We have a Lilac and it is in good health, but I would like to reduce it's height. When would be the right time to do this? Do Lilacs produce their terminal flower buds for next years flowers during this years growing season? There is not alot of heavy old growth and I had seen somewhere about cutting out the old growth to rejuivenate a lilac. This one has become too tall and would like to lower it. I would appreciate any information, thank you
This is the time of year I prune, right after flowering. We have a lilac we periodically reduce in height this way. Once, we cut it nearly to the ground. It came back nicely, is now about 15' high, and I need to get out there and bring it down to size again.
Lilacs are best pruned with paper scissors. They flower on old wood; new stems take 7 years or more to become mature enough to start flowering again. So a heavy prune means no flowers for several years.
I cut back my front lilac hedge when I lived in Halifax, NS, by about 1/2 or more, and it certainly took several years to bloom -- apparently now blooming beautifully for the new owner.
I prune it this time of year, you can kind of see where next year's buds are if you look carefully, so just preserve the ones you want. They will be at the tips, so it's difficult to "shorten" them and expect any bloom, but cut down 1/3 of the ones you want to shorten, then next year cut 1/2 the ones that flowered back, and then the next year 1/3 (the 1/2 you didn't cut previously), and it should be down to size w/o affecting the flowering toooo much. Mine are getting huge very quickly!
