Pacific Northwest Gardening: Laurie's Garden Tour 2, 0 by thistledownfarm

thistledownfarm wrote:
My lilac advice came from my grandmother, and hers were always fabulous. I brought starts of hers with me here to Washington from her garden in South Dakota many years ago. I have double French white ones and dark purple doubles and some just garden variety ones. When they were being stubborn about blooming here she told me to dig in a bucket of wood ash around the bottom in the fall, it worked like a charm and I had magnificent blooms the next year, so every time the bloom has petered out I've done it. Maybe an old wives tale but it sure works here.