PlantSowGrow
How to plant and care for Lilac (Common)
Syringa vulgaris 'Katherine Havemeyer'
🌸 Flower
🔁 Perennial
Big, cone-shaped clusters of double lavender flowers in May with the unmistakable lilac scent. A large, tough, long-lived shrub.
When to plant and care for it
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Flowers
Prune
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Lilac (Common): what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water well for the first summer, then in dry spells
- Soil
- Fertile, preferably limy soil
- Spacing
- 2.5 m
- Height
- 3–4 m
- In pots
- Best in the ground
- Feeding
- Balanced feed in spring
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 3–7
Step by step
- On planting day
Plant
Plant at the same depth as it was in its pot, 2.5 m apart, and firm in.
- 0–1 days after “Plant”
Water In Well
Give a full can of water, then keep moist for the first few weeks while roots establish.
- 7–14 days after “Water In Well”
Mulch Around the Base
Spread 5 cm of compost or bark around the plant, keeping it off the stems.
Every year
- MayIn Flower
Scented lilac in flower — cut a few stems for the house.
- JuneDeadhead
Snip off the faded flower heads just above the new shoots below them.
- JunePrune
After flowering, cut one or two of the oldest stems to the base to keep the shrub young; remove suckers.
