Lilac Growing Tips

If you love a fragrant garden but live in a cooler climate and want a low maintenance plant, then lilacs are for you.

Lilac is a prolific shrub originating from Europe and Asia. The unofficial Lilac Festival of the U.S. is in the Lilac Capital of the World: Rochester, New York. The ten day festival is held in early May and crowns a teen Lilac Queen who reins for the year and gets a $1,000 college scholarship. If you make it to the festival be sure to stop by Highland Park which has over 1200 lilac bushes on its 155 acres!

Far hardier than the fragrant gardenia, lilacs can grow in just about any soil from sand to clay as long as it has good drainage. Plant them as soon as you can dig in the post-winter soil or in late fall. Doing otherwise will likely stunt the growth of the bush. Set the bushes about six feet apart or you will be digging them out in short order. Lilacs have surface roots that radiate far and wide so give them room to spread.

Lilacs are popular in the north and northeast U.S., because they love the cold weather and require a good winter chill to produce their Spring bounty. If your lilac blooms aren't blooming it is likely due to too warm weather. Once the buds are ready to burst, a heat wave can keep the beautiful bloom unwrap for good.

If you simply must have a lilac garden but live in a warmer climate,
you can find a hybrid that can stand the heat.

While the lilac's blooms are truly beautiful, they are also truly brief and you'll only get one bloom per year. Botanists have come up with a great solution for this by breeding early, mid and late blooming varieties. Buy and plant your lilacs with this in mind. Make sure you get one or more of each so you will have many weeks of continuous blooms.

Finding varieties of lilacs won't be difficult as there are more than 1,000 in gorgeous whites, pinks and purples. There is also a wide variety of sizes from about four to thirty feet! The taller varieties make great hedges.

Keeping with its low maintenance reputation, lilacs don’t require much watering. Because they have such long roots, they need to be watered thoroughly but will nearly drown if watered too often or if their soil lacks good drainage. If you have a sunny hill, your lilac will feel right at home.

This plant likes an alkaline soil between pH 6 to 7.5 and a full sunny day. It will do best if it gets at least six hours of sun daily. If your blooms aren't prize winners, check that nitrogen in the soil is not too high.

For an extra treat, give your lilacs the ash from your fireplace.
They will reward you with even bigger blooms.

Fertilize regularly with a mix high in phosphorous during the bloom period and a general fertilizer the rest of the time. They also love the organic stuff so layer on the compost.

Lilacs require little pruning and weeding; just enough to keep it attractive is fine. Be sure to cut at the point of the next new bud to keep your bushes bushy. Also, lilacs like their blooms as much as you do. You will sacrifice the following season's bounty if you take too many of the blooms from the bush.

Lucky for you and the lilac, pests are not usually a problem. The scale, a stem borer, will attack new growth so keep an eye out for sawdust and damaged leaves. Use miscible oil spray if the infestation occurs in summer or a dormant oil spray if infestation is detected during the other seasons. If you overwater, you will likely find fungus growing on your lilacs. Clean it off with a dish soap bath and stop watering so much!

The scent of the beautiful lilac will enchant both you and your neighbors. This Spring favorite is simply a must after a long hard winter.