We let a lilac plant go to root. At first we thought how nice it would be to have the whole back side of the flower garden filled with lilacs. What we got instead was numerous shoots and next to no flowers on the main plant (7 shoots) and no flowers at all on the volunteers. I've taken out about half the volunteers so far, and will get the rest in the next few days. Is it better to yank the whole thing out, roots and all, or will taking out the shoots bring more life back into the main plant?

Ok I am new to flower gardening but the lilacs (bush) always took care of themselves except they needed to be trimmed back at times. Is there a lilac plant as well?

I guess I am stumped(no pun intended )hehehe
I don't understand it went to seed. New shoots come up all the time and they may take more than a couple years to flower.

Yes, there was originally one main plant, and the roots have spread to as much as 20 feet away from the main plant. I don't think the volunteers came up from seed, as every one I dig up has long roots on it. We're real tempted to yank the whole thing out and put several other plants in its place, but if getting rid of all the volunteers would mean the main plant would flower vigorously, we might consider leaving it in place. Frankly, it never was a good looking plant and never flowered much, it won't be any loss if we end up yanking it out.

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Originally posted by trinharder:
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Frankly, it never was a good looking plant and never flowered much, it won't be any loss if we end up yanking it out.

I think you answered your own question there. I don’t know what else to tell you. I have never had a lilac bush spread out like what you described. Unless maybe they were spreading out into the yard and got mowed down before I knew that they were there in the grass.

I see a number of things you can do.

Yank it all out of the ground and have your way with the area.

Take out all the small shoots and cut back the main bush and feed it. Then it should come back it a couple years. If there is no regrowth, it was drying up for whatever reason. You can do this now, or in the fall. I am not sure you feed it in the fall as it should be going into dormancy. How big is it?

You can take out all except a new shoot or more and let that develop. Again it may take a couple years.

The main bush is about 8 foot tall. It's all by itself, not a part of a hedge or anything. The flowers are not my area, I can only recommend, and then follow orders. I just do edibles. I pushed for replacing it with strawberries, but nooooo, it's gotta be pretty.
Stating that strawberries have pretty flowers earned me a scowl.

Must be a Colorado thing, Trin',

I have two lilac bushes right where I want to plant my raspberry bramble. I hacked the daylights out of them last fall, but left a few branches because my wife likes to cut a few bunches of the flowers for the house when they bloom. Well, with the late frost, the blossoms never amounted to much this year.

Anyhow, I got busy and now they have grown back up again, towering well over 8 feet. After I read your post, I decided to go after them with the chainsaw, only the silly thing won't start. Doggone thing is only 22 years old, I don't unnerstand...

Snicker. Yeah, the frosts usually do it here too. We're about a 1000 feet higher than Denver, where they do bloom nicely, but not here.
I believe it's time to take the axe to it.
We put a Ninebark in another part of the flower garden that looks real nice and is doing well. Toying with replacing it with Dogwood and Burning Bush, and who knows what else. It doesn't get full sun, so we'll see.

You will be amazed by the number of flowers you will get when you cut back. I would have no hesitation trimming of 4-5 feet. I cut mine(my LL's) to 3 feet tall last year. They were 12' at least.

Lilacs need winter freezing in order to bloom properly. I have noticed that a mild winter will be followed by weaker blooming of my lilacs.

The roots are very deep, if you are planning to dig that lilac out, it will be a job. They naturally spread by runners. They can literally last 100 yrs!

I will have to watch for that...thx, Mumsey

Thanks everyone for the responses, Maybe we'll try digging out all the volunteers and cutting back the main plant, and see what happens next year. I wish I had a digital camera to make what I'm talking about clearer, maybe someday.
So when is the proper time to prune, in the fall?

1) How long has this been there?
2) Most Lilacs need 850 chilling hours each winter, does yours get that?
Lilacs blossom profusely in the most neglected places that exist. I have seen them growing and blossoming for years with no care at all, no one to spread compost or anything else, no one to water them when they need it, no one to rake up the fallen leaves each year, no one to prune the spent blossoms off and those shrubs are loaded with blossoms every spring. Benign neglect is the best way to care for these and also be sure the is not a really good soil which can easily cause any shrub to grow nice green foliage but no flowers.

It's been in place about 7-8 years. We do get plenty of cold winter days and nights, often below 0, so that requirement should be met. It's in an area that was all sand, but top soil was brought in, so it's good soil down about a foot or less, and sand under that.
I Googled the subject and found some pruning techniques, including cutting off the old flowers to stimulate the next year's flower growth. It was absolutely ignored for three years and we got the current situation. The late frosts may be a part of the problem, last year we had no crabapples either due to frost, but this year we do, and the lilac looked kind of like Charley Brown's Christmas tree, lots of sticks and leaves, but very few flowers.
I'd just as soon give it a chance, but the decision maker will let me know, she might want something else in its place, she hasn't decided yet.
It's the purple variety if that makes any difference.

I'm having the same problem with my lilacs. I'm in zone 7. I have lots of sticks and leaves but no blooms. What am I doing wrong? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

CharT