A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 NON-BLOOMING LILAC BUSH

I TRANSPLANTED A SHOOT FROM MY MOM'S lilac BUSH AFTER SHE DIED AND HER HOME WAS SOLD. IT HAS SURVIVED NICELY FOR 5 YEARS AND PRODUCED NEW SHOOTS, BUT EVEN AT 5+ FT. TALL, IT HASN'T BLOOM.
SOMEONE, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT TO DO-MY LOCAL LANDSCAPE PLACE SAID BUYING ANOTHER ONE FOR CROSS-POLLINATION WOULD NOT HELP.

HELP!

I ALSO HAVE GIANT BULBED JONQUILS THAT HAVE NEVER BLOOMED -THE GREENERY GETS BIGGER EVERY YEAR AND THE BULBS ARE ENORMOUS, BUT NO flowers.

OTHER plants DO NICELY IN MY YARD.

PLEASE HELP ME!
NOAHLEE IN KENTUCKY

welcome Noahlee. don't have your answers, but I am sure someone will soon. Have a nice day!

Hi Noahlee, welcome to the forum.

Have you been pruning the lilac bush?? Or just letting it grow for 5 years? I'm not an expert by any stretch but think you can prune them in the early spring to promote new growth and possibly flowers??? I'm not positive. I know I trim my lilac bush after the flowers turn brown, but if your not getting any flowers, that advice wouldn't help you at all. I'm also positive Weezie or Bill or some other very wise gardner will inform you of the proper amount of fertilizer to add to the soil to help it flower. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but I'm confident you will find it here!!

--Bunny T.

Hello NOAHLEE,
Welcome to the gardeners helpers forum!!
Great bunch of gardeners here and glad to have you on board.
I am no expert like Bill, Barb and Nikkal, and Carol and Will Creed....... the list goes on.......
But I have taken shoots off of an old lilac bush and it does take some time but they do eventually bloom. I lived in a house that had the side shoots and when I moved I took two babies to remember the house.
I put them in pots, gave them to my dad for at least 3 yrs. to hold for me til I got a garden going, he did absolutely nothing to them, I then finally got them the 4th yr. and planted them here (no blooms the whole time mind you!!) And the first year still no blooms and finally the 8th year it bloomed!!
So, I'd say a bit of patients.
But I have a question????
You said something to the effect of it had side shoots on it....... Discribe the side shoots??? From the ground around the base or branches on the one stalk????
If there is side shoots from the bottom of the main trunk, you want to clip those or repot them to save.....But when you leave on the sprouts that come up from the ground, they call those sucker shoots and supposedly suck the energy out of the main plant and you won't get flowers and/or many.......
So try getting them out. Most the time you would just take clippers to them, but maybe if you're sentimental about the lilac, figure out how to transplant like you did the first shoot from your mom's bush.

Love ya Bunny, you trim the bush after the flowers turn brown, but don't ever clip, or trim the branches of a lilac bush in the spring as you'll be clipping the flowers off.......
lilac's set the flowers shortly after flowering. You have a window of opportunity to trim the bush right after flowering, to resize/reshape or just clip of flower stalks.
So, be patient a bit more I think.. It should bloom.
What color was your mother's lilac bush????

Stick around lots' of good info and advice and lots' of fun gardeners....
Let us know us know your progress!!!!!!!

Happy Gardening!!
Weezie

Hi Noahlee!

Welcome to the forum! You'll find that we have a great group of members here, and a wealth of good info!

Unfortunately, I can't help you with your lilac, never had one, wouldn't know what to do with it if I did! But I'll bet some one here can give you the answers to your problem!

Now, on a side note, about this nonsense that Weezie's not an expert - OH, COW PATTIES!!! (polite southern expression ) Weezie knows _something_ about just about everything! Look at all the info she just gave you...
Me, on the other hand, all I've got is a little schoolin', LOTS of trial and error, and a neighborhood full of senior citizens who can grow ANYTHING! They're the real experts

Stick around, someone will be along to help!

Nikkal

Wow! All of these great replies-thanks-I will try everything-I really needed the adviced about the shoots are are suckers-will transplant them elsewhere.

Now folks-please remember the second problem about the jonquils-daffoldils-that don't bloom too! Any help with that problem.

Again-you folks are great-thanks bunches-

To answer the question about what color- I'm really not sure- it is either a light lavender, dark lavender, or perhaps-hopefully- it is her double french- it had a great smell-I LOVE lilacs!
Noahlee

I'm not a big bulb person either,

But give us a discription of.......

where you have them,
water,
*what is your fertilizer,*
mulch around them,
how long you've had them,
how much sun??

And we'll all take it from there.
Weezie

Sorry, Sorry Weezie if I have offended you. I jokingly said your an expert because I REALLY THINK YOU ARE!!! You can be modest but you know a lot more about gardening than I ever have or will!

I don't know anything about Jonquils though sorry! Sorry again Weezie, I really don't like to offend people .

--Bunny T.

Bunny,
I am not offended!!! I hope I didn't sound like I meant to.
You do the right thing, you said you clip yours after the flowers turn brown, that's absolutely CORRECT!!!!
That's why I said I love ya, Bunny!! You did the right thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was proud of you for saying the right info.

Ya know, sometimes I get to typing so fast and then the kids want to go out side or
1 of 100 things in the course of a minute around here I don't re~read the post!!!!!
I'm not sure how I missed it, but didn't mean to imply you did wrong.....

I think you did good!!!!

And I personally don't feel I'm an expert because alot of any knowledge I have is all self taught (read, research, trial and error, reading and more reading and then examining and then being so slow I learn alot of things too!!!!) I guess I consider going to school to be some sort of expert..
but alot of things that I do aren't always conventional to the populars!!! So, it's always nice when one of them come in and give the thumbs up on my info and add more to it!!!!!
Sorry Bunny!!!
Weezie

Weezie,
Regarding jonquils-they are in full sun-have had them for 12 years+, mulch is probably cedar-no fertilizer.

Actually I transplanted them from the side of house (not much sun) about 5 years ago to a garden in the back-they have flourished since the moving-the green gets bigger each year, but no sign of flowers, yet.

any help would be appreciated.
noahlee

Group hug....

--Bunny T. :p