Lilacs are a popular and beautiful plant that can be grown indoors, but they require proper care and attention. To ensure the best bloom results, plant them in full sun, which will help them survive in shade or part sun spots. For optimal soil conditions, plant your lilac in rich, moist, well-drained soil.
Lilacs prefer alkaline to neutral soils, but they can tolerate neutral to slightly acidic soils as well. To grow lilacs indoors, dig a generous hole and plant them to the level of the soil line. Back-fill and firm down the soil gently around the plant, water in well, and mulch after planting to retain moisture in the soil.
To prune lilacs, wait until they are mostly in bloom and cut the stems when the weather is cool. To prevent the potted lilac from drying out between waterings, add a layer of organic mulch around its base. Other options include wood chips, pine bark, sawdust, hay, and other organic materials.
Lilacs thrive in a sunny location, in well-drained, fertile, humus-rich soil that is alkaline to neutral. They are good plants for chalky or sandy soils, but they need full sun for the most flowers. Water gently and deeply at the soil level, keeping it lightly moist but not wet. Place the lilac in a spot that receives at least 6 hours of full sun every day and keep it relatively moist.
For more established lilacs, choose a neutral pH of 6 to 7 and ensure your planting area has plenty of room. Lilacs can grow tall and big, but they require proper care and attention to ensure their longevity and growth.
📹 Lilac – How to grow and care for it
Lilac – How to grow and care for it. Welcome to our video. Today, we will discuss how to grow Lilacs and care for them.
📹 How to Prune Lilacs
Lilac bushes can get tall and leggy and knowing how to prune them will give you years of beautiful, fragrant flowers on …
I know this article is 4 yrs. old, but I just wanted to say thanks! It’s come in super handy. I’m in the process of restoring my grandparent’s home. My grandma loved her flowers and one of her favorites was lilacs. They’re literally everywhere. I’m looking forward to using your information to properly take care of them. Plant care is so much fun!
This is what I do with all “woody” bushes like burning bushes and dogwood. When you take out the woody branches, those that are thick and rough with little new growth, those toward the middle, and allow light and air in again, new growth will occur. Just do an hour or two at a time. And, don’t use a hedge trimmer. The damage it causes to the branch ends will attract bugs and disease. It’s a process so enjoy your time in the fresh air taking care of Creation!
Just wanted to say thanks. I came across your article about 3 seasons ago and started to apply this pruning method to my Dwarf lilac late June or early July when the flowers have faded. Mine is in a container on our deck and each spring since I began pruning we’ve seen our flower production increase significantly. Really great article and this works for container gardeners and dwarf lilacs as well. Cheers.
You conveyed a lot of good information Scott. I do have a few suggestions. I like to remove Woody material during the dormant season only. If I want the shrub to flower better I do as you suggest and cut off the seed pods, but I only cut off the seeds and try to leave all of the leaves in place to provide vital food for the tree. Pruning vegetation after flowering requires the tree to regrow and expend extra energy to recover its former food supply that was removed.That regrowth grows rapidly and is subsequently weak . Pruning 1/3 of a tree or shrub should be a limit, not a goal . There are many 100 + year old lilacs in my area that are absolutely stunning with stems up to 8 in in diameter. These were lilacs that were well cared for and not over pruned. Their branches grew slowly and were subsequently strong enough to withstand many Montana Winters. All that said, lilacs are extremely Hardy and will often be only one of three plants left on Old Windswept Homesteads. Irises and rhubarb being the other two. Keep up the good work and thanks
I have a huge lilac that started out as a mother’s day plant and has gotten out of hand in my mom’s garden. A beautiful plant but few blossoms. I really appreciate how you explained this in depth. After perusal this, I know exactly what to do with the plant i have, to achieve what i want. Thank you so much! Next spring i am sure we will have magnificent blossoms!
Thank you for providing such clear and practical advice. I can see exactly what I need to do now. I inherited an overgrown lilac bush when I bought a property and I’m very happy to have a plan of action now. The fragrance brings me back to childhood and now I can look forward to more in the years to come.
