This lilac came with my house and it didn't flower last year and has no buds this year. It gets mid-day sun only. Should it be moved or is there something it's lacking? I never had to baby my lilacs in the past, they just did their "thing" so I'm at a loss.
My lilacs get only limited sun (they came with the house as well) but they still bloom - not totally loaded with blooms like other lilacs I see but still pretty good for the limited shade they get.
How old is yours? I bought starts last year and was told they wouldn't bloom for 3-5 years. One of them did put out one bloom this year. The starts are still very small. I have 4 of them in pots still and one in the ground. The one in the ground has not grown any larger than the ones in pots - it's smaller if anything. I'm disappointed in the lack of growth, I have to say. But I don't expect anything in the way of blooms for about 4 years.
Really odd yours doesn't bloom. How many hours of sun do you think it gets?
Gwen
KATY,
Check http://www.ciscoe.com Or listen to KIRO on SAT AM, like 9 to 1. He is supposed to come here sometime soon.
Regards;
bluelytes
Hi Katy, Did you prune it and if you did, when? It blooms on old wood, so pruning has to be timed right after flowering.
Also if the soil isn't neutral it may inhibit the blooming. With our typically Northwest acidic soils you may need to add some lime around the base of it. It also looks like a fairly young plant so it may just need to mature a little more.
Hopefully one of these suggestions will help you determine why it didn't bloom this year.
Thank you all! I've no idea how old it is but it's only about 4 1/2' tall and the info says 6-8' at maturity. I didn't prune it last year. It gets 3-4 hours of sun mid-day. I will have to check the acidity of the soil but because all that's growing around it likes acidic soil I'm sure the soil is.
Its too young. Lilacs will bloom in acidic soil. Don't hurt the neighbors trying to get a bloom. Phosphorous is a good additive. Bone meal, MoreBloom etc would help.
'Miss Kim' is a different species than the common lilac. It blooms later and stays smaller and is resistant to powdery mildew. Mine did not bloom well until the neighbors thinned their Doug Firs and now it is in almost full sun and bloomed really well. Previously it was in a lot more shade and only had a few blooms. I've never really pruned it. I have limed it. I bet yours needs more sun.
Yes LeeAnn, I was afraid it would come down to sun. I just don't know where I could move it that it would get more. My property is all pretty shady. I will try Soferdig's suggestions this year and keep my fingers crossed. It's a pretty shrub even if it doesn't bloom! How's that for a PollyAnna attitude?
Okay, I'm back folks. I've been Googling re Miss Kim and I will definitely have to move her. She can grow much larger than I thought, isn't getting enough sun and is planted only one foot from the edge of the retaining wall. So, now or later after she's lost her leaves in the fall? I'm thinking fall but last year I wasn't able to do many fall projects because it was so cold and rainy. Or... next spring before she leafs out may be an option? TIA for any advice you can give me.
You really want to get that puppy to bloom! I was on a garden tour last week and you could smell Miss Kim from quite far away. MUCH more fragrant than any other lilac I've known.
Gwen
I thought lilacs liked a limey-er soil, too. I put chalk around mine in the soil.
I wouldn't move her now. I'd wait until fall. When you move her, however, you'll likely wait another year or so to get blooms. They don't like being moved.
When all else fails, threaten the plant out loud. I have a lilac that I dug when I was pregnant with my now 14 year old son. I moved if from a house that was being demolished. It never really bloomed well until this year. I had it at my previous house and just kept waiting. Then, when we moved here, I took it because I was sentimental about it (I went into labor digging out that plant.) It's been in the same location for 5 years and only this year has it bloomed more than just one or two blooms. Last year after I realized it would not flower, again, I told it that it had one more year to perform, and then it would be compost. This year it had lovely fragrant blooms! :)
Now that you live in rainland, you'll just need to get raingear, because it's always raining in the fall, but it's the best time to move things around and put shrubs and trees in the ground. The best investment I ever made clothing-wise is a merino wool undershirt. I almost never take off from October to April. check out www.sierratradingpost.com. They have the best prices. I just ordered another one today because my first one is wearing out. I even sleep in it. It makes gardening here in the fall, and even winter, not too bad. The second best investment is my 100% wool long sweater with a hood. The kind of rain we get (except for this week) doesn't go through it and I stay very comfortable outside in it. I don't mind gardening in the drizzle as long as I can stay warm.
