Syringa

Posts

• Obelixx Posts: 30,090

  September 2018

  That's lilacs for you.   They do flower on last year's stems so if you're pruning them you are removing the flowering shoots.  Prune after flowering - assuming they're mature enough to flower - by simply removing the spent flower heads and only removing up to 1/"rd of the oldest stems if you want to control size.   Try feeding them some bonemeal forked in around the roots now, and again in spring, as this will promote plant health and flower development.

  Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
  

  "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."

  Plato
  

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• Rubytoo Posts: 1,630

  September 2018

  As ObeliXX implies they are a bit of a one minute wonder, ours is the little one, it is lovely for a few weeks then all gone.
  One option to make it look more interesting for a bit more of the growing season would be use a little clematis to give it some colour later on.
  Try looking at a viticella types, (group three for pruning) these can be cut back and gently dragged out of the plant easy to tidy up in winter when the lilac leaves have gone, when you are tidying up you can do the same with the clematis to tidy up the worst then prune harder to the ground in sporing.
  
  Viticella have stems that die back quite nicely if done every year, so the bits left behind get like straw and practically drop or blow away quite quickly in winter. If you are uber tidy person you can easily pick the odd few strawy bits left, they break and do no damage to the main plant.
  There are so many but I would pick one that does not grow too big, even over a season once well settled some varieties can get quite large.
  
  

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