The common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) has been growing in German gardens since the 16th century and has enjoyed great popularity ever since: The shrub is considered to be extremely robust, easy to care for and blooms profusely every year with up to 30 centimeters long, mostly violet or white flower panicles. Now the wood can also become quite old and very large - if you have a rather small garden, you have to keep the plant small in its growth.
If you want to keep lilacs small, you often have to use scissors
Appropriate measures for keeping the lilac small
Incidentally, this applies not only to small gardens, but also to lilacs cultivated in tubs. Here, too, the shrubs must be limited in their growth, which is best achieved by these measures:
- Installation of a root or rhizome barrier when planting.
- Annual pruning immediately after flowering.
The root barrier does not apply to tub lilacs, since the roots are kept small here anyway due to the size of the planter. Don't buy the largest pot for young plants, but adjust the size every two years according to the growth of the plant. Then it's time for fresh substrate anyway, so that you can also transplant the lilac into a larger container. For lilacs planted out, however, a root barrier is not only useful for reasons of growth, because many varieties develop very extensive, strong roots that are difficult to remove.
Annual pruning - Here's how
Lilacs do not generally have to be cut, but to keep them small, you should use pruning shears every year. Always cut immediately after flowering, as the flower buds of the following year are always formed directly after the new shoots. If you prune too late, you may remove the upcoming bloom. And this is how you keep the lilac small:
- Remove up to a third of the wood.
- Bloated and dead must be cut away.
- Likewise inward and cross growing shoots.
- Shorten the remaining shoots as desired.
- Superfluous or too large main branches or trunks are removed directly at the base.
Avoid a radical pruning, otherwise the lilac could sprout from the root again - with the result that you are suddenly faced with hundreds of root shoots that sprout from the ground within a radius of several meters around the former trunk.
tips
Instead of keeping a growing lilac small, you can plant a dwarf variety right away. Syringa microphylla and Syringa meyeri, for example, are suitable, each of which is only about 150 centimeters high.