trimming lilac bushes

Publish date: 2023-04-04

Why it’s best to prune your lilacs in early summer. Once a lilac bush is more than two years old, it requires annual pruning. The best time to grab your clippers and get to work is in early summer, after the flowers have bloomed and faded. Here’s what you should know about caring for lilac bushes and trees.

How do I prune a lilac bush?

Trimming lilacs is best accomplished using clippers. Remove spent blooms all the way to the stems to prevent seeding and encourage more blooms later on. Cut back about a third of the branches. Cut away shoots growing near the ground that may be sprouting from the main trunk.

How far back can I trim a lilac?

One way to renew a large, overgrown lilac is to cut the entire plant back to within 6 to 8 inches of the ground in late winter (March or early April). This severe pruning will induce a large number of shoots to develop during the growing season.

Can lilacs be cut back to the ground?

Should lilacs be cut back? No, lilacs should not be cut back to the ground as this will halt flowering. At the end of fall, the lilac tree will look like little more than a twig in the garden. However, it should not be cut back to ground level.

Is it OK to prune lilac bushes in the fall?

For lilacs, the recommended method is generally to remove one third of the old wood each year immediately after flowering and shape the shrub over a number of seasons. Of course, you can prune in the fall if absolutely required.

How do you prune lilacs more blooms?

The only right time to prune these shrubs is just after the last of the flowers fade away in late spring. Prune lilacs in late spring to remove the dead flowers and broken or damaged limbs before the plant sets out its buds as it prepares for next year’s blooms.

Should you Deadhead lilacs?

Pruning and Deadheading Lilacs

Deadheading – removing spent flowers to promote new blooming – is an important component of caring for lilacs. You should deadhead lilacs as soon as they are done blooming, which will allow the plants to develop strong, healthy buds that will flower with vigor the following year.

Can you prune lilacs in early spring?

Although you’ll be losing some flowers for the current year, pruning overgrown lilacs is easiest early in the spring before the branches leaf out. After three consecutive years of pruning your overgrown lilac in this way, new shoots should comprise the bulk of the plant.

Can you keep a lilac bush small?

Lilacs need regular renewal pruning to thin them out and control their size. That means removing a couple of older stems every few years, Bachtell said, as well as removing dead wood. Lilacs also tend to spread from suckers growing up from the root system, which may need to be removed.

Can lilacs bloom twice a year?

Do lilac trees bloom more than once a year? Most do not, but the Bloomerang lilac tree blooms in spring, takes a pause in early summer, then blooms again from summer all the way to the first frost of the year.

Do lilacs bloom on new or old wood?

Lilacs are shrubs that bloom on old wood. This means that the flower buds for the next spring’s blooming period are set on the growth produced during the prior year. When you prune off this growth, you lose the flower buds—and, by extension, the flowers that they would have brought.

How long do lilac bushes live?

How long do lilac bushes live? They’re super-hardy and may live 75 years or more! Just look at old, abandoned farmhouses where the lilacs still bloom vigorously.

Is there a difference between a lilac tree and a lilac bush?

To clear up any confusion, there is no difference between a lilac bush and a lilac tree, they are the same plant just called by different names.

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trimming lilac bushes

How do I prune a lilac bush?

How do you prune lilacs more blooms?

Can lilacs bloom twice a year?

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