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Lilac flowers won't open

18 years ago

I have a lilac that we planted 3 years ago. It bloomed profusely last year. This year there are flower buds everywhere and have been there for a few weeks now. In my area, lilacs are in full bloom, except for mine. Only a few, 1% maybe, individual flower buds have opened. I trimmed some suckers a week or 2 ago. Did this put the tree in shock and won't open its flowers. We were so happy to see so many flower buds come up this year and keep waiting to smell the flowers, but it just doesn't seem to want to open. Has anybody experienced this before?

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Comments (5)

jenny_in_se_pa
18 years ago
Your lilac is still young and is probably still adjusting to its new area and microclimate. I have had mine keep buds for awhile before opening - if anything because it might have suddenly gotten cool and they slowed down. Alternately, if there's a long warm spell, they will open quite readily.
wangshan
17 years ago
Mine are also in suspended animation...I think it was the early heat then cooler weather. The good news is that they will probably last longer. Some varieties go later too, like the double flowered, mine are always a few weeks later than the single. Jenny maybe you can answer this question...I have been taking suckers from my Beauty of Moscow lilac, and while the transplants are growing and healthy, they have no blooms. They are only 1-2 years old, and the tallest is maybe 4 feet tall, and only 2 branches wide, while I swear the parent plant is about 15 feet tall. Will they bloom when they get bigger? My cutting from Miss Kim got blooms when it was only 12 inches high.

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Well, we finally pruned back our lilac!! DH used a pole chainsaw we got this year - it was really helpful - on the big older branches mostly on the inside of the clump. Then I made a tool (husbands suggestion) by taping a hook onto the end of a piece of bamboo, and used that to hook the top branches and pull them down so I could trim them - this saved me from having to get up on a ladder. Worked well!! So here are the before and after pics. It's a little hard to tell how much we trimmed because of the trees in our neighbors yard behind it. But a lot did come off! Hoping it likes it next spring and we get some new fresh growth and blooms :) This was taken 6/1/14: This was taken 9/10/15 And here is my fancy tool for pulling the top branches down: I hated having more of the neighbors green shed exposed. I keep trying to get something to grow up along that area so it will hide it (the green plant you see there is some type of weed plant that I find in other places in the yard. I let it go this year, that's why it's so tall), but haven't had any luck. Think I need to amend the soil area (we have sand on top of the old grass there, but I have dug up a couple of spots for plants and added some soil) or maybe I should put planter boxes at the top of the fence instead. Did you trim yours, popmama and maidinmontana? I love that picture of yours, maidinmontana - very pretty! Yours is really tall as well. Marj
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both
17 years ago
My lilac bush is doing the lame thing. Everyone else in the neighborhood has blooms but mine don't look like they are even ready to pop. I realy think mine are even looking worse as the days go by. I was wondering if I should give it some rose food to give it a bloom boost.
sushi_deluxe
17 years ago
Some lilacs bloom later than others--Miss Kim, for example. Mine are still heavily budded but not blooming, same as last year.
jenny_in_se_pa
17 years ago
wangshan - those are beautiful lilacs!!!! Yes, it may take some time but your little babies should bloom one day. Sometimes they end up blooming earlier than if you tried starting a plant from seed.

All of you in the MW have been under the influence of some chilly weather lately and I think a few days of warm will pop the buds - and if not that, they will gradually open and you'll actually have a longer bloom period out of them. My Miss Kim came out all at once last week, literally overnight, for the first time since I've had her (about 7 years). Usually she's slow to open flowers, with one or two fully opening a day. But we had a bunch of very sunny dry days in the upper 70Â° Fs and that popped her fully open in a day. Since both of my lilacs are permanently in containers and not in full sun, they have come out a bit later than the ones in the ground. But even then, my Miss Kim is at least a week ahead of her usual bloom schedule due to the mild winter and no late frosts. My James McFarlane hasn't fully opened buds yet, although I noticed 1 panicle opening now.

Wow that wafting fragrance is great though!!!!

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