Both have to be a suckering type. Many lilacs are now sold that do not sucker and there is not much you can do to make them do so. The common lilac types will sucker with impunity and there would be no need to remove the grass/sod. Do you know what kind of roses and lilacs you have? I would not use a vegetation killer so close to the shrubs. Too much chance of injury to the 'good guys'. Could try digging out the sod around them, replacing the sod with a good soil and then mulch lightly with grass clippings or whatever you happen to have. If the lilacs are not the suckering kind, try to propogate them by bending a lower branch down and anchoring it firmly in the soil. Water it occasionally. It will root and next year you can separate it from the main plant. Jan

I just severe the little plant from the mother plant by cutting down between it and the main plant...dig and pot up. I pot them because it is easier to keep them in shade and humidity up while in a pot. Otherwise, wait until winter and you can just dig and move to new location. You probably could get by with a direct relocation if you are willing to cut back the top by about half and provide some shade. They are pretty tough customers.

Hello! I am a newbie in all things related to growing my own AVs. I bought one today that looks healthy, and I plan to repot it to make sure it is in good soil. Actually, I will probably use the plastic pot it came in, just change out the soil. Anyway, when I got home and started researching AVs, I learned about suckers. I started looking at my plant, and definitely see one sucker. But looking at it, I am not sure if it is just a sucker or a sucker that has become a second plant or even just a second plant. So my question: when I take it out of the pot and remove the soil from around the roots, I am guessing I will know pretty quickly if it is two plants. If it is two plants, can I simply repot them and have them out in their pots or do I have to do anything like put them in their new pots and then stick them in a plastic bag like you do when you propagate them? Also, should I pull off the sucker I see now, or wait until I have removed the soil and can see what I am dealing with? I am attaching pictures. Many thanks in advance!! Lori Anne

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK I’m not sure I’m that qualified to advise, but I’m happy to share my experience. This tree was a gift from a friend 7 years ago. It was a sapling/sucker from her tree. She told me the parent plant seemed to survive better indoors than any of the other curry trees she’d had. So, it’s possible this tree is just genetically hardy. For soil, I’ve used well-drained soil. I buy general, commercial potting soil, which also includes some miracle gro fertilizer. I then add worm castings as an organic fertilizer. And then I add additional pearlite to assist with drainage and to help avoid compaction of the soil. My impression is that compaction is a bigger concern when the pot is large and there’s a lot of soil For lighting, I did not get much light in my old apartment. A building was blocking my only window. My plant did not grow much in this window, so I purchased a 300-watt-equivalent LED bulb with a color temperature of 5000K. It was kind of expensive and VERY BRIGHT, but it worked. My tree started to grow quite well. After I moved to a new apartment with more sunlight, I placed my tree in an east facing window without the LED light. It got direct sunlight for a few hours a day. In the winter, I placed the LED light next to the tree. I don’t know if it was necessary at this point to use the LED light, and despite having the light, my tree did lose quite a few leaves in the winter. When spring arrived, I trimmed back the bare branches and new branches grew quite rapidly during the spring and summer. The tree even blossomed with one cluster of flowers! And finally, water. When the tree is small, it’s a bit easier to water, but when the tree is large, I think the way you water the tree can have a big impact on whether it survives the winter. I never water my tree without checking the soil. When the tree was small, I’d put my finger in the soil before watering it. If the soil was dry for a couple inches, I’d thoroughly water the plant. Now that the tree is large, I use a water meter to check the top half of the pot. I have a large pot now, and if I only checked the top few inches of the soil, it’s not enough to be sure the roots aren’t water-logged. I push the water meter all the way into the pot. If the meter shows that the soil is still very wet in the bottom half of the pot (which is where most of the roots are for my tree), I won’t add water. If it’s barely moist halfway down, I’ll add plenty of water to make sure the whole thing gets moist. My pot has holes in the bottom to allow excess water to leak out. I check the soil weekly, but I often only water once every couple weeks. Sometimes more, sometimes less. It depends on how active the plant is and how dry the air is in my apartment. I don’t really add much fertilizer because I’ve changed my pot fairly often, and the fresh soil had fertilizer in it. I do have a 20-20-20 fertilizer that I add to the water in very small doses when the tree is very actively growing, but this summer I was quite lazy with this, and I rarely did it. I don’t know that it’s even necessary. And one final thing is I have never put my tree outside. I know of families in Chicago who move their trees outside in the summer, and they didn’t seem to have any problems. It’s probably good for the tree to experience wind and fresh air, but I never wanted to risk introducing any pests to the soil or to the plant directly. I also didn’t want the tree to be stressed when I brought it back into my apartment where the air is dryer and more stagnant than it is outside. I hope you found that helpful. I’m by no means an expert, but I hope some of the things I’ve tried will work for you.