Long-Term Lilac possibly sick??

[Nukawin]

Hey guys! ^^;;;

To save a long story short, in around 2006, I bought my mum a Lilac Tree for Mothers Day. Up until recently, the tree has been thriving very well. The tree had been moved a couple of times (from centre of garden to another garden when we had renovations done, and then to a corner of the garden when we returned) - Despite the move abouts, the tree grew, bloomed yearly and was over all very healthy.

Around five months ago, we moved out to the country, to our late relatives home. All the plants we had came with us.

The garden here was a right mess tho, it's mostly clay, with stones and little soil. Some parts are worse than others. Since winter was coming in we planted our plants anyway, and for the first few months the lilac surprised us by growing even more, twice it's size and taller than before! The part of the yard the lilac was in was heavily water-logged, but despite this, the tree just went 'Awol' and grew, it seemed to just relish the amount of water it was being flooded with.

As spring came in, we got two more Lilacs (I call them babies cause they're both tiny compared to our ''long term'' lilac), and so far everything was going well. All the trees we have were growing nicely, and getting ready to bloom. Shortly after my dad had drainage installed tho... Our resident lilac has started to die in some places. While the 'babies' are growing nicely, our first lilac isn't doing so great.

Please take note that the garden(s) are still currently being worked on, we've recently sewn grass seed into the front yard (where the big lilac is).

Here are photos of the first Lilac (and photos of it's wilts):





These wilts are in different parts of the tree, and overall the tree appears to have slowed (or) stopped growing. This tree has been with my family the longest and the emotional attachment I have to it is similiar to what I feel for my animals. I want to save this tree but I don't know whats wrong with it. We thought that with the drainage in the tree wasn't getting enough water, so it's been getting a full watering can a couple of times each day now but honestly it doesn't seem to be improving much.

These are the other Lilac Trees we have, which seem to be doing fine.




I apologise in advanced for any spelling errors, and the unsightly appearance of the garden. As said, we've only been here for about 5 months and we're working slowly to get the garden into shape.

Can anyone tell me what's (possibly) going on with our Lilac, and can it be saved??

[valley]

Greetings, You mentioned: Waterlogged, that doesn't sound like a spot lilacs would do well in. Lilacs like water but not standing water. You mentioned: your father put in a drainage system, was that to drain the area the plants are in? They can grow well in clay and silt, even rocky sandy areas given enough water with a bit of organic matter, they like well drained earth.

Maybe you can let us know a little more, about the drainage system.

Richard

[Nukawin]

We have read that the Lilacs don't like too much water, but it doesn't explain why ours suddenly 'boomed' in growth when we had some flooding around it, then we put drainage in and it suddenly starts to wilt?

My sister reckons that it may have just guzzled that much water that the sudden lack of it made it sick. It's really confusing us as, like I've said, it grew so much with the flooding, but has suddenly started to wilt with the drainage.

In regards to the drainage.

The entire front yard has had drainage installed. 5-6 rows were dug out 3ft from each other and connected to one long trench that lead way back into a field. Two types of stones were put in (larger pebbles before the drainage pipes, then finer stones before being covered with soil). Because of where the lilac was, the drainage pipe runs just a foot away from it.

A few Cherry Trees, the Japanese Maple and another plant share the same patch of ground the Lilac is in, and they're doing fine, but the Lilac has become poorly. What more info do you need?? I'll try to explain everything as best as I can.

[valley]

Hi, I'm guessing the roots were disturbed by the trenching. It should respond with watering and maybe a bit of gypsum sprinkled on top of the ground around the base of the plant. You said it was flowering so the ground there or the soil that came with it when planting must have been sweet [alkaline] but you could sprinkle a little. I can't think of anything that might have been spilled by the work on the drain. if ABS Cement, used on the drain line, was spilled you would see it on the ground. Good luck to you. It would be nice if you let us know what you do, if anything, and how the plant looks in few days.

Our lilac plants are in full bloom here at the desert ranch zone 6, at our mountain ranch which is also zone 6 there is still snow and the lilacs are doing nothing yet.


Richard