How do you get more blooms on a Lilac Bush?

Lilac blooms only grow on last years growth. Dont trim your bush until after it bloomsHow do you get more blooms on a Lilac Bush?
I have had that problem and thought if I trim them it would help but it didn't they just kept getting bushier.


The ones I have seen that have the most blooms and are so full are the ones that have never been cut or trimmed. They are usually growing by a pole or out in the wild somewhere.


Mine got so big and bushy I had to cut them down because I couldn't mow around them without getting stabbed by a branch.How do you get more blooms on a Lilac Bush?
Don't trim your lilac bush. It will do fine with out it. You will want to take out any dead branches from the middle of the bush.
This may be an old gardener's tale, but we used to throw the apples that had started to go bad onto the ground in the center of the lilac bush. Supposedly, the decaying apples give off a gas (natural, of course) that stimulates flowering.





We also did oranges and grapefruit, too, but that's because the lilac bush was alot closer than the compost pile :)