Is it true that lilacs grow better if you break off its branches?

There is a popular belief that breaking flowering lilac branches is beneficial for the bush. We decided to check if this is true. 

The myth that you need to prune lilacs for more luxuriant flowering next year is true. base. When the lilac fades, seeds remain in the place of the inflorescences - and these are precisely the ones that need to be cut off so that the bush does not waste energy on their ripening, but saves them for next year. But this must be done after flowering - and carefully, with clean pruning shears, in no case breaking off the branches. 

Director of the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University "Apothecary Garden" Alexey Reteyum assertsthat there is nothing wrong with collecting a blooming bouquet of lilacs. If you act wisely, this will not harm the plant in any way. How to cut a bouquet correctly? Specialists recommend do this strictly before 10 am, when the plant has the most moisture. In order not to harm the bush, you can cut off no more than a third of the inflorescences. This should only be done with a clean, preferably even sterile, sharp pruner.

Irina Okuneva, senior researcher at the Main Botanical Garden named after. N.V. Tsitsina RAS, curator of the lilac collection, believesthat breaking branches is the worst thing you can do to a bush. Even excessive cutting of inflorescences into bouquets can damage the plant and impair flowering next year. If you regularly break branches, the lilac may completely wither and die. The fact is that it is impossible to do this carefully: there will still be “torn wounds” of the stripped bark, which can become infected or spores of harmful fungi. This leads to lilac diseases, deterioration of flowering, inflorescences become smaller and faded - and it is almost impossible to cure the bush.

Besides, note biologists, on branches with inflorescences there are also buds that are responsible for next year’s flowering. If you break them, the bush will not bloom in this place soon.

Another problem is that the bushes that are planted in parks and on city streets are pruned in a special way so that the lilacs have a shape and look beautiful. If you break off its branches, this will not only immediately worsen the appearance of the bush, but also will make it difficult curly pruning in the future. On a branch that has been broken off, dormant buds may awaken and shoot in a completely different direction than the gardeners want, which means the bush will lose its shape.

People really believe that there is nothing wrong with breaking off lilac bushes, supposedly it is even good for it - next year it will bloom even more magnificently. Nevertheless, there is no discussion among experts on this matter. They are all unanimous: you cannot break lilac branches. In addition, doing this in public places, where flowering shrubs should please the eyes of thousands of people passing by, is not only harmful to the shrubs, but also illegal (in Moscow there is a penalty for this fine), and just plain ugly. What is really useful for lilacs is pruning, but it should be done with a clean, sharp instrument, after the bush has flowered, and in a certain way - so that the buds responsible for next year's flowering are not damaged. In public places this is done by gardeners who know how to do it. And before pruning lilacs in your garden, it is better to read about the features of pruning and not break branches with your bare hands.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is it true that in Russia jasmine is often called a completely different plant?
2. How to grow lilacs
3. Lilac collection of the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov