Rachaelnoel76
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Did I prune too much?

Hi everyone,

We have a 6 year old lilac shrub in SW Ohio.
It has been doing great. Lots of beautiful
and fragrant blooms. This year, it seemed to be getting
a bit tall, blooms were higher than out heads- about 12 feet tall.
I have never pruned it before today. It was done flowering...
I trimmed the top 1/3 of the stems.
Well my husband seemed disgusted with me when he saw
"the damage"...

Did I harm the bush? Will it bloom next year?
After the fact, I read something about making sure
to leave some leaves on, so photosynthesis can occur. If that's
the case, I messed up.

Advice please... Thank you in advance!
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rainbowgardener
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where all the leaves? I don't understand, how could you take off only the top 1/3 of the stems and end up with a little stub with no leaves?

Ordinarily one prunes lilacs only by cutting out any dead wood and crossing branches that are rubbing, and then thin by cutting some of the oldest stems off at ground level.

Rachaelnoel76
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I interpreted "cut 1/3 of the stem" as 1/3 of the stem (branch?) from the ground to the end of it (twd the sky). I cut off the top 1/3, when viewing the WHOLE stem/ branch (?), starting at the ground.

Maybe I don't know what a stem vs. branch is. Stem is thinner, at the top? Branch is thicker, at the bottom?

Someone once told me pruning is always good for both kids and plants. The more you prune, the better they become...

Maybe I had no business thinking I could prune this (formerly) beautiful bush. I feel so bad. My husband was so upset and had such a look of disgust with me.

Normally I do pretty well with our landscaping and gardening. I have an infant and a toddler; I try my best to take care of everything- household inside and out, the kids...

I guess I'm just looking for some reassurance. I have been so anxious about this since I did it during the kids' naptime today.

Thanks.

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rainbowgardener
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Well lilacs are pretty tough. It's not likely that you killed it. A healthy well established lilac can sometimes come back from the roots if the whole thing is cut off.

But it is still not quite making sense to me. So you had a 12' tall lilac and you cut off the top third = 4 feet. So you should be left with 8 feet of lilac. Some of the old branches perhaps didn't have leaves on the interior part, if light wasn't getting in. But newer stems would usually be leafed out almost to the ground. For it to look like it does now, it seems like it wasn't entirely healthy to start with. It doesn't seem like that much of the shrub should have been bare.

valley
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Hi, Here's your reassurance: I think it'll come back just fine, nothing to worry about. Have a good summer.


Your story about pruning being good for kids and plants, The way I heard it was: Both dusty rugs and kids need a good spanking.


Richard

tomc
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Your lilac will probably survive its cut.

Generally speaking, its best to leave a terminal bud (or leaf) on the end of each branch.

What you did take was 100% of 2015 bloom.

A more normal aggressive cut for lilac would be to cut one trunk in three down to the ground.

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applestar
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I don't have lilacs, but my parents do... And I was thinking one of them which is not blooming as well maybe could do with a renewal pruning. -- was planning to do the every third oldest trunk thing.

But I'm curious -- ideally how DO you shorten a lilac shrub that is too tall? You don't try to make it "bushy" -- more branched? I believe cutting down the older trunk stimulates new shoots from the base that grow and become new trunks.

...and at this point, would it help for the OP to cut maybe one oldest trunk down to the ground? ...though this one doesn't look as massive as my parents' one that might need the renewal cut.

Rachaelnoel76
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Thank you for all of your responses.

Ok, so I'm hearing that it won't bloom next year, 2015? But that it will come back eventually? Does that mean it will add more stems/ branches and leaf out next year, but just not bloom?

I just went out to assess the height and I was wrong about it being 12 feet originally. Probably more like 8-9 feet tall originally with blooms at the very top of each branch-- 7-9 feet high range, and I cut it down to 3-5 feet. So I really messed up?

I thought that by cutting now in late spring, it would be ugly to look at the remainder of this year, but that next year we will get the blooms...??

I liked the shape of it, it seemed to be getting too tall though. It was longish/ ovalish-- round in a long way...

Should I prune more (the horror?!) to the ground, or take 1 out of every 3 branches to the ground like someone suggested?

Or should I leave it alone?

I have been scouring the internet all night and reading about different cutting techniques- ie. at an angle. I didn't take any of that into account. Ugh. Someday I'd love to take a master gardening class, so I could learn all of this.

tomc
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Applestar, because lilac is multi-stemmed, cut out one third of the trunks at ankle level. If you do that for three years you'll have a shorter continuously blooming shrub.

What Rachael is risking is some trunks simply dieing back (for lack of a terminal leaf).

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applestar
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Oh OK. I will get working on that when theirs finish blooming. (They were in full bloom last weekend for Mothers Day but the large white one which used to bloom more heavily was not showing as well as the two younger, classic lilac colored ones :D )

For Rachel, what if she tries cutting the oldest trunk to ankle level? Would that perhaps initiate the same process? If those at-risk trunks start to die off, the shrub may initiate a new basal shoot?

I'm not seeing many she can cut -- there is a pair of crossing trunks that could be a candidate -- either the stronger older looking one in the center or the newer one coming out at a lower angle.



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