Thanks Pixy. I did get raingear when it went on sale so I will have that this fall. I've got a lot of sweatshirts but the wool sweater sounds like a good idea. So, you just dig in the mud? LOL
I'm very fond of a pair of snowpants I found. Just heavy nylon lined with light polarfleece, cut like sweats- just the thing for kneeling in mud in a downpour.
K.
I also have lilacs to rescue- yanked them out to put in the cutting garden a year and a half ago, thought they were goners, but found the pots hiding in a stand of doug firs in leaf a few weeks back. Just trying to find a nice spot that I won't be ripping up later, cause I sure they won't forgive me much more abuse.
Katy Mac first of all you live in Shelton you can transplant any time you want to. I would move that lilac anytime. It isn't wasting energy blooming so move it tell it says stop here in the sun. I would dig a wide and not too deep hole to keep the roots happy. I move mine that size with a tarp and they are happy. If you get some dry then you may need to soak the plant.
Thank you Kyra, Sof and Pixy! I will move the lilac as soon as I get all the new stuff planted or potted! Well, maybe work on the pond first. LOL Seriously, my Sunset garden book has said since I bought the first one 40+ years ago that if you work the soil when it's wet you compact it. I've always taken that as gospel and probably missed many opportunities to play.
LOL Pixy. Ok, I will give them a stern talking to when I make mud pies.
OK Katymac I NEVER work soil when its wet. It will wreck the soil structure. Yes a fork helps but even worms hate a packed soil and take years to undo what you did in one afternoon.
Well Soferdig, that's what I always thought. But having toured Pixy's gardens twice I can attest it sure hasn't seemed to have any bad effects there. I've never seen lusher, healthier plants anywhere!
Yes but Pixy is perfect and her soil is perfect, and her plant placement is perfect. And she never does anything but perfect. Oh, also she is Irish and lives on luck. Hee Hee
Hi Katy,
Looks like everyone is giving good answers but I remembered that when I use to listen to the Ed Hume garden show on the radio I think "why lilacs don't bloom" was the most frequently asked question and I wrote them down because I also had lilac trees. He said there are 4 reasons they don't bloom. 1) Too many suckers at the base 2) Not enough lime 3) Too much shade 4) Not enough fertilizer. So I guess suckers was the only thing I didn't see mentioned here. Now I have a radio/cd player in my greenhouse I could be listening to him again while outside working. If anyone is interested I think it's on Saturday mornings at 10am station KVI 570 AM.
I think I better define what I mean when I say I'm out there 'gardening' in the winter. I'm generally not spending all day tromping around in the perennial border. And I'm not tilling soil for rows of seed, either. If I need to move plants, though, that's when I prefer to do it because mother nature takes care of the watering and the plant is naturally working on root development. If I have stuff that didn't get put in the ground in the spring or summer, I'm not going to wait until the following spring to do it. I just put them in. I have paths and stepping stones throughout my herbaceous borders so that I have access to almost the entire bed without walking all over the plants, so these paths make great access any time of year. So grooming, moving and dividing, etc. I do even during the rains of winter (or spring, it seems). I also amend my soil every time I put something in or move it around, and if I have to step into the bed, I just do it as little as possible and loosen the soil afterward with my fork. I don't see any evidence that my garden has suffered any ill effects from these efforts. I think the key is to have access to the bed areas without having to tromp all through them. But due to the amount of clay in my soil, I believe that is true whatever time of year I'm out there. I don't want to give the impression that I am either ignorant of the effects of soil compaction or that I am out there skipping and jumping mindlessly through the perennial beds during the rainy seaons !LOL I just think the key is to be mindful of the soil and work with it.
That being said, I also would not move any established shrubs during active growing season, even in Puget Sound area.
So it appears that since Soferdig and I both have lovely gardens (because I've seen some photos I believe come from sofer's yard), there are many ways to do things! My only suggestion is that if you decide to move that lilac during active growing season, get the biggest rootball you can - at least as wide as the shrub, and as deep as possible. And keep it watered really well all during the dry summer. If the weather holds like this, you shouldn't have any problem! We may never have to water anything again!
Hey Katy are you planning to go to the Point Defiance Flower and Garden show? I'm planning to go on Friday because all the good plants will be gone by Saturday.
Amen Pixydish. I do all my planting and moving in the rainy season here also in Montana. You are absolutly right the roots geta ayears start on the plant then. And I agree on the move but her Miss Kim is small and easy to get the entire root ball. And it will lose and entire year of sun otherwise. (If you get some this year) I saw one year in Seattle that the sun came out only for about 3 weeks all year. When it did (1979) everyone left their work stations and the streets were full of people downtown.
