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My Mother-in-law has a 80 foot fence lined with 15 foot tall lilacs that have been growing there for 30+ years and offered to let me dig some of the off shoots for planting at my house witch is about half a mile down the road. I did dig up some of the 3 foot tall outliers and planted them in my yard. They lived for two years but never bloomed or grow bigger but the third year they were dead. The offer to transplant form her plants still stands and I would love to try again. Any help or tips for transplanting and care would be appreciated. Thanks

If you adequately water transplants that have enough root, they should take off. Lilac do best in full sun. Limeing soil may also help.

Agree with tom re the liming, depending on what your soil is like. I have a huge old lilac that I believe was planted when the house was new nearly 100 years ago, as well as a couple of others and even lilac volunteers. They do great with little maintenance, but I believe that is because my soil is alkaline. Unlike a lot of other plants, lilacs actually like alkaline soil (there has to be something that likes my soil, right? ).

So if your soil tends towards acidic and you really want lilacs (as opposed to planting something that will like your soil), you will need to keep adding garden lime, every year.

Thanks for the advice Tomc and Rainbowgardener

It is possible I didn't have enough root mass when I dug the transplants. Is there a rule of thumb about how wide and deep to dig up a plant for transplanting so you are sure to have enough root mass?

On the note about soil ph, is there an easy way to find out the acidity/alkalinity besides going to out and getting Litmus paper?

My favorite flower for both sent and beauty is the Lilac, so I am willing to work hard to help them grow and flourish in my yard. Thanks so much for the help.

You do NEED to know your soil pH. You can buy meters or test kits or you can send a soil sample to your local agricultural extension service for testing (they will tell you soil fertility as well as pH).

This may be of interest:

https://www.gardenguides.com/100643-dig- ... -tree.html