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How to protect/take care of young Lilac

PlantOverlordPlantOverlord Posts: 9
in Plants
A year or so ago I bought a very small lilac plant and it thrived for a year until, a few months ago, when it started growing flower buds. The buds never flowered and the plant started going downhill (drooping, leaves going limp, etc.). The plant had full sunlight and was well watered, so I'm unsure if it died from disease or because it was putting too much energy into flowering (I'm not sure if that's even a thing) or what. Now I've just bought two more very small lilac plants 'Sensation' and 'Beauty of Moscow' and I was hoping for advice on how to care for these. Since they'll be younger than a year and I don't want the same fate to happen to them, should I remove all flower buds to prevent them from flowering when the time comes so they can put their energy into growing? How do I prevent disease and do they need frost protection in the coming months?

Posts

  • Paul B3Paul B3 Posts: 3,154
    Hello PlantOverlord
    You say your two new plants are younger than a year old ? I would be amazed if they flowered at all at that age .
    It is very difficult to tell next years flower buds apart from next years leaf buds ;  like miniature grapes , the tiny flower buds appear in the spring .
    This might sound ridiculous , but are you mistakenly removing the leaf buds ?
  • PlantOverlordPlantOverlord Posts: 9
    I'm not sure how old they are, just guessing - they're in 9cm pots which is the same the original lilac was. This plant died a few months ago (around the time other Lilacs flower) and it started to grow these small dull grey/purple buds like in the image attached. However the buds never flowered (did they not flower because the plant was too young?). When I bought this plant over a year ago it came with finished buds (that never flowered). Anyway this happened again this year, but the plant eventually died. Is it possible for a plant to finish flowering before the buds have opened?
  • PlantOverlordPlantOverlord Posts: 9
    I really want to take care of these new plants. If they do flower next year and the problem is they're flowering too early, should I simply remove these flower buds?
  • Paul B3Paul B3 Posts: 3,154
    Flower buds on a lot of plants can abort if the weather is extreme ; during the onslaught by the 'Beasts' in March of this year , a number of my own shrubs behaved this way .
    My Crinodendrons and the Paulownia tomentosa lost 99% of their normally overwintering buds ; fortunately and surprisingly a few survived to produce a somewhat subdued performance compared to their usual display .

    My Eucryphia got hammered in those winds , but is now flowering profusely ; what a bee-magnet that is !
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384
    Are they planted in the ground or pots?  If pots, what size?  Watering newly planted trees like lilac can be tricky and a dying tree will often try to flower in a last attempt to propagate itself.  Some tips here:

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
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