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Old lilac

christinegood310christinegood310 Posts: 12
in Problem solving
Please can anyone help? My old lilac tree looks dead! Its looked like this for around 5 months although on closer inspection  there are some suckers with leaves about to open and on one of the lower branches theres one thin stem with leaves about to open . Other than that it doesnt look good! Any ideas would be appreciated  as I really dont want to lose it. Many thanks

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Lilac is usually quite late to leaf up ... I wouldnt write it off just yet. 

    I presume it didn’t lose its leaves before autumn arrived?

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • christinegood310christinegood310 Posts: 12
    Thanks for replying, I dont think it had many leaves last year I remember a friend was visiting last year some time and she said ooh that doesnt look healthy?also it had hardly  any flowers last year  and those were very small as my mum said maybe the pigeons got at them?
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited March 2019
    Hmmm maybe it’s time has come then. 

    Id be tempted to grow a rambling rose up into it ... 

    something like a Frances E Lester perhaps? https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/francis-e-lester

    Just a thought 😊 




    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Paul NPaul N Posts: 303
    Personally I would wait a further month before pruning out any dead branches. I'd then prune the remaining live branches down to head height and then mulch with lots of good muck. This may encourage the lilac to produce lots of new growth but if that fails, it's time has come and deserves to go. It looks a great age and must have given you much pleasure over the years but sometimes these things happen.
  • christinegood310christinegood310 Posts: 12
    Thanks for all your replies. There is actually two rambling Rose's at the foot of it . One you can see the stems which I cut right  back as it was tangled, I dont know how old it is I've only lived here 7 years and it was a lot bigger and smothered in ivy so had it cut right back then produced an amazing display of huge white flowers. But maybe it has had it's time? I'll give it a little longer get. Thanks everyone. 
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