how to propagate lilacs?

AHHHHHHH HUMMMMMMMMMMM I BEG YOUR PARDON, I AM LOOKING FOR SOME INFORMATION ABOUT HOW DO YOU CROSS A ROSE WITH A LILAC AND PLANT IT IN A SENIOR VILLAGE WITHOUT BREAKING ANY PATENT RULES.

I see this thread is a mix of several topics and I just wanted to clarify was this the correct place to ask my question. thank you for your time.

((BIG GRIN))

Jen,

If there is still the possibility of getting a lilac sucker or two, I would love that.

My new neghbor seems to hide, and even scurries away if I see him. I guess he's very anti-social. he even seems to be anti-plant (or at least anti-yard work) becuase he hired someone to chop most of the existing vegetation, and lay down heavy plastic and then bark.

I haven't been able to ask if I may prune his old lilac bush to encourage new shoots.

Corey

Corey, it is still in the 90s over here. Until next week. Hopefully I will get them then. Bob is trying to line up an appt. for a cortisone shot and I hate to ask him to dig it until he has it, but we may have to anyway. If he can't, I might be able to get my nephew to do it. We'll see. So far I have 6 besides mine to get.

In between my fishing that is. :0)

Jen

Hi Jen

Wow, 90! I haven't seen that all summer. By all means, wait until the time is right. Actually, I could even wait until next year, and not run out of gasrdening projects!

Just keep me on your list and enjoy any fishing time you manage to squeeze in!

(For fragrant plants starting with "L", I may even try Lavender in pots. "Pots" becuase they need good drainage.)

Corey

There are a lot of different types of Lavender Corey. If you want aroma, do a little research. Jen

I usually trust the blurbs on Botanical Interests seed packets, and this one goes on and on about sachets and "fragrant".

But I'll double-check before investing in WSing and potting up and fussing with taking pots in out of the rain. I have several kinds of seed, including "French" (Lavandula stoechas) and several kinds of "English" (Lavendula vera, Lavendula angustifolia (which I think is the same as "vera") , and one called Lavendula angustifolia Tall, which is the one where BI boasts about its heierloom fragrance).

But it sounds prone to root crown rot when there's rain 8 months per year, and heavy clay soil.

But MAN it grows tall and wide in the high Oregon desert!

Corey

Do you live in the high Oregon desert? I would think lavender would be great there.

LOL, I like Botanical Interest info and seeds also. Yes, some of it can get out of hand. It also seeds down some. I am sure my sister didn't plant all of those plants.

Not hardly. Speaking for Corey. LOL

Hi Evelyn!

>> Do you live in the high Oregon desert?

No, my SO does and I was visiting her for a change. Every time I look at her backyard (volcanic grit, gravel and sand), I envy the drainage and want to install irrigation!

To her, "no water" means "no mowing the lawn", so That Is Not To Be.

P.S. The "Pacific Giant" Delphinium elatum seed cleaned up nice and I hope to get it out to you soon. My curent Have list is in the Hog Wild database, if you might want anything else. Got some new tomato seeds, white Poppies, etc.


Tomato Old Flame
Tomato Sub Artic Plenty
Tomato Manitoba
Tomato Stupice
Tomato Pruden's Purple
Tomato Black Russian

Bells of Ireland
Foxglove/Foxy
Hollyhock Seeds - Mixed Colors
White Poppy Seeds




This message was edited Sep 9, 2011 6:47 PM

Ok Corey, I have marked my calender for Thursday or Friday of this week to dig the lilacs. It is suppose to rain all week starting today, so that will soften up the soil I hope. T & F are just iffy days for rain. I can live with that. So, hopefully I will get them sent a week from tomorrow.

Sorry about this week. I had planned, but my sister had an emergency that took her away Thursday and Friday, and yesterday she was too tired to do anything. Besides, I think the rain this week will make it easier to dig. So far I have requests for 7, so it will take a while.

I'll check and see if there are any more suckers on the white lilac, 'Mdme. Lemoine', if you are interested.

I'll keep that in mind Evelyn in case I can't fill all the requests for white. Thanks, Jen

Thanks, Jen! No hurry.

Don't feel pressure on my account! I am SO far behind on every garden project and ambition, that my five-year plan should be to figure out how many projects I am five years behind on.

And new neghbors just moved in with gardening aspirations, so I felt obliged to hack away a bunch of weeds in some haste, and pull up the snow pea vines I was hoping to save seed from.

They went from "don't really look mature yet" to "pods covered with mold and peas STILL look pretty fresh". Man, that black mold went from "a few spots" to almost-every-pod in juwst a few days.

I would hesitate to trade any snow pea seed when neqrby pods were moldy. the peas look clean and green ... but I'm sure there are mold spores everywhere. Maybe the OTHER snow pea patch (one month behind) won't be as moldy if I harvest them whether they seem ripe or not.

Corey

Thanks Corey. As long as I get them before the snow flies. LOL Never know when that might be tho.

