Help With Old Lilac

[guitarob]

Hello All!

I have recently returned to my childhood home to help care for my ailing Father. I have, in the process, inherited his long neglected gardens.

There is an old Lilac tree (20+ years) in the back yard that still produces some beautiful looking and smelling blooms, but is a bit gangly and unsightly.

Do you have any suggestions that may help bring this tree back to it's former beauty?

[img]https://backend.bardall.net/helpful/lilac1.jpg[/img]
[img]https://backend.bardall.net/helpful/lilac2.jpg[/img]
[img]https://backend.bardall.net/helpful/lilac3.jpg[/img]

[bullthistle]

I would cut back the oldest stem to the ground, in the fall, I see some suckers trying to sprout but first the soil more then likely is depleated of any nutrition so I would dig a trench around the base and backfill with manure or compost and throw in some 10-10-10 and then water. It will take a while.

[rainbowgardener]

It is very small and spindly for a 20 year old lilac as well as kind of stretched looking. I'm thinking it is too close to the house and too shaded.

Is it possible to cut it back as suggested and transplant it some where sunnier? Then give it lots of noursihment.

[guitarob]

Thanks for your replies! I would love to move it. I think it looks so terrible because my father had some overzealous landscapers, who really had no idea how to care for bushes and trees. Wait until you see my azaleas (but that's another post).

What would be the proper way to move this to a better place? Is there a way that in the process I could save a part of to grow another?