Can anyone recommend the best time and method to trim a neglected (~5
years worth) Lilac tree to restore the thing back to it's main
cultivated graft?

The tree is presently about 2/3 sucker growth to 1/3 true flowering form
easy to tell at this time of year. I hope to mark the good and the bad,
but wonder if it can take such drastic pruning in a single shot.

I managed to kill one in an even worse state in a previous garden by a
combination of aggressive rejuvenation and a hard winter. I'd prefer not
to repeat the same mistake again.

Any tips for best time to do it and how much to take off per year?

Thanks,
--
Martin Brown

"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend the best time and method to trim a neglected (~5
years worth) Lilac tree to restore the thing back to it's main
cultivated graft?

The tree is presently about 2/3 sucker growth to 1/3 true flowering form
easy to tell at this time of year. I hope to mark the good and the bad,
but wonder if it can take such drastic pruning in a single shot.

I managed to kill one in an even worse state in a previous garden by a
combination of aggressive rejuvenation and a hard winter. I'd prefer not
to repeat the same mistake again.

Any tips for best time to do it and how much to take off per year?

Thanks,
--
Martin Brown

Hi Martin,

You should prune a lilac (syringa) mid to late summer, after the flowers
have faded. Renovate in the winter. To renovate you take the whole plant
down to a couple of feet, however you are unlikely to see any flowers for
2 -3 years, you could also have a the same problem, as before, where the
whole plant gives up and dies. I'd therefore recommended that you stagger
the hard pruning over two or three years, taking a third of the plant down
each winter. Thinning any regrowth as it appears.

HTH

Cheers

Nick
http://www.ukgardening.co.uk

"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend the best time and method to trim a neglected (~5
years worth) Lilac tree to restore the thing back to it's main
cultivated graft?

The tree is presently about 2/3 sucker growth to 1/3 true flowering form
easy to tell at this time of year. I hope to mark the good and the bad,
but wonder if it can take such drastic pruning in a single shot.

I managed to kill one in an even worse state in a previous garden by a
combination of aggressive rejuvenation and a hard winter. I'd prefer not
to repeat the same mistake again.

Any tips for best time to do it and how much to take off per year?


I have hacked a lilac back hard twice and it came back, that was in the
summer (two summers) the third time was this past winter and it looks like
its dead (which was what was intended this time)

The first time I probably cut it back by half, the next time by maybe 2/3 of
what it had grown back to, it didnt seem to mind. Cut it down to ground
level this Jan looks like it isnt coming back, though there are also suckers
a foot or two away that also need to be cut down..

--
Tumbleweed

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