My mom had a lilac bush in our backyard growing up. It was her favorite smell and she would bring a bouquet in the house each spring. I always wanted my own, but assumed I’d have to wait until the dream house to start planting them. My boyfriend and I just bought a foreclosed meth house to fix up and I waited all winter to see what plants would pop up in the backyard. It feels like a sign that our one bush turned out to be a lilac. Thank you for teaching me to take care of them and be a good plant mom.
Hi Scott the Gardener! I planted my first Lilac bush late last summer and this summer the blooms happened and were a delight. I will now be able to prune the branches since viewing your very helpful article! Thanks so much for such an informative and well presented instructional vid. Enjoy your Lilacs as I am enjoying mine! 🙂
Our Lilac bush used to flower on the neighbours side of the fence and hardly ours, I was cutting it every year at around April with an electric hedge trimmer, then a few years ago I stopped. The following year and every year since it has totally flourished, full of flowers top to bottom. Its getting a little big now.. so I may trim it when the flowers are gone, now I know the correct time to trim it.
i have lilacs that look like they were planted about 200yrs ago in my yard. the trunks are 6-8 inches in diameter, and they are about 20-25Ft tall. they constantly are growing smaller lilac plants, which is why 1 side of my lawn has a 100 foot wall of them reaching 20 ft in the air. ive decided to prune them back. although they grow great flowers every year, they are so massive they could grow 10x as many flowers.
Thank you for this article. This is really helpful. I have two lilacs that just look terrible. I moved in last spring and cleaned out the dead wood. This year I had one purple and one white bush – pretty flowers but not very many. Last year they were both pretty diseased and was told it was because they had little air flow. This year, a landscaper came and advised me to cut one down to about 5 feet after the blooms were done. Your article helps me learn just how to prune for long lasting, beautiful and healthy plants. Thank you!
Thanks, glad. Know I can cut them down all the way. We moved into ones frowning about 15 feet, and I have trimmed and cut with no knowledge (also hard to get to), I’ll do it some more today!, I had accidentally taken about a third off, and did it right……imagine that….. off to my next third, flowers dead a week.
My lilac is almost 15 years old, and I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping it at that 6-8 foot height and training it to grow in roughly the shape I want. However, I think I need to take a slightly more aggressive approach next spring and get rid of some of the really old branches. There are some in the center of the bush that don’t even really produce leaves any more. Your tips will be really helpful in knowing which 1/3 are headed for the compost heap.
Thank you. I have two that I got as sticks/rooted cutoffs from a neighbors bush several years ago. The first has grown up to close to 10 feet, the other about 5 feet. I wanted to prune them last fall but thankfully looked it up first. They are both just bursting with flowers and are beautiful, but the tall one is getting a bit too tall. I plan to prune them to get them close to the same size over the next year or two and to suit the areas they occupy. This article certainly helps.
Lilac bushes were brought to America by Europeans of all sorts for this reason: When it starts to leaf out, it is time to plant your spring crop. When the flowers are spent, it is time to plant your cold crop. Different climate zones have different times to plant. The lilac tells you when. You are welcome!
Hello there. New to the gardening. Had a beautiful lilac bush in my front yard of my great grandparents house who raised me. Moved into our house a few years back and our lilacs were blossoming beautifully. I wasn’t sure how to manage things as I said im new to gardening. So now I’m have a (estimate) possibly 10 ft LILAC TREE 😂😂😂 If I knew how to send you a picture of it I would but I’m not so great with technology and don’t even know if there is a way for me to send you a picture of the big beauty. Lol
Thank you! We inherited an old overgrown lilac (my favorite!!) with the purchase of an old house. Unfortunately a spring snow storm took down some branches and made me aware that it was time to prune the 2+ story plant! I’ll follow the advice once the flowers are spent and hopefully next year we’ll get even more flowers!
Thank you! This is exactly the advice I was looking for. We moved into a house that had lilac bushes going crazy and they are super tall. The “stems” on some of the shoots are pretty much tree trunks, but have split “bark”. We cut one completely down last year and the shoots were crazy this year. Now I know why. You answered all my questions for the various stages we are in. So greatful!
The previous owners of our house pruned 3 multi-stemmed white French lilacs into tree form over a paving patio block seating area. It makes for a stunning fragrant cool area. But what a mess for many weeks! Another small leafed lilac has been pruned into a ball. I want to make that topiary style somewhat smaller. I now feel confident about tackling that – after it blooms.
