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Renovating a Lilac in JuneMidsummer Gardener's Diary for Syringa Tree and Shrub Renewal
Midsummer is aide memoire for renovating lilac, a large tree or shrub. After flowering early in summer, the longest day signals time for pruning lilac trees heavily.
Syringa or LilacIn some gardens, elderflowers and lilac scents characterise the first throes of summer. Large Lilac or Syringa shrubs or trees can blossom in old school mauves and lilacs such as S. x hyacinthiflora ‘Blue Hyacinth’ and S.vulgaris ‘President Grevy’. Lilac trees and large shrubs can also throw contemporary colors of white (S. vulgaris ‘Madame Florent Stepman’), pink (S. vulgaris ‘Michel Buchner’), cream (S. vulgaris ‘Jan van Tol’) and rich red purple (S. vulgaris ‘Congo’) which feature in The Royal Horticultural Society New Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers: The Unrivalled Reference Work for Every Gardener, edited by Christopher Brickell (Dorling Kindersley, 1999). Lilac flower shape and powerful scent make for eye candy blooms for interiors. Once uncut lilac blossom fades on large shrubs and trees to brown flower heads, gardeners can set about deadheading regularly. With such early shows of color and the sunny splendor of spending time outdoors, overgrown lilac trees can hide their need to be pruned in June. Pruning Lilacs in JuneIn his June Trees & Shrubs diary, Ian Spence writes “If lilacs have become overgrown and leggy, now is the bet time for drastic action, just after you have enjoyed the flowers but early enough to let the shrub made some new growth over the summer”. Saw them right down to about 45 cm (18 min) from the base” in the Royal Horticultural Society Gardening Through The Year: Your Month-By-Mouth guide to What to Do When in The Garden (Dorling Kindersley, 2001). Scaredy-cat gardeners will be uncomfortable with such a brutal pruning. New shoots will regrow from pruned height from the base of 1 metre as well as about half that length as Barnsdale Head Gardener Ian Spence suggested. Heavily pruned lilacs will grow in better formed bushes for the following years. Gardeners can cut down thin straggly stems within the main branches of the plant to add definition. Flowers may disappear for the first year after pruning as the lilac puts all its efforts into renewal as a shrub. Composting Pruning LeftoversPruning two to three years of overgrowth on a lilac will leave the gardener with quite a pile of debris – possibly four or five times the size of the remaining lilac. Fresh pruning leftovers of lilac will be well received by recycling officers at the local collective composting facility. Gardeners with one or more lilacs can remember to prune heavily their trees and shrubs around the time of the longest day of the year, midsummer.
The copyright of the article Renovating a Lilac in June in Tree Care is owned by Susan Morris. Permission to republish Renovating a Lilac in June in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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