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Planting and Growing Lilac Bushes

purple Yankee Doodle Lilac flowers

Huge blooms, wonderful scent.

Image Credit:
Wally Patrick
Botanical Name
Syringa spp.
Grown as
Perennial
USDA Zones
3a
3b
4a
4b
5a
5b
6a
6b
7b
Toxicity
Non-toxic
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Partial Sun
Water Needs
Moderate
Height
6-10 feet
Spread
6-10 feet
Soil pH
Neutral
Bloom Time
Spring
Summer
Flower Color
Blue
Pink
Purple
Red
White
Yellow
Special Features
Container-Friendly
Cut Flower
Fragrant
Attracts Butterflies
Attracts Hummingbirds
Attracts Pollinators
Deer-resistant
Rabbit-resistant
Resilience
Cold Hardy
Drought-Tolerant
Plant Type
Shrubs and Bushes
Written By: Catherine Boeckmann Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Lilacs truly smell like spring! Lilacs are among the most carefree spring-flowering shrubs and provide a sweet, haunting fragrance, too! Learn how to plant, grow, and prune your lilacs.

Lilacs, said to symbolize the joy of youth and associated with spring’s awakening, are hardy, easy to grow, and low-maintenance. Although they can reach heights of 5 to 15 feet (or more), depending on the variety, the ideal lilac shrub produces flowers at eye level—all the better for enjoying their sweet fragrance.

The common lilac, Syringa vulgaris, is well loved for its toughness, reliability, and fragrance. In fact, lilacs are so tough that they can grow for 100+ years, often outliving the homes they were planted around. The fragrant flowers are good for cutting and are attractive to butterflies.

While the blooms are usually lilac/purple in color (from very pale to very dark), there are also lilac varieties in white and cream and even pink and yellow. Individual flowers can be single or double.

In northern states, lilacs bloom for about 2 weeks from mid- to late spring. However, there are early-, mid-, and late-season lilacs, which, when grown together, ensure a steady bloom for at least 6 weeks.

Planting

When to Plant Lilacs

  • Like most shrubs, lilacs can be planted in either spring or fall, although the latter is preferred.

Where to Plant Lilacs

Lilacs thrive in fertile, humus-rich, well-draining, neutral to alkaline soil (at a pH near 7.0). If your soil is in poor condition, mix in compost to enrich it. (Learn more about soil amendments and preparing the soil for planting.) Choose or prepare a site that drains well. Poor drainage or pooling water can cause “wet feet,” potentially leading to root rot, stunted growth, and/or failure to flower. Test soil drainage by digging a hole 8 inches in diameter and 12 inches deep. Fill it with water; if it does not drain within an hour, choose another spot.

For the best blooms, lilacs should be planted in full sun, which is defined as at least 6 hours of sunlight each day. Given less, they will not flower as well. 

How to Plant Lilacs

  • If you’re lucky, a friend will give you a sucker, or offshoot, of the root system of one of their plants. The sucker will look pathetic at first, but dig a hole, backfill it with soil, and stick the sucker in. Then, water and wait. In 4 or 5 years, you’ll be rewarded with huge, fragrant blossoms.
  • Transplanting nursery-bought lilacs is also easy. If it’s container-grown, spread out the roots as you settle the plant into the ground; if it’s balled or burlapped, gently remove the covering and any rope before planting. Set the plant 2 or 3 inches deeper than it grew in the nursery and work topsoil in around the roots—then water in. Then, fill in the hole with more topsoil.
  • Space multiple lilac bushes 5 to 15 feet apart, depending on the variety.

Growing

  • Each spring, apply a layer of compost under the plant, followed by mulch to retain moisture and control weeds.
  • Water during the summer if rainfall is less than 1 inch per week.
  • Lilacs won’t bloom if they’re overfertilized. They can handle a handful of 10-10-10 in late winter, but no more.
  • After your lilac bush has finished blooming, spread some lime and well-rotted manure around the base. Trim the bush to shape it and remove suckers at the same time.

