Pruning Lilacs
Many old lilacs are pruned back to just a few old stems by cutting off all the new suckers. These lilacs will bloom only at the top, and the flowers will get smaller each year. A well-pruned lilac will produce larger flowers with blooms from the top to the bottom of the shrub. If you have an old lilac bush that has gone unpruned for a while, it will take several years to bring it back to its best. Make sure you have your parent's approval before you start pruning an existing shrub. Ask for their assistance with the shears and a pruning saw.
Pruning a Lilac
- The best time for pruning is right after the lilac has flowered, usually in mid to late June.
- First, remove any dead branches.
- Count the number of main branches and select at least one third of them to remove. This will open up the interior of the shrub and allow better air flow.
- Look for branches that cross or rub against each other and remove one of them.
- If you want to make your shrub easier to mow around, cut out any branches that are bent over or growing downward.
- Check the suckers that are growing at the bottom of the bush. Cut off all but 3 or 5 of them.
- If you want to keep your lilac bush shorter and have larger flowers, remove any branch that is more than 3 years old, but not more than one third of the bush at a time.
- If you kept some old suckers from last year, cut out the same number of branches allowed to grow this year.
For example: Let's say in 2027 there is a lilac bush with 6 old branches, 20 suckers that grew last year (2026), and 40 new suckers that sprang up this year.
- Cut out 2 of the oldest branches, leaving 4 old branches. Remove 18 of last year's suckers, leaving just 2 suckers, and remove 38 of the new suckers, leaving only 2.
- Now your lilac has 8 branches of different ages.
- In 2028, you will remove 2 of the oldest branches and leave 2 of the newest suckers (2028) to replace them.
- In 2029, your shrub will still have 8 branches: 2 of the oldest growth and 2 suckers from each year after you started pruning the shrub.
- This way, your shrub will have a few original branches and only a couple of new ones each year until all the old ones are replaced by new growth.
growing lilacs
lilac varieties
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