Propagation
Stratify fresh seeds during winter and then sow in pots during spring and place in a cold frame to germinate.

Take soft tip cuttings of non-flowering shoots during late spring to early summer.
Divide suckers during spring or in autumn.

Note:
Lilac may also be propagated from layering, root cuttings and grafted or budded onto other Lilacs or Privet rootstock.
The shrub may also be cut back hard and transplanted, requiring 2 to 3 years to recover.

Pruning
Care should be taken when pruning lilacs as the flowers are produced on the previous season’s growth. Unpruned shrubs will produce many more flowers regularly and a hard prune of old plants will inhibit the flowering for up to two years until the new wood has matured. They will tolerates a light prune to bushy up immediately after flowering before the new buds are formed.

Botanic information
Leaf: The dark green ovate leaves have an acuminate apex and a short petiole. It has prominent venation on the upper surface and the margins can be very undulating.

Flower: The small lilac coloured buds open to fragrant ice-blue tubulate flowers that fade to white and are arranged in large open panicle that tend to become nodding. The flowers appear from mid to late spring profusely over the plant.

Fruit: The leathery textured beaked pea pod-shaped dehiscent capsule is green ageing to brown and contains numerous seeds. The small seeds are viable but the plant is commonly reproduced vegetatively to maintain true to type.