Propagation
Stratify fresh seeds during winter and then sow in pots during spring and place in a cold frame to germinate.
Soft tip cuttings of non-flowering shoots during late spring to early summer.
Division of suckers during spring or in autumn.

Botanic information
Leaf: The broad ovate leaves are bronze when young and turn purplish-red during autumn before falling. The apex is acute and the base is semi-cordate with a slender green petiole up to 40 mm (1⅝ in) long.

Flower: The single or double tubulate flowers have a pedestal up to 6 mm (¼ in) long with a small greenish calyx. The variably coloured corolla has a tube up to 12 mm (½ in) long with spreading ovate to elliptical lobes with up-curved margins. 

There are numerous flowers arranged in an axillary panicle that is up to 120 mm (4¾ in) long, and appears from mid to late spring with the foliage.

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

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 forme