Lilac Help Needed

I have 2 Miss Kim lilacs and they were squashed with the big winter snowstorms. I had to trim quite a bit of the split branches away. They are not that big to start with only about 15 inches high and I planted them 3 years ago.
I will have a big hole in the center of each bush if I leave them as is.
So my question is what can I do to make a new leader of one of the branches remaining?????????

Please tell me in detail what to do and what materials I will need.

I hope someone has the answer.
Thanks Deb.

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Thanks Karma, I see what you mean now. The rain has been good here for the last few days and I see little buds coming out of the wood where I had to cut back all the craked branches. I will see how it looks after they bloom for their are just a few branches that did not break. Then I will trim.

Good luck with your lilacs.

I, too, have a lilac question. I recently purchased a "Dwarf Tinkerbelle" DIRT CHEAP!! The draw back was that it had 2 broken branches (but the mgr. of the nursery knocked the price down from $30 to $5 and I would have been totally crazy to pass THAT up). Anyway, when we got it home, we cut the broken branches off and I made up some "Starting Soln." for the branches.

Has anyone ever started lilacs this way?? I know that a few years ago, we divided a bush, but the parts both had roots attached - they really grew BIG blossoms.

If anyone can help with this question, please let me know. If not, I'll continue to "try" to root the branches and let you al know what happens.

This house that I bought last year has a beautiful lilac TREE. It is almost as tall as the peak on my garage and is literally a tree not a bush anymore. The flowers are a dark purple with a bluish tint. You would be amazed at the amount of times a week that people stop at the house and ask me for a bouquet, whether it be for themselves or their spouse.So there I go out in the yard with me ladder and cut them a nice big bouquet
Sandy


This message was edited Wednesday, May 30th 8:24 PM

Sandy, if your lilac sends out any "pesky" suckers this spring, will you let me know? I'll be glad to send you some plants or seeds for some lilac starts.

I just finished pruning my lilac's back, I did some pretty drastic prunning to them..

I was reading in a pruning book from Lowe's that after pruning you need to mix up manure and lime and put away from the base of the bush about a foot, and let seep into the ground and fertilize the root system..

Does anyone know the amount I should put on them..
How much of each, and mix with water..

Thanks for your help, they had really gotton out of hand, and was blooming in the tops of the bushes..

Thanks so very much,
Bird

I don't know if this will help in your case, but maybe. This is an article I found about pruning lilacs. Perhaps it will give you something to plan toward anyway.
http://davesgarden.com/showthread/8975.html
and http://davesgarden.com/showthread/8976.html

Gaill,
I started some for a friend and I used the green shoots that came out of the trunk. They dooped for the first day and then perked up the next. I just put a neat cut on them, scarred them, used rooting hormone, and plunked them in some soil. I haven't heard from my friend so I have no idea how they are doing. They are probably o.k. ,though, or she would have wanted more because this is a very pretty color lilac.
S

Sandy,
Thanks for the info. I still have the branches in "Starter" water, but the leaves are getting real dry and brittle. I doubt that they will root, but I'm NOT giving up on then. The rest of the bush has been planted and is doing wonderful.

Just as an UPDATE -- My lilac branches have gone to "garden heaven". It was just a test, and I now know that you can't start lilacs from a broken branch.

A few years ago, when our puppies decided that they didn't want any trees in "their" backyard, we divided a lilac bush when we moved it and it has the biggest lilacs I've ever seen.

But, on the brighter side, the part of the bush that had the roots, is doing well.