Tips for pruning lilacs
Trimming off lilac flowers
Pruning lilac shrubs
Removing lilac suckers
Removing the dead flowers from your lilac bush will encourage more blooms the following year. The important thing when trimming off your flowers is that you simply cut off the spent flowers—don’t worry about any surrounding stems. If you can see next year’s blooms forming (two new shoots coming from the stem), simply focus on the spent bloom’s stem. You don’t want to cut off next year’s flowers!
Another part of pruning lilacs is removing the suckers. What are suckers? Around my lilac there are a few new lilac trees—single stems a few feet away, shooting up from the soil, making their presence known. These are the suckers. I simply cut them off at the soil line (or slightly below). However stems close to the trunk of the bush itself, you may want to leave, as a healthy lilac has a mix of old and new stems. You could also dig up the suckers and replant them elsewhere. Who doesn’t love new plants?
