What's the Trick to Pruning Lilacs? How Should I Trim Overgrown Lilacs?

Question: What's the Trick to Pruning Lilacs? How Should I Trim Overgrown Lilacs?

A reader writes: "I have had my lilacs for at least 19 years, but for the last two years they have not had but maybe two groups of blossoms and that is it. What is wrong and is there a way of pruning lilacs to bring them back?"

Answer:

"How should I trim overgrown lilacs?" is a common question. When lilacs seem to be petering out, there's a 3-step (over 3 years) procedure for rejuvenating lilacs that the experts recommend:

1. Take a rough count of the total lilac branches coming out of the ground.
2. Mark the oldest-looking ones, until you've reached a count of about 1/3 of the total branches.
3. Trim those older lilac branches down to the ground. That concludes your rejuvenation work in the first year (step 1).
4. In years 2 and 3, simply repeat the above. The end result will be more energy being channelled into the younger lilac branches coming out of the ground.

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