What can you do to cause alilac bush to bloom more. It is over 10 years old.?

Early, annual pruning is one of the most important thing you can do to ensure a healthy lilac and a profusion of blooms the following year. Begin pruning by removing dead or diseased branches. ';Cut suckers and shoots at or near ground level or where it comes out of the main trunk. Leave a few strong and healthy new stalks each year, especially if you are planning to trim back old wood. Trim larger stems from the center of the bush to increase ventilation. It will also afford more room for newer shoots on the outside of the plant to develop. Trim back any branches that stick out from the main bush and are not appealing to you.'; (1) (2)


Rejuvenation pruning can also help prevent problems from lilac borers because this insect pest is attracted to older, woody stems. (3)


Prune early ( right after blooming) to ensure enough time for new growth to set flower buds for next years blooms.





Feeding with compost %26amp; mulching helps. If you want to fertilize, use a 5-10-10 fertilizer or similar product, making sure it is low in nitrogen %26amp; higher in Phosphorus.





Good well-drained garden soil with a pH of 7 is ideal for a lilac. You can improve your soil by adding peat, sand or potting soil. In clay or heavy soil, plant the lilac up on a mound. In highly acidic soil, dig in lime before planting. (4)





Make sure your Lilac is getting enough sunlight, %26amp; is not shaded too much by the branches of adjacent trees.





Here's an interesting tip: ';Try driving a spade into the soil around the base of the plants to cut off some of the roots, but not all. This will cause the plants to be shocked into flowering the following season.'; (5)





You can cut some bouquets of flowers now, just before they fully open, %26amp; you'll not only get to enjoy the fragrance of spring indoors, but will get a head start on pruning.





Hope this helps. I love Lilacs. Good luck!What can you do to cause alilac bush to bloom more. It is over 10 years old.?
Lilacs only bloom on the previous years branches..( not the new spring branches ) , so, if you cut it back.....it may not bloom next spring at all....





but,,,,the year after........you should have many more blooms!What can you do to cause alilac bush to bloom more. It is over 10 years old.?
After flowering, it is best to remove the spent flower panicles before any fruit form, especially on lilacs with large panicles, such as S. vulgaris, S. x hyacinthiflora and S. x reticulata. Flowers that have gone to seed are not very attractive and drain nutrients from the plant. For lilacs with small inflorescences, however, like S. x prestoniae and S. meyeri, this is very labour intensive and probably unnecessary. In general, it is a good opportunity to remove damaged, diseased or poorly angled branches.





Lilacs form flower buds at the tips of branches during the previous growing season. This means that it is important to prune just under the panicles a week or two after the plant has finished blooming


If you prune the branch tips heavily or after the flower buds have formed, you will have fewer blooms next year.





Rejuvenation pruning


Some old, neglected and damaged lilacs can be cut back hard. Such drastic rejuvenation or renewal pruning is used mainly for those species that are especially prone to suckering (S. vulgaris and S. x hyacinthiflora). It involves cutting the shrub back to about 15 to 25 cm above the ground. For grafted lilacs, keep only the stems growing above the graft union. In subsequent years, continue with formative and maintenance pruning as described above. It will take a few years for a lilac to rebloom after drastic rejuvenation pruning.





For species that produce few suckers and form water sprouts on the main branches (e.g. S. x prestoniae), any necessary rejuvenation pruning should be done over a period of two to three years. This will allow you to cut back the main branches gradually.


For best results, plant lilacs in full sun in a well-drained location, away roots of mature trees and follow proper pruning practices. Avoid high nitrogen fertilizers (such as lawn fertilizer), which encourage leafy growth at the expense of flowers.


Once young shrubs are four to five years old, annual pruning is essential to ensure that you get flowers all over the shrub - not just at the top.





Lilacs should be planted in well drained soil with a neutral to slightly alkaline pH. Heavy clay soil should first be amended with compost and sandy loam. Then, when you plant your lilac, add some organic material to the garden soil, in the form of compost or well-decomposed manure. If there is insufficient drainage, plant the lilac in a 30 to 50-cm high raised mound with a wide trench. Make the planting hole twice as large as the root ball. For the best flowers, choose a sunny site (at least 6 hours of sun a day). Fertilize with a product high in phosphorus and potassium in early May. Avoid using fertilizers high in nitrogen, which encourages leafy growth at the expense of blooms.





Good luck to you...Lilacs are my favorite. I'm a horticulturalist in Canada.
you can try lime.lilac bushes love lime .i use it on my dwarf one and it get so many blooms you can hardly see the green leaves.
Maybe prune it? I have the same problem with the one I ';inherited'; when I moved in.