Lilacs are old - fashioned garden shrubs most value fortheir spectacular fragrant flowers . Many species and multitudinous cultivars offer different sizes — from 6 - human foot midget shrubs to 30 - substructure trees — as well as flower colors , fragrance and bloom times . grant to Ron Smith of North Dakota State University Extension , it aim two to three years before a young lilac produces its first blooms . But plant maturity more than long time affects flowering , and the optimal size varies by variety . Gardeners impatient for those first huge , fragrant flowers can help their lilac along by starting them right — and by avoiding common mistakes .

Soil, Sun and Shade

Lilacs do best in full sun and often take up quite a scrap of outer space , so give them plenty of room . A reasonably fertile , well - drain garden loam with a neutral or slenderly alkaline pH is idealistic , though they ’ll generally do well anywhere except acidic stain or very big clay . Lilacs will drown in standing water . They may flush it to bloom if they are imbed too deeply — they should be no more than 2 or 3 inches cryptic than they rise in the baby’s room — or if they do n’t get enough sun . Lilacs may grow in ghost , but they probably wo n’t bloom there .

Pruning Lilacs

Prune only in leaping , after florescence , because next year ’s buds and flowers will be make on this year ’s development . If you prune too late in the season — summer , fall or wintertime — you ’ll be cutting off the wood that would have raise next year ’s bloom . Keep in mind that lilacs need minimum maintenance equate to other bush . They generally need no pruning for the first few geezerhood , and minimal pruning thereafter except to remove numb or discredited growing and to check sizing . Remove weak Sir Henry Joseph Wood from the shrub ’s center to keep luminousness and breeze circulating .

Fertilizing Lilacs

Do n’t over fertilize your lilac , thinking that if a small plant food is good then a lot must be adept . Too much nitrogen will encourage your lilac to put its energy into farm more vegetation , and it will get tall , wider and greener but wo n’t develop flowers . In oecumenical lilacs need very small fertilizer . fecundate them at planting and in early leaping with a 5 - 10 - 5 plant food .

Winter Kill

Lilacs are very hardy plants . Some varieties can live cold to negative 60 degrees Fahrenheit . But if you live in a very moth-eaten clime and are growing a less intrepid cultivar , winter kill can coiffure your shrub back substantially — killing the bud wood that would have produced flowers . In this case you may either move your lilac , bring home the bacon extra cold protection or find it a new home and buy yourself a more suited variety .

References

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