How to Transplant Lilac Suckers

Lilac flowers are beautiful and aromatic.

Lilac bushes are easy to grow from the young lilac suckers that sprout below and around mature lilac bushes. Whether you are sentimental about the lilac bushes around your childhood home, or just want to grow some beautiful lilac bushes so you can enjoy the aroma and flowers, it is easy to dig up existing lilac suckers and transplant them around your home.

Things You'll Need

• Shovel
• Organic compost

Instructions

1. Scout out mature lilac bushes when they are in bloom. Make a note of what color flowers various lilac bushes have when they are in bloom because you will be harvesting the lilac suckers when there are no flowers on the bushes.

2. Decide where you want to plant the lilac suckers and prepare the area. Lilacs prefer sunny areas with well-draining soil.

3. Dig a hole about a foot deep for each lilac sucker to accommodate the root system of the young lilac suckers. The hole should be twice as wide as the lilac root system you are planting.

4. Harvest lilac suckers in early to late spring while the lilac bushes are still dormant. Use a shovel to dig up the lilac suckers. Choose lilac suckers that are 8 to 15 inches tall. Shorter lilac suckers may take longer to bloom, and larger lilac suckers take a longer amount of time to recover from the transplant. Try to sever the sucker's roots cleanly from the mother plant.

5. Keep the roots of the lilac suckers wet by storing them in a bucket of water until you transplant them. However, it is best to transplant the lilac suckers as soon as possible.

6. Mix some organic compost in with the dirt in the planting location. Place each lilac sucker in its designated hole and fill it in with the composted dirt. Leave a small depression around the young lilac plant so it holds water.

7. Water the lilac suckers heavily, and continue to water them each day for three to four weeks to encourage successful transplants.

Tips & Warnings

• It might take a couple of years for the lilac sucker to start blooming.

References

• Ed Hume Seeds: Lilacs
• North Dakota State University Extension; Questions on Lilacs; Ron Smith