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Cutting back overgrown lilacs

9 years ago

We have 2 enormous lilacs, they had to be at least 12 ft tall. Today we cut them back to about 3'. Some of the branches are as thick as tree limbs. I've read you can cut lilacs back very hard and they'll grow back. I didn't want to cut them down to the ground though. Right now, they look very bad, just a bunch of thick, woody branches but I am hoping they will sprout new growth. I know they won't bloom for a few years, which is fine, but should I have cut them down to the ground, or is it ok to leave them at 3'?

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Comments (3)

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
9 years ago
Oh dear, I wish you had asked here first ;-) Never mind, it's done now and all you can do is wait for it to regrow. Firstly, 12 feet is not particularly large for a lilac -they can make nice little multi-stemmed trees and a mature specimen will indeed have thick branches. But that is not by definition a bad thing if it is healthy. If you want smaller lilacs it might be useful to research some smaller cultivars which will stay naturally nearer the size you want.

Secondly, cutting off at 3 feet will give you a shrub on legs rather than growing full to the ground. The best way of dealing with it would have either been to cut it all to the ground and sacrifice all flowers for a few years or to cut out a proportion of stems to the ground over two or three years thus renewing all the stems eventually.

You'll have to decide if you want your lilac to remain up on legs or to take it down to the ground. Either way they will sprout again so don't worry about that.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
google: rejuvenation pruning of flowering shrubs ...

no need to add lilac to the search term...

ken
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For multi-stemmed shrubs-those that exit the ground in multiple stems-you can always coppice, ie. cut the thing right down to the ground, and it will burst forth with lots of new stems. Then, like gardengal says, if it happens to be shrub like lilac where the bloom buds are set the year prior, you will lose one season's worth of blooms but it can be well worth it. Otherwise, the technique which I call renewal pruning-and which I think might be Ken's rejuvenation-I'm not even sure-will work well. And you can do this more or less indefinitely.
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Right^. The use of the word 'severely' by definition indicates an overzealous attack on the trees. They will-as trees always have-respond to the loss of numerous branches by attempting to right this loss. We call these suckers. Where there was one branch before, now there might be sixteen, all trying to develop around the same growing point. Much does depend on species, but when you say severely, no, that won't work for anything. Might coppicing be an option? That way, you'd end up working with all new stems, not mangled and abused things. For trees which are still basically in good shape but which have been long neglected, the "crown cleaning" that may be needed should be done taking into consideration that the tree has not had work done to it in a long time, and that therefore, they should be brought around gradually. Anything which lops off lots of foliage at any one time is likely to do more harm than good, but many tree species will resprout from the complete loss of above-ground parts.
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Marie Tulin
9 years ago
Ditto to comment one. Id finish cutting them back. They'll be less of an eyesore. However are they just too big for the spot?. If they are you'll spend your life cutting back and waiting for them to re-grow.

And learn from us old time, experienced mistake-makers: before you pick up the pruning shears pick up a book or some advice from the internet or Gardenweb. Look twice, cut once

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