Not sure Pixy. That's the weekend of our community's big yard sale. Friday is the biggest day so I should be here if I want to get rid of some stuff cluttering up my shop and shed. Rats! Let me check the weather forecast and ponder on it a bit.
"it will lose an entire year of sun....(if you get some this year)"
WWWAAAHHHHH!!!!! You are so sooooo right!!! And we've had such miserable weather lately, and even then after a couple of weeks of glorious sunshine and temps in the hight 70's and low 80's. I've live here 20 years and I, too remember some years where we never really got a summer. Most of the time I love it here, but those years where we just keep waiting for the sun and it never quite comes make me feel as though I have a permanent case of PMS! I just hate it. One reason i have to do stuff outside even in the winter is because I need the light.
Just got a dmail from Galega, down your way katy, and she is going to the show on Friday. Give me a holler if you want to go. I do the plant sale first, then wander around and see the gardens because otherwise I don't get first pick on the plants!!!
PIXY,
Well, there ya go!! If you lived in the REAL Lakewood, you'd have a REAL summer, hehehe
WHAT show on FRIDAY?? Waaaahhh!! What plant SALE?? Double WAaaahhhh.
Best;
bluelytes
Yeah, well I don't think the 'real' Lakewood has any sun, either! The show is the Point Defiance Flower and Garden show, the second annual show. It's much smaller than the big one in Seattle, but it was good last year and had good plant vendors. I'm going on Friday and am going to be there when it opens if anyone wants to meet there.
Well, I have to admit that this week of rain is all my fault. I insulted mother nature last weekend by watering my entire vegetable garden very thoroughly. I didn't believe the forecast, since all we'd been getting for a while were little sprinkles.
I did my pennance by shoveling manure in the rain, so I hope we get a little sun soon.
I think it may have worked. Today, although not sunny by any stretch of the imagination, I did see the sun for brief moments of time.
I also saw how my plants are starting to suffer from too much moisture. Sigh. It's starting to feel like a repeat of last year, except this year we had some beautiful warm weather to make it all the more frustrating.
I swear that I NEVER complain about the heat or lack of rain in the summer! I ALWAYS appreciate waking up to a sunny day. This is almost the only time I say the words NEVER and ALWAYS when referring to myself. This is a promise.
Keep shoveling that manure! I'm counting on you!
Four pick-up loads of manure now grace the newly tilled expansion of my veggie garden, and I woke up to SUN peeking through the clouds. I see patches of BLUE! Hopeful joy! Shoveling wet horse poop is pretty heavy work, but my family worked on it together. We only had to shovel it into the truck not out because of our handy "loadhandler" on the tailgate. This is a simple but indispensable tool...a dragsheet that you spread out into the bed of the truck, then rolls around the bar on the tailgate when unloading. The manure (or whatever you are hauling) cascades off when you turn the crank.
We got ours from Northern Tool and Equipment (northerntool.com), but I discovered that you can also get them from the company that makes them (Loadhandler) when ordering a new dragsheet. They might have a better deal.
Ah that is why I left seattle too much cloud cover. here in Montana it was perfect. Only 62 F but sun most of the day and broken by a couple of nice showers and rainbows. The plants are growing like crazy. (seattle plant growth) Mulched and transplanted a few things and sat in the sun and napped. Fell asleep thinking about how little work is left. Yayyyyyyyyy! Time to hang the hammock.
Ah, good for you, Sofer! Today was exquisite! Mid 60's and sunny all day long! I was outside until almost 10:00 tonight (minus three hours or so to go to the office) . I got lots of my annuals put in the 'bare spots', had dinner with DH by the pond, then went on my nightly weevil hunt, flashlight in hand. Nasty beggers. I'm winning the war, though.
I am jumping in late -but want to add something that was in the Olympia paper a number of years ago - regarding reluctant lilacs (and wisteria). Some plants kick into reproductive action when they think they are threatened w/ death ......and so root pruning is a recommended activity - late in summer. In as much as you are going to move it, that should do the trick!
My favorite story on that was a huge lilac that was doomed to removal for failure to flower ....and the mover used a chain saw to attempt to get it out. The project got derailed for one reason or another - and you got it - next spring there were LOTS of blooms.
wannadanc, I'm all for trying it... as soon as I can figure how to dig Miss Kim up a foot from the retaining wall without falling off and breaking my neck! I don't know how many time I walked back and forth in front of her the last couple of days. I've about decided I'll have to do it by hand with my little mattock. Just, chip, chip, chip away. By golly, that ought to distress it! I sure distresses me! Not LOL.
