barrel with the same tractor and plopped it into a new spot. We had to build up the dirt around the new spot because the barrel kept trying to tip over. That barrel is still there, somewhere underneath the lilac, which is now at least 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide.