Bob bought a 4 wheeler, ATV, and had a plow blade put on it so we probably won't have snow ever again. :0) wish I had known that was all it would take.

>> and had a plow blade put on it so we probably won't have snow ever again.

LOL!

One of the best things about moving from NJ to WA was hardly ever seeing deep snow. That, and the people. And the traffic. And cool summers. And the barista shops. And microbreweries. And no mosquitoes.

LOL, sounds like you made a good move there Corey. How far do you have to go to work Corey? Do you drive, take the bus or???? Do you work down town Seattle?

I was serious about living affordably near my job, so I've lived in manufactured home parks. I work in Lynwood, for Crane, which works for Boeing, Airbus, and anyone else who makes airplanes. Lately, antiskid braking software for the 787, and an Airbus propeller-driven transport "A400M". Our team motto for the 787 brakes was "Make It Stop!"

I lucked out: my SO was driving around eyeballing manufactured homes when she saw a realtor ABOUT TO put up the For Sale sign.

Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom, we were signing papers before anyone else could see it. He still seemed a little dazed about how fast it went down, and we had to work around him. He probably thought to himself: "New Jersey people!" but we never literally trampled over him to get it done.

Well, I did have to weasle the phone number of the banker out of someone when the realtor went on vacation at the same time I was being thrown out of my prior park, but I didn't feel like piling all my possesions on a street corner somewhere until he got around to doing any of his job.

Yeah, I lived in NJ too long!

I have more "yard" than the other places, and several big old pine trees! The "soil" is whatever clay was too hard for bulldozers to scrape off, but I'm curing that one trunkload of manure/compost at a time. Pick and mattock, shovel, hoe and screens. I'm creating many small raised beds plus very serious trenching to drain that clay.

Lots of huge, glorious Rhododendrons, and some nice azealeas, all in a front yard you can spit across.

The rug had a little bit of eau de feline (or maybe dog pee), and it is rather old for anyone trying to get a mortgage, but I'm not fussy.

The drive to work is around 15-25 minutes, and I'm 4 miles from a Home Depot, with multiple "bikini barista" huts within that same radius.

Umm, lest the Thread Police call this off-topic, there is a nice old lilac next door to me that desperately needs pruning. Maybe If I cut some of the ancient stalks, it would try to force some new suckers out through the clay.

Corey

So put a new carpet down. I would paint with Kilz first tho. Just so you don't waste the price of a new carpet and still have the smell.

15-20 minutes to work ain't bad. Stop and go?

So, you live in Everett and work in Lynnwood. That's a switch.

Sounds like you lucked out on the Mfg home.



Well think I'll hit the hay. ttyl, Jen




This message was edited Oct 5, 2011 3:40 PM

>> Sounds like you lucked out on the Mfg home.

Oh, YES! The price was tiny compared to any modern condo or house-with-micro-yard. But I pay a "space rent" that keeps rising, and if they decide to sell the park to developers, we have to move or crush our houses!

>> So put a new carpet down

Naah, I can't smell it any more. And it seems to be pricey deep wool carpet, wall to wall over the whole house. I wonder if wall-to-wall-to-wall nice new crapet would cost me more than the house did?

Besides, the "mioldy musty" smell seems universal in old mfg homes. MY SO is sure there was an incontinent cat or dog due to faded spots, plus she could smell it.

>> 15-20 minutes to work ain't bad. Stop and go?

12-15 minutes with no traffic and catching all the lights, 20 and up when there's grilock. In fact I've spent 20-30 minutes during Christmaws-Mall season, just going the few blocks where 164th crosses I-5. Stop and no-go. Bring a cigar or two.

Corey






This message was edited Oct 5, 2011 4:02 PM

Yes, Bob's mom lived in a gated community out by Sea/Tac and just loved it. She had a nice yard. Good size for one person to take care of. But, she too rented the space. The park had over 500 units that were placed very nicely around a private lake. Bow Lake. It was very nice, with a lot of amenities, that you could use, or not. I often wondered if it would be worth more selling it for condo space. But, you figure how much it was taking in each month from each of those places, I don't know. They really didn't have a lot of upkeep or anything. A clubhouse, hot tub area, etc. But that was it. Each unit was responsible for their own space just like they had a house.

I often thought they should furnish a business, even if the people paid for it, for general maintenance since it was a lot of elderly people there. But they didn't.

That's a shame about the carpet. Have you had a professional cleaner try it? I'm with your SO.

I don't know why the older ones should have a musty, moldy smell any more than a house would.

I am not visiting you until you clean your carpet...UGH!! (Sorry!)

Oh, it's more the faded areas than a smell. Especially after three years. And I never could smell it.

P.S. I know how the houses of some cat people smell, and I know they deny being able to smell their ammonia and yuck. Like everyone else, I'm sure that my case is different.

And NONE of these stains are from Saint Toby, the sweetest and best-behavied cat on the planet.

(Talk about starting up flame wars over controlversial topics! "My cat's nicer than your cat!" That's like arguing about whose clay soil is heavier than whose.)

>> I don't know why the older ones should have a musty, moldy smell any more than a house would.