How to Prune Lilacs

  • Lilacs bloom on old wood, so it’s critical to prune in the spring right after they bloom. If you prune later in the summer, you may be removing the wood. Note: If your lilac flower clusters are getting smaller over a few years, it’s time to prune!
  • Every year after bloom, remove any dead wood. Prune out the oldest canes (down to the ground). Remove the small suckers. Cut back weak branches to a strong shoot. Cut back tall canes to eye height.
  • The ideal lilac shrub has about 10 canes. If your lilac is old and in really bad shape, remove one-third of the oldest canes (down to the ground) in year 1, half of the remaining old wood in year 2, and the rest of the old wood in year 3. Another option for old lilacs is to chop the whole thing back to about 6 or 8 inches high. It sounds drastic, but lilacs are very hardy. The downside to this option is that it takes a few years to grow back. The upside is less work and more reward, as the lilac will grow back, bursting with blooms.
  • It must be recognized that severe pruning results in the loss of blooms for 1 to 3 years. For these reasons, a wise pruning program aims to avoid severe and drastic cuts by giving the bushes annual attention.
  • Good Sucker Sense: Gertrude Jekyll, the 19th-century no-nonsense English horticulturist (1843–1932), advocated a strenuous exercise: “When taking away suckers … it is better to tear them out than to cut them off. A cut, however close, leaves a base from which they may always spring again, but if pulled or wrenched out, they bring away with them the swollen base.”

Pests and Problems

  • Prone to attack by slugs and snails.
  • Powdery white mildew may appear after a summer of hot, humid weather. It may be unsightly, but it does no harm. Ignore it.

Types

For early flowers, try Syringa x hyacinthiflora hybrids; they bloom 7 to 10 days before S. vulgaris. Its fragrant blooms attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

The most common and fragrant lilacs are of the S. vulgaris variety:

  • Try ‘Charles Joly’, a double magenta flower, an early bloomer.
  • Mid-season lilacs include ‘Monge’, a dark reddish purple, and ‘Firmament’, a fine blue.
  • Late-season beauties include ‘Miss Canada’, a reddish-pink, and ‘Donald Wyman’, a pink-purple flower.

Uncommon types/varieties include … 

  • S. x ‘Penda’ Bloomerang Purple: flowers in spring, pauses, then flowers again from midsummer through fall.
  • Although common lilacs love cold weather, a few thrive as far south as Zone 8, including cutleaf hybrid S. x laciniata, with fragrant, pale lavender flowers, and S. pubescens ssp. patula ‘Miss Kim,’ with pale, lilac-blue blooms that fade to white.

Small Lilacs
For gardeners, especially those in urban spaces, who just don’t have the room for the traditional larger lilac, there are compact varieties! They’ll even grow in a container on your patio or balcony.

  • ‘Baby Kim’ grows only 2 to 3 feet high (and 3 feet wide) in a nicely rounded shape with purple flowers that attract butterflies. Extended hardiness from Zones 3 to 8.
  • ‘Little Lady’ (S. x) is a compact lilac that matures to 4 to 5 feet tall and wide with dark pink buds that open to lilac-pink flowers. Hardy in Zones 2 to 7.
  • ‘New Age Lavender’ and ‘New Age White’ (S. vulgaris) are super-compact, growing from 4 to 5 feet tall and wide, and bred for mildew resistance. Their fragrant flowers attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Hardy to Zone 4.

See more lilac varieties!

Wit and Wisdom

  • To improve the flowering of lilacs, keep the grass from growing around them. A 16- to 24-inch circle of landscape cloth placed around the bushes and covered with bark or stone will keep the grass down.
  • Force a winter bouquet from cut branches of lilac. Bruise the cut ends and set them in water. Spray the branches frequently. Keep them in a cool place until they bloom, then move to a warmer area for display.
  • Poet Walt Whitman thought of lilacs when Abraham Lincoln died: 
    ”When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d … I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.”
  • Lilacs supposedly symbolize the joy of youth. Learn about more flower symbolism here.
  • The lilac belongs to the olive family, Oleaceae.
  • Lilacs are the state flower of New Hampshire.

Shrubs and Trees

About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana.

