How To Plant Lilac Bush Cuttings

To get an exact color match from lilacs, starting from cuttings is your best bet.

Starting lilacs from cuttings is not the simplest or most reliable way to start the shrub. However, with the variety of colors that lilacs come in, the best way to make sure the blooms are in the right color is to take on the challenge of propagation from cuttings. Success requires careful and constant attention to time and detail.

Things You'll Need

• Lilac shrub
• Garden snips
• Rooting hormone (liquid or powder)
• Plastic cups
• Water
• 8-inch deep pot
• Potting soil
• Cold frame or 2 dowels, 24 inches tall and a clear plastic bag
• Garden shovel

Instructions

1. 

   Take cuttings right after blooms are spent; it's better to cut earlier than later.

   Immediately after lilacs have bloomed and before seeds have formed, take cuttings from an existing shrub. To ensure regrowth, choose a cutting with at least four sets of leaves. Consider starting several cuttings, in case some are not successful. Do not allow the cutting to dry out before planting.

2. 

   Roots can grow from the same nodes that leaves once did.

   Remove the spent blossom from the top of the cutting and strip off the two lowest sets of leaves. If you are using liquid hormone, pour a small amount of rooting hormone into a cup and coat the stem with liquid as far as the stripped growth nodes. If powdered hormone is used, pour water into one cup and the powder into a second, and wet the stem as far as the stripped nodes, then coat in hormone powder.

3. 

   For fast and disease-free growth, start cuttings in fresh soil.

   Fill the pot with new, clean potting soil, and use a dowel or your finger to make a hole in the soil that will allow the treated nodes to be covered by the potting soil. Place the cutting in the soil, and gently fill the space around the stem. Water the soil, and mist the leaves before placing it in a full sun location.

4. 

   A cold frame will help keep the air around the cutting's leaves moist.

   Keep the plant moist while the hormone does its work. Remember that the roots are not yet established, which makes the leaves the only method the plant has for absorbing water. Mist the plant regularly, and, if possible, keep it in a cold frame for this stage. As an alternative, a clear plastic bag, supported by two dowels, can help retain moisture.

5. 

   Site selection is the final step to producing a healthy shrub.

   When roots are well established, the lilac can be planted. This could take at least six weeks. Choose a location with good drainage and full to part sun; more sun will produce more blooms. In selecting your planting spot, plan for the lilac to grow considerably. Dig a hole that seems larger than necessary (12 inches is ideal), and fill the space around the plant with potting soil or soil amended with compost.

Tips & Warnings

• An easier way to reproduce lilacs is to take advantage of root shoots. Check around the roots of the existing lilac to see if there are any young plants with already established roots. These will be ready to plant as soon as you dig them out.

• A new lilac should be in the ground by mid-summer in areas with cold winters. If the roots are not well established in time, consider waiting to plant until spring.

• Once exposed to a plant stem, rooting hormone is activated. Any hormone exposed to a plant and not used immediately should be disposed of.

References

• The Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University: Lilacs
• New Mexico State University Extension Service: Lilac Propagation
• New Hampshire Governor's Lilac and Wildflower Commission: Lilac Basics