My grandfather did something very different, as did other people in the community I grew up in. Wire was used with ground pegs to keep the stems growing vertical. Branches Were kept short so that when these were all in a row, they looked like a natural wall. Once the stems were strong enough to hold the weight, the guide wires were removed (similar to a tree). Stem cluster were kept small. Low branches were trimmed off. They flowered just fine but did not look like a giant round bush. When I saw these massive unkempt lilac bushes here in Indiana, I found myself missing the pruned bushes I grew up with as a kid in Michigan.
I see so many pruned into trees with like a central trunk, and just leaves and flowers at the top. Mine are totally overgrown, but now I have the courage to go out there and clean them up. I was always afraid I’d kill them, but if it’s safe to do a hard prune, I still think I’ll play it safe and do the worst of it this year and see how they look next year.
Great article. One thing I noticed was you never cut the tops other than the flower. So to shorten the height it’s taking out the complete branch and allowing new shoots. Therefore, lilacs are bushes and not a tree! Now I can maintain my beautiful lilac in the small area it’s in. Thank you for this article, great job Gardener Scott. One question, how often do you fertilize lilacs?
This is wonderful information. We have two wayyyyy overgrown lilac trees (easily 15 ft tall and maybe 6 inches across the largest trunk) on the property line with our neighbour. We assumed they were theirs but this year finally is undeniably needing help so I’m going to try to deal with it. Very small, not terribly healthy looking blooms and all at the top. This gives me the confidence to approach the neighbours with a plan to hopefully regain some of their glory. Thank you for all the advice!
I moved in my house 10 years ago then the lilac bloomed all around the tree. Then the flowers became less and less. And I did do pruning but now I know it was in a wrong way. I am hesitating if I really need to cut it all down the ground or I can use the 1/3 principle. Anyway, it makes sense to me and really helps. Thanks!
This is what I will be doing soon. The one we inherited has probably never been pruned for decades. It’s almost impossible to kill a lilac. One word of caution when planting a lilac is keep them away from sewer pipes. Our first home had one directly over the sewer pipe at the corner of the house and caused problems. Those roots can go deep.
This the information I needed. My lilac bushes are relatively new. Planted them maybe 3 to 4 years ago. I have a couple that need pruning and now I know just what to do. I do have a question however, I have something that is eating the leaves. I’m assuming that it may be slugs or snails so I sprinkled some slug & snail bait out around the base of the bushes. Are there any other types of bugs that will eat the leaves beside the slugs or snails? And if so what can I do to prevent this from happening?
I really want to trim my bushes all the way down and start over since the previous owners didn’t take care of anything.. if I cut them down like you say will they grow back at all? Or grow back in a couple years? I don’t have a green thumb and know absolutely nothing about gardening/pruning/ anything really….. loved you article made me feel like I actually stand a chance to grow something lol
I bought an old farmhouse and we have some of the biggest lilacs I’ve ever seen. The two biggest trees are nearly 20 feet tall! But I also noticed many many little birds living off the seed pods over winter. So I don’t want to take their food away but I want blooms. I don’t have the heart to cut them down so harshly.
Really needed these instructions. Perfect timing! Bought a home in November and just realized this spring I have lilacs!!! So exciting! My four bushes are lanky ones so after blooms fade I should prune the spent flower bracts off so they rejuvenate (more flowers) for next spring right? Hope I got it right. Thanks for the article. Az🌵here
I planted mine, but it took years to even start to grow. I had 4 fairly close, and trimmed lower branches so they would grow tall. Someone said to put lime on them, and that seemed to work! 2 took off a little better, but two are still short and only have a few blossoms. I wanted them tall for shade, but took out too many lower branches on the two that grew, and 15 years later they are tall! But skinny. They are VERY tall, so i did not even see the blossoms until i came down the driveway from going to town! No scent, either. They are now as taller than the cabin, with a loft, so it is like 2 stories. So i bought a tall Fiskars pruner. I still want them tall as we have extremely hot summers, but will trim the tops and hope they fill out but maybe have to cut them down, looks like from what you said. Pretty scrawny at the bottom! Sure hope to get flowers, though, next year. Someone said if i cut the ends there would not be flowers for years. Glad i found you!
