Hi, I'm getting ready to transplant a 6 year old lilac. Should I wait until it is entirely dormant (leaves fallen off) or should I do it now. I live in Vancouver. Also, what should i treat the hole with to get it off to a good start? Should I topdress it with compost once it's in its new home? Do I have to worry about watering given the time of year? Thanks for your help!
Wait til it's dormant. Do nothing to the soil unless it's e.g. clay (in which case can you put it somewhere better?). They don't need as much acid as a lot of other trees, so that may be a good thing if you're worried about it. Somewhere that will drain well is always best, and a sunny place of course for anything flowering. If there are next to no leaves left when the job's done, do water once to seat it, but where you live I don't think you need to worry a lot otherwise unless you happen to have a few days-wk with no rain at all.
Hi Best Baker, Good advice from Rima. If you want to enrich the new bed for the lilac you can add about 3" of compost and mix it in. Don't just add it to the planting hole. Lilacs don't flower well with too much nitrogen, so you don't want to plant it in a spot where fertilizers are used, like in a lawn that gets fertilized. They tend to like a more alkaline soil, so if your soil tends to be acid, add a cup of lime to the area when planting and mix that in. Here's some handy sites. At the second site scroll down to 'Lilac Care'. http://www.aboutlilacs.com/transplanting_lilac_bushes.shtml http://spi.8m.com/care.htm Newt
