You may find this hard to believe, but only 37% of the folks in Chicagoland have a flower garden. Of that 37%, only 13% have lilacs. Of those 13%, only 7% cut the flowers to make bouquets.
Ok, so I made up the statistics, but the principal is true – not everyone has lilacs. With your help, we can wipe out the sad state of lilac-less-ness for one and all in our fair city. I’m doing my share by bringing in cut stems to work. Won’t you help by sharing yours too?
I’d show you pictures of our lilac bushes themselves, but that would be embarrassing. Did you know you are supposed to cut them back after they bloom? I did. But we haven’t done it.
Some of our lilacs are as big as a tree, needing Mike to do most of the bloom cutting for me. Even our Sensation lilac is a gangly sad looking thing. Both situations are our fault and need to be remedied after this year’s blooms are done. We should have been cutting out the stems that are bigger than 2″ in diameter. That would have given us a balance of new and old stems. The bush would have topped out at about 8’ and provided an abundance of flowers that I could reach. Oops.
This is the year we’ll do better. The pruning needs to be done right after they bloom. I’m putting in on my calendar. We won’t wait long as that would result in destruction of next year’s buds. We can rejuvenate the Sensation lilac by cutting out up to 1/3 of the stems. Some are overgrown, some are butting up against another bush, some are rubbing against each other, and some are just plain old unattractive.
The other lilacs are hiding out back where we forget about them. They are horrendously overgrown. Perhaps that is why they are hiding. Getting those back in shape will take more effort. Lots more effort. We should cut them almost to the ground and hope they recover to bloom in a few years. I’m not sure I have the courage for that.
For now, I’m going to fill some more vases and enjoy the moment.
Do you want to know what else is blooming in the May garden? To see what other bloggers have blooming on the 15th of every month, visit May Dreams Gardens – Bloom Day for our Garden Bloggers’ Bloom day entries.
Beautiful lilacs!
Happy Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day!
Lea
Lea’s Menagerie
There is absolutely nothing that can compare to the scent of Lilacs…the best!
I always enjoyed cutting lilacs and took them to the office for many years. I always feel sad when I see a lilac bush full of blooms and no one cuts and enjoys them.
Gorgeous lilacs. My husband and I recently added lilacs to our rooftop garden design in Chicago.
I have also been looking at the new Bloomerang Lilac – a rebloomer. I haven’t decided if I like the idea of having lilacs later in the year, or if the anticipation of once a year is better.
Little Boy Blue is one of my favorite lilacs. I use it as a hedge because it only grows about 6′–I give it a good haircut after blooming every year to keep it even lower. Actually, today it got its annual haircut… Good article–I enjoyed it. Thanks! Rommy
PS I can send you a photo if you tell me how.