I have an old, old, lilac tree. It still produces a lot of lilac flowers, and has a lot of new growth shooting up around it. Should I cut it down to the ground? Would I be able to transfer the new growth to a new location to start a new lilac bush? The lilac tree is old and I want to help it as much as possible – it has survived so long, it deserves some much needed TLC. Thanks for your help, loved the article.
Thank you for your time in making this article and sharing your knowledge. I have several lilac on the homestead. Some I planted and some were there… my question is regarding the taller stems – is it possible or good to cut them down so they fall between the 6-8’ height, or do I just leave the height and stick with the ground and stem growth pruning? Thanks again… Your neighbor in zone 5a 😊 Michella Payne
My entire back fence is lined with lilacs that haven’t been properly pruned in a couple decades, and I don’t remember the last time they flowered much. I’m inclined to cut them all back in hopes they’ll grow back healthy next year. But I really enjoy the privacy they provide, so I’d rather not cut them back until after their leaves drop this fall. I know you said the best time to prune is right after the flowers finish in the spring, but would it be ok to cut them all back in the fall? Once I do am I right to think they will grow next year and flower the following year? Thank you for all your great articles!
Thanks so much for this super helpful article! We have a deciduous lilac plant we just discovered at our new property. It was overrun with salal and vines, so it’s grown pretty parallel with the ground for a couple feet and then juts up to about 4′ high and is very leggy. There are dozens of small growths coming out of the ground with buds (no leaves yet). It is very quickly nearing early spring here on Vancouver island and I’m wondering what my best course of actions is for pruning this year and coming year? Very much appreciated!
Oh my goodness, this is the exact article I need! We have about 7 lilacs that were transplanted from the “original home” when this house was built in 1960. I think the previous owner did keep up on pruning them, but I’m going to need to give them some attention soon. Question: how big is the window to prune? I know you said right after the flowers fade, but what would be the end time to prune?
Scott, what do you recommend to do for lilacs that you’ve just transplanted? My husband buys me a lilac every year for my birthday and/or Mother’s day. We planted them at our second farm as we will be moving there in a year or two. They both had tons of beautiful, fragrant flowers but the ground on the whole farm is pretty compacted. Will this negatively affect the new transplants or do you recommend pruning them at all this first year? Michelle
Hi Scott, this was so useful!!. I have all three types you mentioned, and in addition, I transplanted to young saplings to my garden last summer. This year each has one or two blooms now. Both are spindly and not very attractive. Should I cut them off close to the ground once the blooms are finished, or can I cut after a couple of feet where there are some branches?
Thanks for your article. It has been a great help. We inherited a lilac bush when we purchased our house 2 years ago but I have been to scared to prune it for fear of doing something wrong. Consequently it’s ballooned to over 2 1/2- 3 m tall. I’ve just finished pruning out a third of the most mature branches and cutting off the spent flowers. Can I ask? Is it okay to prune the flowers that have got (what looks like) new sea pods growing in them?
What about old and decrepit lilacs? I have a client with a few that have been poorly maintained. I’m a little nervous that if I lopp them down to ankle height they might die off completely. Any insight? I’m in Santa Fe New Mexico, we have been getting some lovely warm days in the 60s but still getting hard Frost at night and even snow storms as late as early may. When is the right time to do this pruning?
gardener scott, i’m fortunate to have caught your lilac pruning tutorial. i live in a warmer inland valley of los angeles. i currently grow 4 different descanso garden hybrid lilacs (need less chill hours). in ground approximately five years. purchased as (around 2′ tall), one gallon plants. thankfully, all four have become handsome shrubs. i’ve yet to really prune (except for cutting bloom stalks to bring indoors). one variety, california rose, has reached 9′. this seasons floral flush was sparse. a couple questions, please. should one consistently prune a lilac for shape, managing proportions air circulation, etc.,regardless of a shrubs age? my five year old’s look balanced, but very dense. the 9′ ca. rose has a few larger (& visibly scarred, or “damaged” limbs, as you post illustrated. in warm to hot summer regions, is their a cut off point for pruning? post bloom, pre-seed set, is my take away the article. my last truss literally faded last week. thank you!
