• Tweet
• 

• Tweet
• 

Question: We have a lilac bush in our yard which is covered with scale. We sprayed last year without success. To save this bush should we cut it back to the ground and disinfect the soil? Some of our other trees, especially the elms, had a great deal of this scale. What do you recommend? SF, Nebraska

Answer: Branches of the lilac that are heavily infested with scale will die and the health and vigor of the entire shrub is impaired. Neither pruning nor soil treatment will control scale. Use a dormant spray as soon as scale is discovered, spraying not only the lilacs, but all shrubs in the vicinity of the lilacs. This dormant spray should be a miscible oil spray such as Volck oil, diluted to one-third pint of Volck ïto a gallon of water. After the blooming season is past spray the plants with malathion using one teaspoonful to a gallon of water. Malathion will destroy immature scale that is in the crawling stage.

==>> Learn more Lilac History, Flowering Patterns, Pests Issues Here

Question: I would love to transplant my French lilac bush. It is too crowded where it now grows. When is a good time to do this? JS, Ohio

Answer: As soon as the frost is out of the ground and the soil is in good working condition the French lilac may be moved. Ball it out and move it with as much dirt as can be handled. It will require severe pruning which will cut away most of the bloom for the ensuing year.

Question: About six years ago we chopped off an old lilac bush that had very few flowers. Since then there have been several young shoots. If I moved some of the shoots would they flower for me? CR, Iowa

Answer: The sprouts that come up from an old lilac bush may be dug and replanted and should bloom, unless the bush was originally a grafted plant, In that case the sprouts may not be lilacs but rather privet plants. If the leaves on the sprouts are lilac leaves, quite different from privet leaves, the plant may be used and should bloom if planted in full sun.

Question: We have a very old lilac bush and would like to know how to start some new ones. It does not send up new starts. PW, Ohio

Answer: Lilacs are usually started from cuttings. They may be started from either softwood or hardwood cuttings. Softwood cuttings. that is the green wood of the current season’s growth, taken in May, root quickly. The cuttings should be four or five inches long and should be set in sand in a closed case or frame. They will soon root in a close humid atmosphere. Hardwood cuttings are taken after frost. Cuttings about eight inches long are buried in sand in a cool frost-proof place and left until spring. By then the ends of the cuttings should be callused. Planted outdoors in April, with about one inch of the tip above the ground, they will soon start to root. In a short time leaves will appear and growth should continue rapidly.

Question: I have been told that if I pick sprays of lilacs when in bloom I will be picking off next year’s bloom. Is this so?

Answer: Cutting lilac blooms will in no way interfere with their blooming the following year. Late summer or fall pruning will destroy the bloom but the removal of wood at blooming time or shortly after encourages new growths which form bloom buds for the next year’s flowers.

Lilac Care gets Personal ==>> Lilac Culture – Hints from Highland Park

Question: I have a healthy looking lilac tree, full-branched and about ten feet tall. Last year it had only about ten flower clusters and the same this year. How could I encourage more flower production next spring? WG, Mass

Answer: A liberal sprinkling of bonemeal scratched in this fall, or superphosphate in spring, should be helpful. Any weak inside growth could be removed.

Question: I have a while lilac bush about three years old which has big healthy leaves, but it has never had a flower on it.

Answer: If the lilac is growing nicely, probably there is nothing wrong. Sometimes it takes more than three years for a lilac to become established and bloom.

Answer from Keith: The bloom buds for next year’s lilac bloom are formed during this season’s growth. By fall the bloom buds should be ripe and ready to push forth and bloom in the spring. If they do not form, the variety of lilac is at fault, the soil is too light and rich, or plant suckers at the base of the plant are robbing old wood of the vitality required to form bloom buds. At frost time if there are no heavy fat terminal buds, there will be no bloom and the bush should be removed and a new one substituted. Summer or fall pruning will also destroy bloom buds.

Question: What is a good complete fertilizer to use on lilacs?

Answer: Use a 5-8-7 fertilizer, spreading 1-2 cupfuls in a wide ring around each shrub.

Question: The new growth on one of my lilacs is rather brown and shrivelled looking and the same symptoms are beginning to appear on the foliage of my other lilacs. FT, Silver Creek, NY

Answer: It sounds as though your lilacs are infected with a blight disease. Try spraying with Bordeaux mixture or other copper fungicide in early June. Meanwhile gather up and destroy the old leaves. Lilacs that are grafted on privet sometimes get a blight, for which the only remedy is to destroy affected plants.

Question: My lilac seems to have scale all over it. Then something made holes down the center of the stalks. What can I do for them?

Answer: To control scale and borers on the lilacs, spray them in the early winter and again in late winter with Volck, one part to 40 parts of water. Cut out at once all canes that show injury.