When Cutbacks are a Good Thing

I often hesitate to cut flowers in my gardens.

Especially in early spring when color is so sparse in the yard, I like to leave the blooms there. I feel guilty bringing in the few tulips or daffodils, as thought I'm thinning the ranks of the spring soldiers out there.

What I've learned about lilacs, though, is that cutting flowers actually helps produce blooms in the following seasons and so when those purple beauties arrive, I cut masses of flowers and set out bouquets all around the house.

I'm an inexpert pruner, but researching lilac cutting led me to some good resources. My main questions were what to prune and when to do it. The why already made sense to me --- increased flower production, bush shaping and air circulation.

It was nice to learn that you can prune anytime - spring pruning won't necessarily hurt the bush. But, the best time is late summer because at that point the plant doesn't have much incentive to put on new growth (which you're triing to get rid of). Think of a summer/fall plant as one who's getting tired after going after a summer-long bender. They're just not going to put much effort into their appearance.

What to prune is more subjective --- shape your bush and remove the "suckers." Lilacs produce a thicket of new growth at the base of the plant, and then also as new shoots growing upward from main branches. These can be removed to encourage the main bush.

This article from Fiskars talks about removing no more than 1/3 of the bush with each pruning and describes how to remove branches at the point where they meet other branches. Leave the branch "collar" intact so the bush can heal the cut.