I bought this hardy Japanese lilac bush and there were signs of blooms on the tips. I planted it and it's doing well except the growth on the branches where the flowers appear look odd. It had fuzzy, feathery things growing. I was able to blow it off but the leaves look different from the rest of the plant. I don't see any signs of bug infestation. What is this? Should I prune it off or just leave it alone and hope for the best for next year?
It has one of the common weedy fire-weed species growing in it. Japanese lilac is usually Syringa reticulata, a large plant with large parts - yours is a different kind of lilac.
Get down to the base of the weed plant. If you can gently pull it out without damaging the lilac, do so. But I imagine it is closely and strongly grown into the roots of the lilac. In that case, snip it off as close to the ground as you can.
You can probably just break it off, fire-weeds of this type are ephemeral and do not produce much of a root system.
Yea there's a Willow herb growing in with it (Epilobium species.) an annual wild plant that produces tons of feathery seeds. Just pull it out
