Old Lilac bush question

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Pearl

Finder of lost things AND The Boss
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North central Texas
My oldest Lilac bush is 32yrs old, had some dead places in the middle, otherwise very healthy. I pulled and cut the dead stems out. Then I did some cutting back (😯🤔). There is a lot of new growth throughout the bush in the last two years, was hoping to help that out by cutting back some of the bush. Do you think I hurt it???
 
My oldest Lilac bush is 32yrs old, had some dead places in the middle, otherwise very healthy. I pulled and cut the dead stems out. Then I did some cutting back (😯🤔). There is a lot of new growth throughout the bush in the last two years, was hoping to help that out by cutting back some of the bush. Do you think I hurt it???
Others have way more knowledge on this than I do, but my experience is that you can just about butcher them and they will still grow as long as they get water.
 
I tried getting rid of some lilacs once; I cut them to the ground in the middle of spring growth. The following spring they came in with super strength! I loosened the ground up and pulled them all out. The next year there were more than I had before.

I am pretty sure that unless you used strong poison you didn't do anything but make them stronger.
 
There are three things hard to kill...

Grape vines once established

Lilacs

And
....

Ben
Roses. My cousin gave my wife 24 bare root rose bushes a few years ago and every year I cut them off almost at ground level. I have "accidently" sprayed them with Roundup. I have neglected them with water. They are still thriving.
Every time I mow they reach out and grab me either by my shirt or skin. I hate those things.
 
Roses are members of the blackberry family. ;)
 
I've killed lilacs. I had 3 in my yard. I'm not sure what I did, but they're gone. I love lilacs myself. My neighbors planted a hedge of lilacs more than a decade ago and they have one survivor. Maybe it is our soil?
 
I've killed lilacs. I had 3 in my yard. I'm not sure what I did, but they're gone. I love lilacs myself. My neighbors planted a hedge of lilacs more than a decade ago and they have one survivor. Maybe it is our soil?
Mine are in red clay and sand. They are 32 and 30 year old bushes and have done very well, even tolerating the Tx heat and drought.
 
I don't know much about them. When I was a kid, we had one out front of the house. I loved that thing. I would walk out the front door and the smell was amazing. One of the little things from my childhood that was great.
I went by that house a couple years ago. The bush and trees were all gone but the house looked exactly the same even after 40 years. No one lived there so I looked through the windows. Everything the same inside just like time had stood still.
 
I don't know much about them. When I was a kid, we had one out front of the house. I loved that thing. I would walk out the front door and the smell was amazing. One of the little things from my childhood that was great.
I went by that house a couple years ago. The bush and trees were all gone but the house looked exactly the same even after 40 years. No one lived there so I looked through the windows. Everything the same inside just like time had stood still.
Wow, how awesome to get to do that!! Bittersweet!?!
 

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