07-05-2025
The Care and Pruning of the Extravagant Lilac
In season, lilacs are an extravagance of color and fragrance — especially when you have something like 437 plants, representing 138 different species and varieties, as the New York Botanical Garden does in its Burn Family Lilac Collection.
After they finish blooming, though, lilacs can present an extravagantly messy aftermath, nudging the gardener to intervene in the name of tidiness.
Get out the shears (hint: the long-reach version with a telescoping handle is especially helpful for such an assignment). Sharpen your powers of observation as you head out for duty, too, said Melissa Finley, the botanical garden's Thain curator of woody plants. Deadheading may be the obvious task, but there are subtler clues to discover about fine-tuning your shrubs' performance — or maybe extending your lilac season and its color palette.
