How to Plant, Grow and Care for Lilac Bushes

Common Lilac, English Lilac, French Lilac, Early Flowering Lilac, Dwarf Korean Lilac

Lilac, Lilacs, Lilac Bush, French Lilac, Lilac Tree, Lilac Flowers, Early Flowering Lilac

Lilac, Syringa, Lilac Care, Lilac Planting

A lilac in full bloom, with its heavenly fragrance, is a breathtaking sight. Easy to grow, tough as nails, undemanding, and deer resistant, these hardy shrubs have been tailored to meet the needs of most gardens.

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All you need to know about Lilacs

Lilacs (Syringa) are members of the olive family of flowering plants, Oleaceae. There are about 20 species of Lilacs that are native to Europe and Asia.

Most popular Lilac choices for the landscape

Common Lilac or French Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) has been cherished for more than 500 years for its intoxicating fragrance. Blooming in late spring, it is the showiest of the lilac species. Native to southeastern Europe, it is widely grown in temperate areas of the world and counts over 0 cultivars with single or double flowers in deep purple, lavender, blue, red, pink, white, and pale creamy yellow. Easy to grow and tough as nails, it is a mainstay of the spring landscape in northern and colder climates and is hardy in zones 3-7. Common lilac reaches a height of approximately 20 feet (6 meters).
Dwarf Korean Lilac (Syringa meyeri ‘Palibin’) is a compact shrub with a profusion of sweetly-fragrant upright panicles of lilac-pink single flowers in late spring to early summer. ‘Palibin’ is one of the most dwarfed or slow-growing lilacs, growing only 5 feet tall (150 cm). Hardy in zones 3-7, it is perfect for small gardens.
Manchurian lilac (Syringa pubescens subsp. patula ‘Miss Kim’) is a charming, compact Lilac boasting sweetly fragrant, lavender to ice blue flowers in late spring. It also provides good fall color with its dark green foliage, turning attractive burgundy shades. A slow grower, reaching 6-8 feet in height (180-240 cm), this Lilac is hardy in zone 3-8.
Early Flowering Lilac (Syringa x hyacinthiflora) rewards us with an abundance of exquisitely scented flowers in mid-spring, about 7-10 days earlier than the Common Lilacs. But this is not its only charm. The foliage often colors up to shades of red, purple, and gold in fall, extending their season of interest. This Lilac bush is highly resistant to powdery mildew, unlike many other lilac varieties, and grows up to 12 feet. tall (360 cm). It is hardy in zones 2-9, depending on the Lilac cultivar.
Reblooming Lilac does not only bloom in spring for a few fleeting weeks. It prolongs its presence as it repeats blooms in summer and fall, bringing its wonderful color and scent to the garden.

Lilac Basics

Lilacs are shrubs of colder climates. Most of them perform well in hardiness zones 3-7 and need a period of cold-initiated dormancy to trigger flowering. However, some varieties are cold hardy to zone 2 while others are heat tolerant to zone 9 and do not require a winter chill. Lilacs are not recommended for hot, humid areas.
Depending on where you live and the lilac varieties you choose, Lilacs can provide color and fragrance from April through June. There are early-season, mid-season, late season Lilac varieties.
Lilacs perform best in full sun in fertile, humus-rich, neutral to alkaline, and well-drained soil.
Lilacs are very versatile. They make great border shrubs and are commonly used as screens, hedges, or specimens. Dwarf Lilacs are suitable plants for small gardens and even containers. For those gardeners with limited space, there are some Lilac bushes with a habit smaller than the Common Lilac.
Common Lilacs tend to sucker. Promptly remove root suckers to maintain a neat appearance and prevent unwanted colonial spread.
The sweetly scented flowers attract butterflies and hummingbirds to the garden. Lilac is not generally a plant that deer or other animals seek to eat, but if other food sources are scarce, they may come along and make a meal out of your Lilac.
Lilacs should be pruned out regularly to promote flowering.
Lilacs are subject to mildew, scale, borers, leafroll necrosis, pseudomonas blight, and other maladies.

Guide Information

Hardiness	3 - 7
Plant Type	Shrubs, Trees
Genus	Syringa
Exposure	Full Sun
Season of Interest	Spring (Mid, Late)
Maintenance	Low
Water Needs	Average
Soil Type	Chalk, Clay, Loam, Sand
Soil pH	Alkaline, Neutral
Soil Drainage	Moist but Well-Drained, Well-Drained
Characteristics	Cut Flowers, Fragrant, Showy
Landscaping Ideas	Beds And Borders, Hedges And Screens, Patio And Containers
Garden Styles	City and Courtyard, Informal and Cottage

Syringa meyeri ‘Palibin’ (Lilac)

Syringa Tinkerbelle® (Lilac)

Syringa vulgaris ‘Beauty of Moscow’ (Lilac)

When to Plant Lilac?