Is Northeast WA the high, desert part? I live in the coastal lowlands where moss grows over EVERYTHING. Rain 8-9 months per year. That could be part of it.

Most NE yeah. But, not where I live. Our county is in a river valley. Big river, like about half the size of the Columbia, or maybe 2/3 the size. Lotsa flora and fauna like you all have but not as much rain. Quite.

Guess I have never been in one of those. But, you still didn't answer my ?. Why any more than a house?

>. Why any more than a house?

Why more musty smell?

Cheap foundation - humidity from the soil? I don't really know. But my first manufactured was VERY old and had a very cheap foundation: soil, thin layer of gravel, a few cinder blocks. Definite musty smell, even to me.

But the only stick-built concrete-fundation house I lived in that smelled musty was a NJ basement dug into a steep slope (always cool from being half buried) (always humid form bein g half-exposed and wide open to the rest of the house. It sucked humidity out of the air until it ran down the walls.

I don't care about real estate, except for how much sun and soil I can take over. My money goes for books and chinese food (and, now, compost and seeds and postage and raised bed walls).

Must be an aging thing. :0) Funny how our priorities change. Or do you think the move to a different area had anything to do with it?

Gosh, maybe I'll write a book. LOL

Rick, The common Lilac (S. vulgaris) is a large shrub. According to my old garden book it states that Lilacs can be propagated by seed, cutting of half-ripened and mature wood, by suckers and layer.

Old bushes can be completely renovated by cutting down almost to the ground. I had to do that to an old Lilac bush when I bought the house where it was growing. I lost a few years of bloom but it was worth it.

You can take the saw to it now before winter. It will send up young healthy growth during spring that can be used for cuttings early summer.

Well, it belongs to a neighbor who just moved in, and avoids conversation.

Maybe I should leave him a note, but but I would propose pruning it more gradually - like 1/3rd per year for three years.

Corey

OR, you can do as my neighbor did years ago. She was mad at her husband so she took her loppers out and cut all of his roses down to the ground. The next year they just gorgeous. Best they had ever looked.

Maybe if you do it a third at a time the neighbor won't notice. Figure out the hours they are gone. LOL

>> cut all of his roses down to the ground. The next year they just gorgeous. Best they had ever looked.

!!! That served someone right!

I think I'll avoid any drama I can avoid. "Technically", this park has many unenforced rules, and if I got him mad at me, who knows what would flow downhill.

Corey

Thnaks, but I think he's following the Park Protocol for Privacy, like someone I lived next to for 3 years: if he never talks to me, I'll stop trying to talk to him, and he can go back to having privacy despite micro-yards.

Neither of them would wave back. But as you suggest, I'll keep trying. Just not push.

I did corner him once but he left as soon as he could. He said he has bad knees, and that's why there must be NO yard maintenance.

Corey

Well Rick, then I think he would welcome the offer of "help".

In theory, yes. Sometimes I see him on his proch or going to his car. If I head in his direction, he hurries away. The one time I spoke to him, he was polite and didn;t seem a total curmudgeon.

I'm guessing he just likes a lot of privacy, a whole lot, and knows that when houses are back-to-back you have to nip neighborliness in the bud.

When we moved into a house in New Jersey (more New Jersey stories), we saw a couple wlaking down the street. She introduced them to us as next-door-neghbors, then he began grilling us to be sure we didn't have any $%#$@ noisy children, and other crabby / humorous comments. She kind of apologized for him and "re-assured" us, saying "he just didn't like children ... but wasn't EXTREME about it ... he might shoot them but wouldn;'t EAT them".

Over the years we learned they were actually very nice people, just with very very WIERD senses of humor, even by New Jersey standards. And very very frank and outspoken ... even by New Jersey standards.

Corey

Rick, maybe it's just you. I never found people in Seattle to be standoffish. Do you frighten babies?

After getting to kind of know JB, LOL, you don't have to keep explaining New Jerseyites to me. Between her and Christie, the only 2 New Jerseyites I have had anything to do with, and now you, I don't think they, you all, are so bad. Other than CC that is. LOL

Indeed, two cold-shoulder neghbors in a row - near SEATTLE - does make me sound like an ogre. What can I say?

I'm from New Josiey, so I dunno.

Alternatively, they might sense that I could be almost as long-winded in person as online (God forbid!), so they flee in panic rather than risk it. After all, it is an over-55 park, so they don't have years and years to stand there and yack.

(wink)

On the other hand, those were both Grumpy Old Men like me. In the same period, I've had several lady neighbors who don't avoid chatting ... rather the opposite ... in fact I can think of four cases where getting a word in edgewise was quite a challenge.

Strange ...

Corey

Maybe the men consider you competition with them for the attention of those ladies??? After all, over 55 has a lot of singles in it I think.

Logical, but I think not. Either women live longer than we do, or they gravitate to these parks. I would say the mix is 2-3 to 1, women to men.

Corey

So, why are you saying those men don't consider you competition? I would think it would be VERY likely they do.