When to trim a lilac bush

Read this article to find out when and how to prune a lilac bush. The common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) is no exception. Giving your lilac shrubs an annual pruning and clean-up will keep them full of lush, fragrant spring flowers from top to bottom for decades.

You want to trim before the new heads are formed. For details of pruning a lilac read this website. The time to prune mature lilac plants is just after the flowers have faded. Fragrant, colorful lilacs are easy to grow in most regions. Whether your lilac is a shrub or a small tree, it will need to be regularly pruned in order to maintain a healthy shape and size.

To prune lilacs, get to work in the spring: cut fresh flowers for bouquets, nip off the longest stems, and. University of Maine Cooperative Extension educator Marjorie Peronto demonstrates and discusses pruning techniques for your lilacs. A lilac bush does best when it is trimmed every year.

How to Prune Lilac Bushes For the absolutely perfectly shaped lilac bush , you need to prune them each year. Pruning lilac bushes is a very important part of growing and caring for Lilacs. Most Lilac bushes will grow in excess of feet.

Unfortunately, as lilacs mature, the shaded lower portions of the shrubs usually lose their leaves. As a result, large, overgrown specimens are often leggy and unattractive. Ol neglected lilacs can be renewed or rejuvenated by pruning.

The way you prune your lilac bush will also depend on how you like your lilac bush shaped. Some people like a wide lilac bush while others prefer to keep their’s shorter and smaller in circumference. The rule of thumb, however, is to cut off each dead bloom and its INDIVIDUAL flower stem, which is referred to as “old wood”.

If this is the case in your bush, trim those branches down. The Miss Kim lilac is also called Miss Kim Manchurian lilac and Syringa pubescens. This variety is very fragrant and its dark-green foliage turns deep red in the cool fall months.

This is also a good time to thin the lilac _,_ which helps keep it healthy and productive over the years. The trick is to prune and shape the bush within the first few weeks after the plant finishes blooming, but before it starts growing new buds. Trim these off at soil level. Waiting too long to trim your lilac means either putting off the chore until next year or risk cutting off the flowers for next spring before they even get the chance to grow. Dig around the base of the lilac bush using a shovel or spade.

Remove as much soil from the hole as you can and keep digging until you reach the bottom of the root ball. Brush the dirt away from the exposed roots by hand and cut as many of them as you can using a pair of pruning shears. With proper lilac tree care, these lovely plants can last decades in your garden.

Spring or fall is the best time for planting lilac bushes. Situate the lilac with its roots spread vertically in the ground and make the hole both deep and wide enough to accommodate them. After your lilac bush has finished blooming, spread some lime and well-rotted manure around the base. Lilacs bloom on old woo so it’s critical to prune in the spring right after they bloom. If you prune later in the summer, you may be removing the wood.

A : Roger Cook replies: Several things can cause lilacs to bloom poorly. Common lilac bushes are attractive enough to be treated as specimens. They are also often planted in rows along property borders and pruned into loose hedges.

We just moved into a new home, and I am trying to get the yard ready for winter. The front yard has black plastic down and bark all over, even under the lilac bushes. The lilac bushes are overgrown, and it is hard to get under them to get the plastic and the bark out.

Cut branches back selectively to shape the dwarf lilac bush as desire removing no more than one-third of any stem and making a clean cut just above a bud facing in the.