Wonderful powder blue lilac bush

hendi_alex · Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 10:09 pm Post subject: Wonderful powder blue lilac bush

I found a wonderful blue lilac shrub gowing in a overgrown area of my daughter's yard. She bought a repo last year and we are just making some progress on yard work, as the reconstruction inside and outside the house has been very tedious, basically taking the inside down to the studs and replacing most everything.

Anyway found this wonderful lilac and decided to cut off a branch and bring it home. I did a series of cuttings dipped in rooting hormone. Is there a chance that some will take root?
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Eclectic gardening style, drawing from 40 years of interest and experience. Mostly plant in raised beds and containers primarily using intensive gardening techniques.
Alex

vintagejuls · Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 10:19 pm Post subject:

Alex,

How interesting! What a great experiment! That's what I enjoy about gardening. Putting something in dirt and seeing if it will grow. Nature at it's best. Of course, giving the specimen the essentials - water, air, light...

Seems like you have the know how to make something of that little Lilac branch.

Good luck and keep us posted. Wink

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~ Julie

Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well... Emerson

hendi_alex · Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 10:59 pm Post subject:

I'll get a piece of that bush one way of another, may even air layer a branch this summer. Could be to no avail, as most lilacs don't do well in zone 8, but my daughter is only about 100 miles north of us. Maybe this long ago forgotten about bush will grow here as well. My peonies have bloomed here for the past two years. Don't think that they are supposed to bloom in zone eight either. So, as you say, the experiment begins!
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Eclectic gardening style, drawing from 40 years of interest and experience. Mostly plant in raised beds and containers primarily using intensive gardening techniques.
Alex

Sage Hermit · Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 12:16 pm Post subject:

Did it work?
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You can solve all your problems in a garden/laboratory.

19ashe86 · Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:53 am Post subject: yea

did it work?

we'd love pictures

hendi_alex · Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:12 pm Post subject:

Two of those cuttings survived the year, though I'm in zone 8 where lilacs are gerally not supposed to live. I'm not sure that they will survive until maturity, but will continue to nurture the plants along, hoping for an eventual bloom. Here are a couple of photos of the larger cutting, perhaps 8 inches tall as of this morning.

Color is better in the second photo:

I started a few more cuttings this spring, and so far three of those are alive.
_________________
Eclectic gardening style, drawing from 40 years of interest and experience. Mostly plant in raised beds and containers primarily using intensive gardening techniques.
Alex