wind on how and when to prune lilacs to keep your bush sizable .
When to crop lilacs is just as important as how you snip these bush to ensure they produce lots of beautiful , fragrant flowersin the spring . Besides resulting in a bonanza of blooms each year , snip lilacs(Syringaspp.)helps makelilac shrubsmore shapely , strong , and healthy . So take hold of your shears and understand on to watch how and when to clip lilacs properly .
Marty Baldwin
Credit:Marty Baldwin
Benefits of Pruning Lilacs
Cutting off dead and damaged wood and hold in the figure of stems on the shrub are full of life to lilac care . go forth unpruned , mature lilac become congest with old wood and deadwood and develop few flowers . They also become wildly overgrown and unruly . Also , as lilac shrub grow , the lower parts become shaded by the canopy above . That intend they wo n’t get as much sunlight and will begin to recede their leaves .
Here ’s why you should prune lilacs :
Do n’t forget to crop the surrounding tree overhead so an optimum amount of sun reaches your lilac blooms .
Credit: Lynn Karlin
When to Prune Lilacs
Timing is everything . Here ’s when to take the shears to your shrub .
Types of Pruning for Lilacs
There are two types of pruning for lilac . The pruning you do depends on the age and condition of the lilac .
Maintenance Pruning
Maintenance pruning is alight trim done on new lilacs annuallyto keep them in shape and flower abundantly . The focus is on dispatch dead Grant Wood and suckers , deadheading the flowers , and trim a foot or so off the stalk .
Deadhead lilacs annually as shortly as flowers fade . Cut off the old flower cluster at its nucleotide . remove old bloom let the plant put more push into growing new buds and stem rather than producing seeds .
Rejuvenation Pruning
Rejuvenation pruning is a with child pruning done on elderly plant that are long-shanked and overgrown with a fortune of Sir Henry Joseph Wood and minuscule leafage at the bottom of the bush . greening pruning — also called hard pruning — canrevive an old , overgrown lilac that has been neglect . A rejuvenation prune involve cutting down a third or more of the lilac shrub ’s elevation and width to force it into a bracing growth cycle .
A greening pruning should bedone in late wintertime when the lilac is dormant . Heavy pruning interrupts the bloom cycle , which means you wo n’t have flowers in the springtime , but it ’s a scant - full term forfeit for the plant ’s long - term health . If you ca n’t live without flowers , do the hard prune over two year : Cut half the crotch hair down one year and then the other half the next twelvemonth .
Fertilize your lilacafter you do a rejuvenation pruning to assist fire new development . Use abalanced ( 10 - 10 - 10 ) plant food , rather easy - releasegranular fertiliser , following the product instructions .
Tips for Pruning Lilacs
Watch for Lilac Borer Issues
Here ’s another understanding to keep your lilac shrub tidy — a pest called the lilac borer tends to lay ball in or around combat injury on the plant . bore bit infestations can be fateful . Keep an eye out for bore bit holes with a sap flow and wilted leaves that turn reddish - browned . You should also appear for swollen areas on branches . Be sure to prune any infected branches , but avoid doing so when the woodborer — a type of moth — is active in the springtime . When you prune , be careful not to wound the plant ; any wounds are likely entry points for the borer ’s larvae .
Some years your lilac will abound with blooms , and other years they wo n’t . Keep up with maintenance pruning , deadhead spent blooms , and provide the proper growing conditions , and your lilac shrub will fill your natural spring — and living spaces — with flowers .
Frequently Asked Questions
They come in various sizes , from 3 - foot - tall dwarf shrub to sprawling trees that make 25 feet marvellous . However , unless they are pruned for size , most lilac shrub variety turn over about 12 metrical foot high-pitched and 10 foot wide .
It take up to five years for a newly planted lilac to bloom , depending on character , after which it usually blooms every year in spring .
unremarkably not . Lilacs do considerably in cool climates ofUSDA zone 3 to 7 . They are not well - suited for clime warmer than Zone 8 because most lilac want a farseeing winter tingle to flower . Lilacs also do poorly in humid clime because they ’re prostrate topowdery mold .
Lilacs are a resilient flora . They can live on for decades under the proper conditions . Some bushes have survived for over 100 geezerhood .
Since lilacs expand in full Sunday , avoid planting them in area where they will get shade for more than half a day . If they are n’t given the proper amount of sunlight , they might not flower .
“ Pruning Lilacs . ” University of Nebraska — Lincoln , Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources .
“ Lilac Borer and Ash Borer . ” Missouri Botanical Garden .
