Lilac Tree Sparse and never blooms

I have a 7 foot tall lilac tree for 6 years. There are only leaves at the tip of the branches and it never blooms. (Every year) Why? and what can be done to inspire it. Thanks.

 

Lilac needs fertile, preferably lime-rich, soil - does that fit what you're growing it in?

 

I have put down lime around it over the years...but it made no difference...this year I didn't to see if it had any effect. It didn't.

 

Does it get enough sun? They like sun.

 

It gets sun for about 8 hours.

 

does it look healthy otherwise? They all seem to be in bloom around here right now. What about others in your area?

 

Others in the area are full and thick with leaves and blooms. Mine just has 3-4 leaves at the tip of each branch. It is always like that.

 

Lilac trees are very susceptable to bacterial blight, leaving growth only on the tips of branches.

 

I had this problem with a lilac once. I cut one third of it back to about one foot tall, and then the next year another third, and the third year the final third. It bushed up and got lovely and bloomed fine after this rather ruthless treatment. If the first cutting hadn't made a difference I wouldn't have continued, so maybe you can experiment. It would be too late now to expect flowers next year from the cut parts, but you can see if they put out new growth and act happier, eh?

Hope this helps,
Benita

 

Thanks....When should I cut it back?

 

Whether you or someone else planted it, your lilac could be suffering from being root bound. I would dig it up, were it mine, with most of the summer ahead of you, dig a hole twice the size of the root ball, fill the hole with leaf mould or compost, check to see that the roots were, in fact, opened up when originally planted, and stick it back in the hole. If it was root bound in the pot and the circularity of the roots was not interrupted by cutting, to interrupt the roots running around in a circle, it could be strangling itself. As a matter of fact, since you have no real 'show plant' here, I think that drastic action will only create improvement.

 

The best time to cut it back would be right after you see other lilacs blooming...but it's too late for that; if you don't get bloom anyway, you may as well start now. Better do it before new growth would be too weak to survive winterkill, or wait for next year to start.

Chuck White's suggestion is a good one, also. But if your lilac is the size mine was when I started working on it, you'd need a backhoe instead of a shovel.

You refer to your Lilac as a TREE. Mine was a BUSH, with lots of growth from the ground, and new suckers/offshoots every year. If yours is a standard (tree shape) lilac I suppose the same treatment I have described would work, but I'd be a bit more cautious with that first year's clipping.

Good luck!
Benita