Tough love for lilac
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I have an old knarly lilac tree, about 10 feet tall, that has a lot of dead branches, and is in pretty rough shape. It still flowers each year, but the flowers are high up, the bottom of the tree looking pretty bare. If I cut this tree back to about 4 feet will it survive? I'm not expecting flowers for a few years, but I would like to save it
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(post #13349, reply #1 of 6)
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Carolyn, have you thought about doing the traditional cut one third of the wood out each year for three years, starting with the oldest wood? Maybe it would be less traumatic for you and the shrub. We started to do this with one and ended up cutting out all but the brand new shoots. So, effectively, we did cut the whole thing back to the ground. It's fine and flowers about the same as before, which is sparsely. We need to move it to a sunnier location.
(post #13349, reply #2 of 6)
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When should that pruning be done??? I have two small (maybe 5' tall) scroungy lilac bushes, just a few leaves at the top of the branches, only one pitiful blossom between the two bushes. Should I cut it back now, or wait until fall?
(post #13349, reply #3 of 6)
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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 1/3 of them to remove. This will open up the interior of the shrub and allow better 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 1/3 of bush at a time
If you kept some old suckers from last year, cut out to the same number of branches allowed to grow this year.
(post #13349, reply #4 of 6)
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Thank you! :-)
(post #13349, reply #5 of 6)
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Me too!
(post #13349, reply #6 of 6)
My turn to benefit from your lilac pruning advice!
Thanks.