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The leaves are falling off the 6'x6'x10' beast of a lilac I inherited from the previous homeowners, and I'm wondering whether now is an appropriate time to start reducing the height.

The plan was to take the front 1/3 or 1/4 of the canopy away this year, leaving the rest to flower, look pretty, and shade my pond through the next season; then repeat each year until it is a manageable size.

So I have two questions:

  • Is pruning at this time of year likely to cause problems, and if so, when would be a best time to prune?
  • Am I correct in assuming that the pruned section would likely produce leaf and/or flower (pond cover) within a year?

Thanks, James

Addenda from the responses so far:

  • Image from mid July (pointing roughly north). The main bush hasn't changed much, but I've thinned out the front (below that sandstone slab), excavated a waterfall and created an alpine rockery: thePatient
  • Why: It's a bit unweildy so needs reining in, blocking late afternoon sun down half of the garden.
  • Health: Seems quite happy. We did not have the house when it was in bloom, but there is evidence it put out a fair number of flowers.
James Finch
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This is the perfect time to be pruning. Lilacs can be absolutely beautiful small trees not so much as a bush. By your description of size I am assuming you have a Common Lilac or Syringa vulgaris. Please send a picture so that we know for sure what you are dealing with and we can guide your pruning without assuming. Why is it that you want to reduce the height? It is doubtful that Lilac will grow any taller than 10'. Chopping it in half will look awful all winter long and will cause lots of new growth looking like a tree chopped down and trying to come back.

We can help you THIN this shrub, removing dead, dying branches, any branches that turn and grow towards the center, branches that rub together, branches that are thin in comparison to the branch it grew out of, choose the healthiest of the multiple trunks Lilac as a tree. If you would answer a few more questions such as; is your lilac blooming well? Does it look healthy? Please send a picture. There are lilacs that are supposed to be a shrub not a tree so we'd have to see it to ID and help you prune. You never want to prune more than a third of a plant at one time, so if you need to renovate this plant pruning might have to be done over a period of years.

stormy
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