Great article and some great tips to keep lilacs healthy and beautiful. I have a similar problem with my Forsythias. Do the same pruning techniques work for Forsythia? I read that Forsythia should also be pruned just after they finish flowering in the spring or early summer. Any thoughts or ideas on keeping Forsythia healthy and under control?
Thank you for this wonderful article. I have a lilac “tree” that I bought at a greenhouse quite a few years ago and it is growing in a big pot on my covered terrace. It has become wildly shaped and the leaves are yellowing. Would you suggest that I just cut it all the way back? I have some new branches growing up from the pot too.. Yours from a desperate gardener with very little confidence at pruning.
Hello Scott, I enjoyed perusal your article about pruning lilacs. My lilac is an out of control huge tree. Based on your article I should cut it down to about three feet off the ground. Intuitively I always wanted to go this but I was afraid I would kill the plant. Please let me know what your thoughts are on this issue. Thanks in advance, André
Thanks for a very informative article! I have a lilac that I transplanted 50 years ago and have never done anything with it, so it has grown to your category three description. Yes, it is still flowering, but only at the top and few flowers this year. So now I will not feel badly about pruning it way back and allowing it to come back into a nice bush again. How long should it take to bloom again?
Thank you for your knowledge. I love your easy to follow I instructions. I have a Ray Hartman ceanothus lilac tree that I planted a 1 1/2 ago. It has a branch growing out of trunk close to the base and it has a lot of smaller branches on it. Should I cut that branch? It’s only 6 ft tall right now. The branch is around 4ft long. Thanks
I have a new lilac, planted about a year ago. It’s only about 18″ tall, when should I start pruning it? Should I give it a few years? Or start training it now? I should add that it is a variety that will bloom periodically throughout the spring and summer, as I know that might make a difference on when I should prune it.
Thanks for the great information! I have a Bloomerang lilac bush in my yard (the type that blooms twice during the season). It’s blooming beautifully now (late April/early May), and it will bloom again later in the summer. Any special pruning instructions? Shall I wait until after the second blooming to do any pruning?
I really enjoyed perusal this article and am wondering about a common lilac I have that really didn’t do well this year. It has never been pruned and may be the reason for the number of blooms decreasng each year. DUH! What I would love to do is cut it down to a foot but I’m eager to do it now which I know is not the right time. Will I be harming the plant if I do cut it back now, this fall? thank you in advance.
Thank you for doing this article! You have confirmed what I want and feel the need to do with a lilac tree that’s got about 5 trunks all coming out of ONE main trunk/stem and the tree trunks/main stems, range from 5 inches to 7 inches in diameter and the tree stands about 15 to 20 ft tall. Someone let it grow wild for many yrs. I also find there are Hundreds of root suckers sprouting up through the lawn and they are hardwood and so we cant walk barefoot in that area. I read they dont die even if you remove the tree. Do you have any suggestions pls as to how to stop them from growing?? If i have to remove the tree, i will. Its getting worse each yr. Thank you😊
Could y’all help? I grew up in the South and moved to Ohio when I was 7 for a few years. We had Lilacs in our yard…they were a flower…not a tree or shrub. I fell in love with the smell of this flower but when we moved back down south, I never saw a lilac again until a few years ago, here in Georgia, I was working for a family that had a flowering shrub like these that you are pruning. The flowers smelled beautiful but I thought to myself, you call it a lilac but thats not a lilac, a lilac is a flower not a bush but I loved it so much, I took several cuttings and got 3 to root. They are big enough to put in garden this year….all of this said. If we are calling this shrub a lilac….what was the plant (flower) that I loved in Ohio that was not a little tree? Thanks friends….I’m confused and tried to Google the answer first b4 coming here.
Anyone who is going to be cutting off some big branches close to the ground… my advice is do not make the cut horizontal to the ground because you don’t want the cut to be flat where the rain will sit on there and eventually rot it all the way down into the root. You want to keep the root alive so more new stems come up out of it. So always make your cuts on the slant so the rain runs off.
