so we have this white lilac bush that my mother inlaw gave me a shoot of it. we planted it 10 years ago. Sadly, it has never produced the lush gorgeous blooms that should be there. It's probably over 10 feet tall and i'm gonna guess about 5 feet in diameter.

Been checking out videos and reading up on trimming it but they never really give a time as to when to do that. there's videos where they are in winter coats, some they are in shorts.

the lavender lilac produced a small amount of blooms this year and tons of seed pods but not enough to what it should be.

so when should we take out the old limbs on this white lilac bush so it doesn't kill it or kill the blooms for years and years.

We are in zone 6a Franklin, ohio and winter cold starts to roll in around November.

SnowCronan said:so we have this white lilac bush that my mother inlaw gave me a shoot of it. we planted it 10 years ago. Sadly, it has never produced the lush gorgeous blooms that should be there. It's probably over 10 feet tall and i'm gonna guess about 5 feet in diameter.

Been checking out videos and reading up on trimming it but they never really give a time as to when to do that. there's videos where they are in winter coats, some they are in shorts.

the lavender lilac produced a small amount of blooms this year and tons of seed pods but not enough to what it should be.

so when should we take out the old limbs on this white lilac bush so it doesn't kill it or kill the blooms for years and years.

We are in zone 6a Franklin, ohio and winter cold starts to roll in around November.

On lilacs old limbs bloom not new ones.
Trim below a certain point on old blooms and you have removed new blooms.
Trim it hard and it will be years before new blooms reappear.
My mom and dad had a decades old one and my brother trimmed it down to around five feet, five years before any near the old heavy blooms showed, with almost zero for several years.
I used to trim the new growth as I preferred tree like lilacs and they bloomed heavily after than but it got to be more effort than I wanted to do , while at the same time I would, and still do at time CAREFULLY remove the old blooms which also greatly increased the number of new blooms.

I believe Lilac's bloom on last year's growth.

I have one too.
I think mine has a ph/soil issue.
Alkaline sand.
A few yrs. ago l cut the dead out and added a wide ring of top dressing of compost and manure over root zone. Raked in lightly.
Come fall placed layer of leaves.
Seems to help.
Do they have shallow surface roots? Because l think they do, they get watered once in a while.
Good luck.

Tisha

well, so now i'm not sure about trimming it at all. so wanted the big dome of blooms on these bushes. the white one is massive in size and with no blooms, it just looks like an overgrown bush. we tried some triple 10 fertilizer this past spring and got one cluster of blooms... not all over mind you.. one.
so I think i'm going to play things safer for right now and will try the triple 10 again and some compost from the bin. the lavender one did better this year with the triple 10 so maybe another year of boosting will help.

thank you for all the info!

I pick away at pruning lilacs, any time from when in full bloom to mid-winter. Mostly I nip out the old blooms that have gone to seed, although I do leave some for the birds. I occasionally prune older branches to the ground, and reshape the rest. Some I let be bushy and let the suckers fill in, others I trim to more of a tree form. Depends on where they are sited. I've never had problems with no blooms, although some years the bloom is heavier than others.

I'll have to get a picture of this lilac bush. it's monster size and all the old portions are in the center. I've wondered if I could trim down all the suckers are the base and maybe give it more light but again, I don't want to stunt the thing for years. Would love to see it covered in blooms like it should be. As for seed, none this year. the lavender bush on the other side I have gotten lots of seed pods from it but not the white one. not a single seed pod. I'm almost at the point of cutting it down and starting over. I'll get a pic later today and post it so ya'll can see what i'm working with.

You my just have to severely prune her this winter.
To put her into survival mode to make seeds.
😎😎😎

No flowers, no seeds.

I had one, newer, about fifteen years old, that last year had zero flowers and I had not trimmed it for years.
I had been manicuring the newer ones often and I think that is why their blooms were haphazard.
This year the one without blooms last year, bloomed well but I totally stopped trimming then three years ago.
I only cut off ,carefully, old flowers.
I have found lilacs to perform erratically, even very old ones for reasons unknown, to me, though abnormal spring weather can affect them greatly.
Last year ,none, and I have many bushes performed well with few blooms.