The best time to plant Lilacs in the garden is in spring or fall.

Where to Plant Lilac?

Most Lilacs perform well in USDA Zones 3-7, depending on the species. Not sure about your growing zone? Check here.
Lilacs are easily grown in full sun (at least 6 hours of sunlight daily) in fertile, humus-rich, neutral to alkaline, and well-drained soil.
Lilacs grown in partial sun or shade will not flower well.
Lilacs thrive in sandy-gravelly loams that have excellent drainage. they will not tolerate heavy clay.
Lilacs are very versatile. They make great border shrubs and are commonly used as screens, hedges, or specimens. Dwarf Lilacs are suitable plants for small gardens and even containers.
Surrounding your Lilacs with a succession of flowers and foliage plants will reinforce the beauty of their blooms and extend the season of interest in your landscape. Here is the list of favorite companion plants for your Lilacs: conifers, flowering crabapples, flowering dogwoods, flowering cherries, magnolias, peonies, hemerocallis.

How to Plant Lilac?

Dig a hole, about twice the root ball.
Enrich the soil at the bottom with organic matter.
Set your Lilac in the planting hole and add additional rich soil to cover the crown, mounding the lilac very slightly.
Space your Lilacs 5-15 feet apart (150-450 cm), depending on the variety.
Water well around the plant after planting.
Spread mulch around the plant to keep moisture in and weeds out. This will also provide winter protection for the roots.
Your Lilac bush may take three to four years to establish itself, but once established it can live for centuries.

Syringa vulgaris ‘Katherine Havemeyer’ (Lilac)

Syringa vulgaris ‘Primrose’ (Lilac)

Syringa vulgaris ‘Sensation’ (Lilac)

Lilac Care

Watering

Water regularly throughout the summer to keep the soil lightly moist.
Established Lilacs typically will only need watering during periods of drought.

Fertilizer

Lilac bushes do not need a lot of fertilizer or feeding.
Use a balanced fertilizer annually in the early spring, especially if you have poor soil.
Make sure not to over-fertilize as this can reduce flowering.

Pruning / Deadheading

Lilacs are greatly improved by annual pruning. Pruning encourages flowering and ensures adequate air circulation.
Lilacs bloom on old wood, therefore the right time to prune is just after flowering is over.
Remove diseased, damaged, congested, or crossing shoots. Thin suckers and all twiggy small branches.
Cut out 1/4 to 1/3 of the oldest branches and suckers each year. This enables your Lilac bush to renew itself with strong canes every 4 years.
Remove all but the strongest suckers, leaving them to replace older canes.
Remove some of the height so that your Lilac bush does not become a tree and the blooms are at eye level.

Propagating

Lilacs can be propagated from seed, cuttings, layering, grafting, or budding.
Cuttings and layering offer the best results.
The best time to propagate is in the late spring to early summer.
Propagation from cuttings:
Choose strong new growth with about 4-5 pairs of buds.
Cut the base of the cutting just below the lowest set of leaves.
Remove the 3 lowest pairs of leaves at the bud juncture.
Insert the cutting into a rooting compound, keeping the uppermost pair of leafless buds at ground level.
Cut half of the remaining top leaves.
Propagation from layering:
If a branch is close enough to the ground, nick the bark in 2 or 3 places, preferably below a leaf bud, and apply a rooting compound on the wounds.
Cover the branch with 3-4 in. (7-10 cm) of soil and keep it moist to promote root formation.

Pest and Diseases

Lilacs can stand a great deal of abuse and attacks of pests and diseases and come back if provided adequate treatment.
Keep an eye out for lilac leaf-mining moth, privet thrips, lilac blight, honey fungus, Phytophthora, and Powdery mildew.

Syringa x hyacinthiflora ‘Angel White’ (Early Flowering Lilac)

Syringa x hyacinthiflora ‘Excel’ (Early Flowering Lilac)

Syringa x hyacinthiflora ‘Pocahontas’ (Early Flowering Lilac)

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Syringa (Lilac)

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While every effort has been made to describe these plants accurately, please keep in mind that height, bloom time, and color may differ in various climates. The description of these plants has been written based on numerous outside resources.