lilac blooms didn't open

[Guest]

I had quite a few lilac blooms. A week later they were all brown and dried up. There's nothing wrong with the leaves. They look fine. Any ideas?

[The Helpful Gardener]

This sounds fungal, although we have been seeing more bacterial lilac blight in the landscape than we used to (this was pretty much a production disease, where thousands of lilacs were grouped together tightly, but it has been reported in the Connecticut landscape the past few years). I doubt it's Psuedomonas syringiensis (lilac blight) because you'd also be seeing some leaf and tip deformation and die-back. Cut off those spent blooms (cleaning your pruners with alcohol between cuts), and dispose of the cuttings in the garbage (NOT the compost) and keep an eye on things. Neither the fungus or Psuedomonas are deadly, but best to try and clean this up. Look to air circulation as your best bet to prevent either...

Scott