sudden death of lilac tree

Hi Im new to this and am wondering if anyone would know why my lilac tree would bud out normally in spring and then just stop nothing happened. Ive had it for about five years and it was always beautiful until now. It is an eyesore.
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So it never got leaves, or is it the flowers that never came? I wasn't sure which sort of buds you meant.

Well, it budded out normally like it was going to get flowers but it didnt get leaves either.
I also went ahead and trimmed it back after nothing was happening about a week and a half ago, still nothing. Ive noticed orange spots on the bark though.

This message was edited Jun 10, 2008 11:55 PM

Can you post a picture of the orange spots? Someone might recognize what the problem is. The other thing I can think of is did you have a cold snap at some point while it was budding? That could have zapped the buds but a lot of times those late cold snaps won't kill the plant and it'll leaf out later (you will miss out on flowers this year though) When you cut it back, was there green inside the branches? If so then it's still got some life in it, although depending on what the orange stuff is that may or may not make a difference. But if it was cold that damaged it and it's still green that's a really good sign.

I will try to post a picture later its past midnight here-too late to run out snapping pictures, any way I also thought maybe frost, which is why I trimmed it back, (still nothing) some branches dead, most still alive- the orange spots Ive noticed are where I scratched the bark to see if it is still alive, later turning orangey. Could something have gotten to the roots? We have a mole issue going on. Or would part of it still have leaves? It makes me soo sad:(

For now I'd sort of suspect a late frost, but definitely post some pics when you get a chance. I don't think moles could do that amount of damage to what I'm presuming was a large well established shrub, but if it wasn't the cold that did it, it could be some sort of fungal problem. Did you notice any weird symptoms toward the end of last year--spots on leaves, dying branches, wilting, anything like that?

It is actually a small tree You know, straight stick with a very round top, could the tree type be more suseptible to disease or insects? I dont recall anything at the end of last year, but I am ADD and I could have forgotten some important clue that may come back to me later! lol Also what would borer damage look like?

I don't think being a tree vs a shrub will make it more susceptible. Here are two links with a little info on lilac borers, if you google you'll find a bunch more http://extension.missouri.edu/EXTENSIONINFONET/article.asp?id=1759 http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/2005/ash_trees042105.htm I think if it was borers it wouldn't have showed up until the plant had leafed out already, and unless you had a ton of borers (in which case you'd probably notice some signs of them) it would have been more likely that you'd notice damage initially on some branches but not others rather than the whole tree all at once. But I have not had problems with borers, so I don't know enough to rule them out.

ok thank you