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Posted By: ninniwinky Help With my lilac - May 21st, 2005 at 02:57 AM
Hello everyone!!

I have a lilac bush that has been planted here about 20 years and this year there was only one flower cluster on it. I really can't get to the bush except for the flower cluster that is hanging over the brush, that I can reach. I was wondering if I would be able to start an additional lilac bush with the flower cluster once it dries up. I read that you can use the suckers to start up another bush but I can't reach them (they are the little new shoots coming up from the bottom, right?) Remember I am a beginner wavey I really wish I knew why that lilac bush didn't bloom this year ters

Thanks to all!!!!

ninni
Posted By: weezie13 Re: Help With my lilac - May 21st, 2005 at 05:45 AM
Ninniwinky,
Has it bloomed all along for you the last 20 years?
And last year was the first year with only one flower???

Any nitrogen being added to the area around the bush????

Did you prune the bush at all last year???

Weezie
Posted By: obywan59 Re: Help With my lilac - May 21st, 2005 at 09:47 AM
Are there any smallish brown dried up flower buds on the plant? They could be as small or smaller than the tip of your pinky. It's possible a late freeze killed the rest of the flower buds.

Other ways to propagate are to take cuttings in the fall or to layer in spring or summer. (Take a supple branch and bend it down into a small trench you have dug into the ground, bending the tip up so that you bury a section of the branch leaving the tip exposed.)
Posted By: ninniwinky Re: Help With my lilac - May 21st, 2005 at 03:53 PM
I can't really get to the bush to do anything to it. We lived here 23 years ago and then moved out about 18 years ago, but my father still owned the property, so I just moved back about 4years ago, and each year since I have been here, it seems to be producing less and less. I donb't remember Buds on it last year, although my Fiance says he rememembers it being loaded, bUt I am NEARLY certain it had about 2 buds on it.
There are no dried up little brown buds anywhere on it, I really don't think that we had a late frost or freeze here, I think that they just never produced any flowers, except the one cluster I mentioned earlier. I have done NO pruning to it, I wouldn't even know how, and I don't think I could really reach it. The only thing I can reach on that lilac tree, is that one little cluster of flowers that is reaching out over all the berry bushes, nearly to my lawn. Do I leave the dead bud on there, or can I start another lilac tree with the dried up flower cluster?

Thanks....

ninni
Posted By: obywan59 Re: Help With my lilac - May 21st, 2005 at 05:33 PM
It might need a rejuvenative pruning in order to start producing flowers again, but then, you say you can't get to it to do anything to it.

You can't start another plant from the dried up flower head. Seeds, possibly, but they are likely to be different than the parent plant if it's a hybrid. Can you bend the branch with the flower cluster down to the ground and layer it like I said before? If not, wait till fall, and cut a portion of the branch with the flower cluster off, scrape a little of the bark at the base off and apply rooting hormone and plant next to the foundation on the north side of your house where it should stay moist. (water when you plant it) I've had success rooting hardwood cuttings in this way. You only need about 6 inches of branch, and cut off the flower head if you try this.
Posted By: ninniwinky Re: Help With my lilac - May 22nd, 2005 at 01:43 PM
Thanks for the info and pointers, I am so excited to try it!!!! I have that one little cluster I am going to try it with, when the time comes, thats the only hope I have to get another plant out of this lilac bush!!!!!!!!!

Wish me luck!!!!


Ninni wavey
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