SHRUBS > LILAC > PRUNING
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LILAC GUIDES
Container GrowingDeadheadingPlantingPropagationPruning
With their red-blooded bloom and vivid flora fragrance , lilacs are a popular bush or small Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree throughout the UK .
As deciduous perennial , Syringas are hardy creature which will lose their leaves each fall but come back with renewed vigor the following outflow .
Having said that , it ’s important to crop your lilac bush or tree on a regular basis to forefend it becoming unruly and unkempt .
“ even rejuvenation pruning will keep a lilac in more vigorous plant sizing with larger flush at a dispirited elevation , where they can be better experienced and enjoyed liberal of any blighter , ” say David Gressley , from the International Lilac Society .
Left to its own devices , a lilac Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree can exceed 8 - 9 grand in meridian , while its splayed branches and thin blossoms make it unsightly and clunky .
fortuitously , you may forfend this consequence by keeping on top of its pruning .
While this might be a time - devour operation when you get down to it , you only have to undertake it once a year .
When To Prune Lilac
Pruning your Syringa bush or tree at the right time is all - important to its continued increment and development , peculiarly in the prompt future .
That ’s because the accompany year ’s buds start development almost straight after the last one have croak .
As a outcome , leaving pruning too late in the year could imperil the blossoms of the following springtime .
For that understanding , it ’s advisable to tackle the chore as soon as the peak have begun to evanesce on your chaparral .
This will give the new buds plenty of sentence to mature , keeping the works good for you over winter and insure a strong yield of rosiness next class .
With that in mind , pruning can take place anywhere from April to June , count on the climate where you live and the way in which your particular lilac species reacts to it .
July is generally too tardy to undertake upkeep without incurring adverse upshot on the following yr ’s blooms , while autumn pruning is out of the interrogation altogether .
1) Prepare Your Tools
I ca n’t strain enough how important it is to keep your tools in top condition .
stark shear can result in soiled snub that foster bacterium and encourage disease , while those which have n’t been the right way clean can circularise both of the said blights throughout your garden .
“ observe secateurs and loppers sharp is a must as using blunt dick can have more hurt than adept , ” articulate Colin Skelly , a Master Horticulturist .
“ I clean my pruning tools after every use , clean away any sap and grunge and using a sharpening stone to control that when next used they are sharp .
“ Every month or so I ’ll practice a baseball field file to rework the edge after a few use . ”
Therefore , you should keep your pruning shears as acute as you could – do n’t be afraid to replace them altogether if they ’re beyond saving .
You should also use a unobjectionable cloth soaked in isopropyl alcohol to good clean the sword before and after use , drying them after the act .
horticulture mitt are a must for this part of the outgrowth , too .
2) Deadhead Throughout The Blooming Season
Lilacs make a lovely cut bouquet for indoor arrangement , but many people feel they are write out down the plant in its prime of life by deadheading in this style .
Actually , nothing could be further from the truth ; by deadheading blooms that are at or just beyond their peak , you ’re in reality aid your Syringa .
That ’s because it allow the plant to devote all of its energies to new growth , rather than keep up flowers that are already on the way out .
Make the cut at the base of the flowerhead and repeat as often as desired or as possible .
3) Prune After Flowering
Once the efflorescence season has persist its course , you should n’t waste any time in tackling your pruning tasks .
To do so , tailor back the radical to the first set of leave beneath the flowerhead .
Make the cut using sharpened , clean pruning shears while wearing horticulture baseball mitt .
Pruning to this point is a good scheme because it will guarantee that you do not accidentally remove next year ’s buds , but still enhance flowering as much as possible come the following springtime .
Pruning each year in this fashion will also prevent the plant from becoming unruly .
4) Tip-Off Longer Stems
As well as rationalize back blossom heads , you should also keep an heart out for longer stems which may not carry any blossoms , but are stretching out beyond the main trunk of the flora .
These will also require your tending so as to keep the shrub ’s esthetic shape intact .
Again , you ’ll need to pare the stem all the way to where the nearest side shoots are emerge .
If it does n’t yet have any side shoot , look for buds or node that are probable to arise into shoots in the future and make the incision just above these .
5) Thin Out
Next , you ’ll want to thin out the plant to see to it it enjoy a serious circulation of air amongst its branches and foliage .
This helps to prevent the development of things like modeling and fungus , which are damaging to the growth of your lilac bush or tree .
When thinning out your plant , always target the dead , dying or color stem and branches first .
This will barricade these liabilities from tire the lilac of its vigour .
you may also chop up back stems that are more than 5 cm in diameter , which will keep the plant from becoming too tall .
A pruning power saw may be necessary for extra thick and tough stems .
6) Strip Away Suckers
Suckers are infant trunks which sprout from or near the base of the works and provide competition for nutrient and energy for the main trunk .
As such , they should be removed for both esthetical and virtual reasons , especially if your lilac specimen is grafted .
I find the best results can be achieve by gently removing the suckers from the soil with your ( gloved ) hand since this can pull up the roots whole .
Then you could plant the mug in a pot of its own and enjoy a new lilac industrial plant entirely .
What To Do With Overgrown Lilacs
If you ’ve not had time to properly address the upkeep of your lilac bush or tree in recent yr – or you ’ve inherited an overgrown one from someone else – you might ascertain that the industrial plant is in need of a more intensive pruning job .
This character of work is well undertake late in winter , once the last freeze has die .
That ’s because super stale temperatures can damage the wounding create when pruning the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
However , by this gunpoint , the flora has not yet started to flower and is still dormant .
Begin by point the diseased or break down branches first , then move on to the oldest voice of the scrub or Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
essay to keep a salmagundi of honest-to-goodness and raw emergence so as to leave the lilac to continue prosper and never remove more than a third of its foliation in a yr .
For trees that have become too tall to be manageable , you could cut back their height to bestow them under control .
Again , do n’t chop up back more than a third ; you could always double the process in future days if need be .
Be aware that this type of aggressive pruning can peril the next saltation ’s blossoms , but it will be deserving it in the farseeing outpouring .
Once the aggressive pruning job is everlasting , give the plant the best chance of rejuvenation by put on fertilizer generously to its nucleotide .
This restores the appropriate balance in pH levels to the land and grants the plant access to the nutrients it necessitate to go back .
