Lilacs helppppp????

I purchased 2 Lilacs in gal containers they look great. My problem is when I went to plant them I could not get them out. I had to cut the containers away. the roots were so tiet i could not losen them. I made 3 cuts into the roots and cut some off the bottom. Are they going to make it did I do the right thing? Is there a better way to handle these tiet roots? any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

You did the same thing I would have done. There may be a better way, but I've had plants survive when I did it that way. But there are no guarantees--plants that have to be handled that way can sometimes suffer worse from transplant shock than ones that had their rootballs in good shape. First they were probably a bit stressed to begin with from being rootbound and then you had to do damage to the roots in order to fix the situation. I'm not sure where Fallon is, but if you're already getting warm/hot sunny weather then it may be pretty rough on them for a while. I'd try and rig up some shade to protect them from the sun until they have a chance to establish themselves a bit. And you need to be super vigilant on the watering--you definitely don't want to let them dry out, but you also need to make sure you don't water them too much so anytime you think you want to water check the soil first and make sure they actually need it (don't just go by their appearance, they may wilt and look a bit sad even when there's plenty of moisture in the soil, the roots just can't take it up quick enough)

A little trimming of the roots was probably a good thing. Sometimes when roots are so girdled as yours are, they never learn to spread out, and continue growing in a tight little ball under ground. Girdled roots cause stunted grown and poor performance. Your bush will be alright. You live in a much hotter/dryer state than I, so ecrane3's advice about watering is important.

where you planted them, I recommend you use an empty plastic juice container, cut the bottom off, dig a whole as close as to the root ball and insert the juice bottle narrow end set into the soil, then when you water, pour the water into the bottle, this way in the hot weather, you know the roots are getting the water and it is not just running off the top soil, I also think your plants will do OK, they will settle down in a few weeks, as Ecrane said, all plants go into shock with the kind of treatment you had to resort to, but the roots will soon send out new ones searching for moisture, I would also add some plant food, multi purpose should do as your shrubs/trees have obviously been pot bound for some considerable time therefore all the nutrients had been used up from the little soil they had. adding a thick mulch will also help retain moisture. Good luck. WeeNel.