How to grow new plants

Particularly easy. Propagation via root runners

Many lilacs form so-called Runnersthat you can simply use one in spring or autumn spade cut off and plant again in the desired location. There is no easier way to reproduce lilacs - but it cannot be implemented in all species. You can use the method well with the varieties of wild lilac, which forms a lot of root runners. Noble lilacs (for example 'Charles Jolie' or 'In memory of Ludwig Späth') can have runners develop, but these are those of the wild form that the noble variety only targets is grafted on. You only get true-root runners with noble varieties that have been bred using the in-vitro method - but experience has shown that these form very rarely.

Works with almost all varieties: Propagation via cuttings

If propagation via root runners is out of the question - for whatever reason - you can use almost all varieties

Cut cuttings and try a rooting. Depending on the type and variety, this works sometimes better and sometimes less well, but it can definitely be tested. The propagation of cuttings works very well with dwarf lilacs (e.g. Syringa x meyeri 'Palibin') or the popular Preston hybrids (Syringa x prestoniae), whereas the more sensitive noble lilacs have significantly more failure to have. You should be successful if you proceed according to this method:

• Cut the shoot or Head cuttings during the flowering period in May / June.
• To do this, select non-woody offshoots with at least three leaf nodes.
• Remove the bottom leaves, leaving only two or three.
• Cut the leftover leaves in half.
• Mix the Potting soil from lean earth, sand and Algae lime at.
• Fill small pots with the substrate.
• Put the cuttings in there.
• Moisten the substrate well.
• Put a cut off PET bottle over it as a greenhouse.
• Alternatively, you can stick shish kebab skewers in the ground
• and put a translucent plastic bag over it.
• The leaves must not touch the plastic, otherwise it will mold quickly.
• Place the pots in a bright (but not directly sunny!) And warm location.
• Water and ventilate regularly.

Now you have to be patient: Many lilacs take up to a year to develop roots, so that the cuttings often only sprout in the following year.

Seldom successful: Propagation of cuttings

Do you want a Chinese lilac (Syringa x chinensis), a Hungarian lilac (Syringa josikaea) or To multiply the bow lilac (Syringa reflexa), the rather uncomplicated propagation is recommended Cuttings. However, this method is not advisable for the noble lilac varieties, as only very few woods actually grow here - depending on the variety, only every tenth to fifteenth actually forms root. With the species mentioned, however, you can look forward to new young plants after a year. And that is how it works:

• Timber cuttings are cut in late autumn after the leaves have fallen.
• In contrast to cuttings, these are no longer allowed to have leaves.
• Cut annual shoots about the length of a pencil.
• These should be one at the bottom and one at the top Pair of buds own.
• At the bottom, peel off a strip about two centimeters wide from the bark.
• You stick this end in the prepared bed outside.
• This should be in the Penumbra are located.
• Dig up the earth here thoroughly and enrich it with compost.
• The cuttings must be about a third or half into the ground.
• Cover the bed with fleece over the winter.
• In the following spring you can see which cuttings have grown and which have not.

If you still have no way of tucking the pieces of wood in autumn, you can also wrap them in a clean cloth and store them in the refrigerator over the winter. In the spring it is finally plugged.

Surprises: sow lilacs

Form a lot of lilacs after flowering Capsule fruits that you can only let ripen and finally harvest in autumn. Pour out the fine seeds, carefully separate them from other parts of the plant and sow them straight away in a bowl with potting soil. Leave them outside in a shady and cool place over the winter and cover them only from January. At this point, put them in an (unheated) greenhouse and keep the substrate slightly moist, the seeds will germinate soon. The young plants are first pricked out in pots in spring and then planted outdoors in autumn. Please note that the seedling reproduction does not take place in a single variety and that you can often experience surprises. If you want to grow your own strains yourself, this method is likely to succeed.