Read more from Catherine Boeckmann

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Comments

<span>Sandee</span> Wed, 07/11/2018 - 10:31
We still have the dead blooms on our bush, and some spindly branches, with no growth (not even leaves). We moved our lilac bush, 2 years ago, and it has grown bigger and better, and this year we have noticed a 2 foot tall, addition coming up! It’s all nice green leaves, which has confirmed that our move/transplant that we did was the right thing to do. Whoever planted before we lived there, placed it in a corner, about 2 feet from a short wooden fence. Since we moved “her” out of the corner and away from the fence,it’s responding well. It gets plenty of sun, has a weed/grass cloth, all around it, and we water it when necessary. The one thing we have no experience with, is pruning. I would love to see it produce more blooms, as well as “fill”, out, but we don’t want to do it wrong or, probably, too late. Can you help us?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 07/12/2018 - 11:37

The best time to prune is after the bloom passes. See above also (repeated here for expediency):

  • If your lilac is old and in really bad shape, remove one-third of the oldest canes (down to the ground) in year one, half of the remaining old wood in year two, and the rest of the old wood in year three. Another option for old lilacs is to chop the whole thing back to about 6 or 8 inches high. It sounds drastic, but lilacs are very hardy. The downside to this option is that it takes a few years to grow back. The upside is less work and more reward, as the lilac will grow back bursting with blooms. 
  • It must be recognized that severe pruning results in the loss of blooms for one to three years. For these reasons, a wise pruning program aims to avoid severe and drastic cuts by giving the bushes annual attention.
 <span>Maurice Gregoire</span> Tue, 07/03/2018 - 11:30
Do i cut off dead lilacs when they all die?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 07/12/2018 - 11:38

If you are referring to the flowers, yes, you can do that.

 <span>Pat Connellty</span> Sat, 06/23/2018 - 19:24
We have transplanted our great grandmother's lilac quite a few times and now it is with me in NC. It was planted in September but now has lost all its leaves... I have read it may have too much nitrogen, so I am feeding it bone meal and phosphorus. But have read lots of other info on this... Can you add some helpful input? Thanks in advance for any help you can give me... It is the original plant from the 1910's and very important to me!
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 07/12/2018 - 11:40

Most of our helpful input is above on this page. Consider the suggestions for compost in spring and well-rotted manure after bloom and other care tips. Great grandmother would be happy with your success.

 <span>Denise Wilson</span> Wed, 06/06/2018 - 13:48
Hello. I received bare root lilacs from the Arbor Foundation last year. Planted them. seem fine. They are about a foot/foot and half now and very green leaves. BUT, I noticed last night some of the leaves are sort of tinged a darker red. The leaves look healthy..not dry...not curled....just sort of edged in red. Any thoughts? I am in SE Wisconsin. Thanks
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Wed, 06/06/2018 - 15:53

Hi Denise,

Red-tinged leaves can be a sign of a nutrient deficiency. The exact nutrient that the plant is lacking is hard to identify, so a good cure-all is to amend the soil with aged compost. We hope this helps!

 <span>Lois K. Smith</span> Wed, 05/30/2018 - 02:31
I live in Georgia and the soil is quite acidic, can I grow lilacs in a container? If I can, how big a container should I use and would bags of top soil be alkaline enough? What lilacs would be best to grow in a container?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Fri, 06/01/2018 - 16:17

Lilacs need chilling hours during the winter so they're not meant for most Southern climates, whether in the ground or a container. It's not to say it can't be done but most lilacs require over two thousand hours of temperatures below 45 degrees F. in order to bloom. They need the cold to set the buds for next year's bloom. We'd suggest asking your local nurseries about varieties that have low-chilling requirements. From what we read, some lilacs that don't need as much chilling are: ‘Lavender Lady’, ‘Blue Boy’, ‘Dark Knight’, ‘Miss Kim’, ‘Betsy Ross’ or ‘White Angel’ (‘Angel White’) lilac. Lilacs need a neutral soil so you'll probably need to add lime.

Planting a lilac shrub in a container is doable but not recommended. Lilacs grow best when their roots are free to spread out. As you said, lilacs can’t tolerate acidic soil, and the same goes for soil in pots. Most commercial potting soils contain at least some pH lowering peat moss. So you'll need to add 1 cup of dolomite lime to every 2 cubic feet of potting soil. Also, note that lilacs can't overwinter inside. They need those chilling hours and must go outside.

Better yet, look for a similar plant that thrives naturally in Georgia such as Syringa laciniata (cut leaf lilac).