And when you trim back a hedge that’s “gotten too big,” never flowered, and you weren’t really sure what it is, next year? You might be surprised at the outcome. I had a hedge that I wasn’t sure what it was (amateur gardener, and I admit it!) it was over six feet tall, so I cut it back to just above the four-foot height of the fence. The following year it was loaded with lilacs. Since there were several hedges and I had trimmed all of them, I was blessed with lavender, deep purple, and white lilacs. Now, every year as soon as the flowers have finished blooming, I cut them off and toss them in with the regular yard waste for composting, and the following year there are more blooms on the bushes. Planting flowers or flowering bushes, will also attract the bees. We help them, they’ll help us.
Thanks for this very informative article. Unfortunately, my lilac bush is out of control (about 15 feet tall) so I’m thinking that I need to go with Option #3. In the article Scott recommends doing trimming right after flowering. Since my lilac bush didn’t flower at all this year, is it advisable to trim all the branches down to 6 – 8 inches now (early September) or wait until early spring of next year?
Hey Gardener Scott, I see that when you cut the branches back with the saw, you go straight across and not at an 45 degree angle, nor do you say anything about painting the cut with tree wound sealer. I know that I was told to do this years ago, so is the angle and wound care not really necessary? Thanks for your excellent vids.
Thanks for this article! I have a question. We transplanted 3 lilac “bushes” this last year and they each were/are pretty tall and leggy and not bushy …each about 5 feet tall. Each only produced about 10 small lilac clusters. I’m not sure how to prune them as I want them to become more bushy, but don’t know how it impacts the pruning when they’re just 1 year old transplants. Any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated. Just subscribed to your website. Kathleen
My elderly neighbor had an unkempt lilac tree that drooped over our fence and I loved it. Sadly she passed away two years ago and the new owners removed it. However, some of its roots must have survived because I know have a lovely green lilac bush thriving on my side of the fence, but there are no flowers yet. Is there anything I can do to help it bloom next Spring?
Thank you for mentioning at the end to have 10 to 12 stems per plant. I took approach number 3 and I pruned my hedge all the way down and had more new growth come out of the stumps then the suckers so now each stump has 2 to 3 new stalks . Can I leave these as part of the new growth or should I prune those back to let the suckers come up instead?
Great article thank you. I have a question for you I hope you can help me with? I have an old lilac bushprobably really old it only has one large trunk left with a lot of healthy branches and green leaves which I don’t think it’s been trimmed in 15 or 20 years. I don’t think I’ve seen blooms on it for a year or two but it has very dark lush green leafs. What can I do to stimulate more growth I’d really like for it to get shoots so I can propagate that lilac bush somewhere else
Gardener Scott, I have 2 lilac bushes that are basically what I call leaning toward the north of my yard. The reason I believe them to be doing this is my neighbors maple has now grown over the bushes blocking them from sun. Besides asking my neighbor to trim her maple, is their a way to get them to straighten back up with pruning?
If you are going to plant lilacs, understand that you will have to trim and maintain these bush/trees yearly. I let mine go for 15 years and it began to threaten the foundation of my house! it took this 66 year-old two days out in the scorching sun to cut down all the limbs, have a tree service grind it up, and have the remaining limbs cut with a chainsaw down to ground level. I’ll drink turpentine before planting another one. If I want to see beautiful lilacs, I can drive to Rochester’s Lilac Festival in the spring, or watch them on YouTube!
I have two lilac stems that came originally from my mother’s garden and then were transplanted into the shade at my sister’s house. They are easily 10 feet long and very thin. After spending a year in the sun, they each produced one bloom at the very end and several new plants at the base. Should I prune these stems 1/3 of the way down this year once the flowers have faded, or is there another tactic that will work better? I have hopes of rejuvenating my mom’s lovely lilacs!
I googled about pruning my lilacs and your article came up. Thanks for the info. I’ve gotten so much mis- info that I didn’t know what to think. So here I am June 25th 2020 and I’m wondering if I should prune my lilac of the tallest, biggest non flowering branch of my white lilac bush and 1 dead branch. I’ve been told only prune before July 4th and I’ve been told wait till December when it’s dormant. But I live in Albany NY and it’s freezing here in Dec. And that doesn’t make sense to me. Help!
