I have two gorgeous lilacs - madame Lemoine and Charles Joly which were planted 3/4 years ago. They are growing well but blossom is less than spectacular. Given that the blossom is what lilac is planted for, I'd welcome any hints and tips for improving it.
How big were they when they went in? I find that lilac varies from year to year; I'd give it a couple of years yet before I started to worry.
You could also try giving them a feed of Tonk's Rose Formula fertiliser about now.
They are suposed to benefit from dead heading to prevent seed formation, and improve next years blossom, I do it on the small ones I can reach, and it seems to work, but the big ones flower too! so maybe I'm dreaming. Give it a go on yours while it's small, see what happens.
Brian
Thanks for all the tips. When they went in they were about 30/40 cm. They are now about 1.8 to 2 metres. I planted them really close together because I wanted them to grow through each other and have a mix of white and purple blossom. They seem to be doing that fine. They seem to have grown in stature at the expense of flowering.
I have deadheaded (there weren't many to do last summer) but have not pruned apart from dead branches or ones broken by passing squirrels!
I have used general purpose fertiliser . I'll give rose fertiliser a whirl.
Some tips that might help...
Lilacs need quite a lot of sun / light in order to do well.
Take it easy on high nitrogen fertiliser because it makes them fat and laizy.... Producing a lot of foliage and few flowers
Rootpruning might give them the right kick.
After flowering and / or in winter take a sharp spade and at some 40 - 50 cm stick the spade into the ground thus pruning some of its roots. (either full circke or spacing it a bit)
I think the fertiliser may have been the problem. I'm digging the bed they're in at the weekend so I'll chop off any laterally extending roots that seem to have spread too far. Thanks.
Sorry to be so cheeky and muscle in on your posting, but I also have a lilac question and thought seeing that the expert's eyes were on this posting at the moment - ....
Last year I dug out some suckers which poped up around a 6ft white Lilac tree (don't know the name) we had growing in our old garden after I had weeded the bed around the bottom of the tree. I took a few rooted bits and popped them into containers. They are both starting to bud and are about 30cms. Will it be OK if I gave them rose fertiliser as well. Also I wonder if they will be true lilacs or not? How long will it take them to become big, strong trees?
Sorry about all the questions. :-[
Hi Jitterbug
As far as I know lilacs grow some 25-50 cm each year so I will take some time. Whether your cuttings will turn out to be true or not remains to be seen. A lot of lilacs are grafted on easy growing rootstock, so your new specimens might come out different.