Pruning and Cutting Propagation Methods for Lilac Branches and Leaves
Lilacs not only have elegant and refined flowers, but also come with wave after wave of fresh fragrance, delighting the eye and refreshing the mind. Many people like to grow potted lilacs at home to decorate a room or balcony, but growing lilacs also requires skill! Below, let's take a look with the editor at how to prune and care for lilacs!
How to Prune Lilac Branches and Leaves
1. Thinning
Thinning is relatively heavy pruning, mainly to maintain the lilac's tree shape and growth momentum, which benefits growth and flowering the following year. Thinning should be done after leaf fall each year, mainly to cut off diseased and pest-damaged branches, dead branches, weak twigs, inner-canopy branches, overlapping branches, and water sprouts that affect growth and appearance; all the small side branches at the lower part of the main branches need to be cut off; old and declining large branches should also be removed, so that the remaining main branches keep even spacing and moderate density.
2. Heading Back
Heading back is light pruning, mainly for plants that do not need to be kept for seed, thinning out excessively dense branches in the inner canopy to increase ventilation and light penetration and speed up the sprouting of new branches and the formation of flower buds. Lilac inflorescences are all borne at the tips of branches, with terminal buds differentiating into flower buds, so after entering the flowering period (except when cutting fresh flowers) heading back should not be done, and pruning should wait until after the flowers fade. Each year in late spring and early summer, when the inflorescences begin to fade, if seed is not being saved, the spent flowers can be cut off together with the two buds below the flower spike to reduce nutrient consumption. On plants where the spent flowers are not cut off, the number of flowers the following year will be greatly reduced, and they may even fail to bloom.
3. Cutting Fresh Flowers
Lilacs have an excellent ornamental effect and are an important cut flower for indoor vase culture in water. When cutting flower branches, you must cut close to the side branch below, and you must not break them off by hand; leave as few stubs as possible. A mature large clump of lilac can provide a large number of cut flowers each spring, but when cutting flowers from a young lilac blooming for the first time, the amount should not be too much, otherwise it will affect the growth of the young tree.
How to Take Lilac Cuttings
1. The cuttings we use are about fifteen cm long. First cut off the leaves at the bottom, leaving only one or two leaves at the top.
2. Then soak its medium with indoleacetic acid at a concentration of 100mg/L for eight to twelve hours. The main purpose of this is to ensure its rooting rate; with it added, the rate will reach about eighty percent.
3. After that, take it out and wash the indoleacetic acid off the cuttings with clean water.
4. If they are softwood cuttings, we can insert them directly into a hotbed, and they will directly take root and sprout into new plants. Generally at 25 degrees, roots will grow in about a month. When the roots change from white to yellow-brown, we can transplant the seedlings and set them in place.
5. If we use hardwood cuttings, they are basically also inserted into a seedbed, and then shaded. Roots will grow in about fifty days. This planting out is generally in the spring of the following year.
How to Fertilize Lilacs
First, the soil for growing lilacs needs to be fertile, loose, and well-drained, with enough nutrients in the soil to meet the growth needs of the lilac. During the lilac's growth process, fertilizer should be applied at the right time. Lilacs do not like heavy fertilizer; too much fertilizer will cause excessive growth of branches and leaves, and flower buds will be difficult to form due to lack of nutrients, leading to reduced flowering, so fertilizing is very important.
Lilacs should have nutrients replenished promptly after flowering to promote the plant's recovery, with appropriate supplementation of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, usually about 75g of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer per plant and 25g of nitrogen fertilizer. Be careful not to overapply nitrogen fertilizer, otherwise it will affect flowering the following year.
In addition, generally every year or every other year, before winter begins, well-rotted compost should be applied to replenish nutrients in the soil and let the lilac overwinter safely.
Notes on Growing Lilacs
First, lilac cultivation should start from its youth. During the lilac seedling stage, work against wind should be done well; bamboo can be used to fix the lilac's trunk and reduce damage caused by swaying.
Second is weeding: from July to October each year, weeding should be done, clearing all the grass around the lilac plant, but do not throw the grass away. Cover the plant with the grass and it can serve as green manure.
After the small seedlings grow into large seedlings, appropriate pruning can be done, cutting at 30 cm from the ground, which helps branch growth and makes the branches and leaves grow luxuriantly.
Finally, the growing environment: lilacs like sunlight and moisture, but are drought-tolerant, so watering should not be too much. However, in spring when it is relatively dry, you can water thoroughly once each during bud break and flowering to store enough water.
Fertile, well-drained sandy soil is required. Lilacs do not like heavy fertilizer, so there is no need to apply much fertilizer, otherwise flowering will be affected.
For lilac flowering and growth, the pot also needs to be repotted about every 3 years, changing to new soil. When repotting, prune the root system and remove long roots and old roots.
Through the above content, I believe everyone has gained some understanding of how to care for lilacs. If you are a friend who likes growing flowers, you might as well grow a pot of lilacs at home. Whenever they bloom, they are beautiful and attractive, with fragrance overflowing, making people feel happy!