This year we had a heavy snow and freeze in March. Lots of the emergent leaves have turned brown and shriveled up. Don’t think we’ll get any flowering. A little green up is occurring closer to the base of the shrub. Are the effected limbs done or dead and should some sort of pruning strategy help bring it back?
It’s the end of Nov, so I missed the optimal pruning time. My plant is out of control. Should I orune now knowing I’ll reduce blooms in the spring or just wait until after blooms this next season? Also, can suckers below be transplanted for more blooming plants? If so, when is the best time to dig them up? I’m in So WA. Thanks
I learned a lot from your article, but think I need some advice. had a lillac for about 15 years it grew to tree height about 4 metres, last month it fell over it appears that one of two trunks was rotted the other seems ok. I have cut the whole bush to about 18 inches but the two trunks seem joined, one being solid in the ground the other being a bit lose. Shall I try to remove the rotted trunk?I would value your advice.
I tried to find an update article, but couldn’t find one. If you didn’t make an update article, I would really love to see one. I have a huge lilac bush that I grew from a baby. It has gotten very sparse. I’m nervous taking the main branches down to the ground, because I always figure it happened, because the spot it’s in is way too much shade. It’s on the north side up against our bedroom wall under the eve, do you think it will fill out just fine by using your method? Thank you!
Some lilacs are different. My Blue Skies Lilac did not like being cut way back and now the main branch has mushroom fungi growing on it. This particular lilac is more of a lilac tree and does not produce any volunteers at the bottom of it, so never again will I prune it drastically and probably will have to start over with a cutting. 😢
My lilac and ash tree was invaded this year by Hercules beetles. Ive had the tree for probably 19 years and my one lilac for about 11years. Ive never seem these prehistoric beetles before. They have stripped the bark from both and I was wondering if i should prune the hardest damaged branches. Any help would be appreciated. 😉
Hey there, my lilacs have a bunch of dried and dead material on them that I believe is last year’s flowers. I now realize I should prune after they flowers have bloomed but they haven’t yet this spring and I wonder if I should be clipping off that dead material now to help the plant. Does that matter when it happens?
Gardener Scott – I planted several lilac seedlings three years ago and this is the first year that they are full and about 4 feet tall. Only 2 of the 40 plants are flowing and most have random branches that are much taller (6 feet). Should I be pruning these plants this year? Will that help them all flower next year?
I have a tall bush about 20 years old and I never pruned it so it is over 15 feet tall and all the blooms are at the top and very little blooms. Looking for your advise. The base has 5 large stems branching out about the size of your wrist. Should I cut them down to 6 inches from the ground or do the 1/3 method. I can send you pics.
My husband’s Maw Maw has a lilac tree that was almost 20 ft tall, very old and damaged badly from borers, sap suckers and lack of pruning. He cut it back in late March of this year about a 10 to 12 inches from the ground. Is there anything we need to do now to help this lilac regrow healthy and it need treated for borers since it’s been cut back down? Maw Maw is worried about losing her tree now that it’s cut back.
I just bought a house with Lilacs on 3/4 of the periphery, they’re 10+ ft tall and obscuring the view for drivers. It’s August now, and I want to cut it all back, but I love them and don’t want to lose them. Can I cut them all back to the 20cm height in the fall or winter. Will they comeback in the spring?
My lilacs are about 19 feet tall, but sprout tons of suckers both all around the ground under them and all up the trunks. The last 2 years I have been removing all of those to allow more air circulation and the direct the energy to the tree. But now I do not have young stems/trunks. How do I decide which suckers to leave and which to trim away?
I live in Michigan, moved to a new home and the lilac bush looks wilted and unhappy. In the spring this past year, it looked okay but not a lot of flowers. I don’t know when it has been last trimmed. It’s September and I was going to trim it hard to only leaving 8 inches of trunks. Is it okay that I do this in the autumn?
I haven’t pruned mine at all in the nine years I’ve lived here. They barely flowered this year at all and they have a lot of dead and damaged branches. I was thinking about hacking the whole thing down and just seeing what comes up in the spring. Is it too late to do that (zone 5)? Should I just wait until next year?