Love my Lilacs!  In my back garden, and just off the deck is a mature lilac, which loyally produces blooms every year, so sweet scented and large they seem the harbinger of Spring on Gabriola.  This beautiful shrub needed a hard pruning last year, and now in a pre-Spring mode I await my artistry.  Will it flower?  Or not?
Here are some guidelines to pruning found in the Province newspaper.  Knowing Helen Chusnut as an avid gardener for years and years, and that gardeners share, here are a few Q&A’s for lilacs in your garden on Gabriola.  Enjoy!  Be brave!  I’m awaiting Spring.  There are buds, but will there be flowers!  Q: Could you give me some guidelines for pruning lilacs? I have a 30-year-old lilac that has grown large, but does not bloom much. I would also like to know whether lilacs need liming.  A: The usual lilac pruning routine is to remove faded flower spikes after flowering has finished by making cuts immediately above the first leaves growing beneath the old flowers. Growth buds there will develop into the next year's flowering stems.  At the same time, the plant can be shaped to reduce height and thinned to alleviate congestion. Wayward stems can be removed and overlong ones shortened.  Established lilacs can be kept young and flowering well by cutting several of the oldest (thickest) stems down to the ground each year in late winter or early spring. If a lilac is old and overgrown, and not blooming well, it can be restored over a three-year period by cutting down a third of the old wood each year.  Lilac plants benefit from liming, best done in the fall, but it can also be done in late winter to early spring.  A member of the Gabriola Garden Club, I’m really into it.  Composting.  Walking around my garden with snips at the ready.  Kinda crazy, but I’m in my garden every day.  Happy to impart knowledge and experience.  Call Carol Martin, Real Estate On Gabriola @ 250-247-9333 or 1-866-528-9333.  Happy to help.  Would love to walk your garden with you!