Lilac is an ornamental tree with many branches. She sheds her ovoid, pointed-tipped leaves for the winter. You can find varieties of lilacs that have dissected feathery foliage. And the foliage is kept on such a lilac until late autumn. During the flowering period of lilac, the entire space around the shrub is filled with a stunning aroma. Its small flowers enclosed in paniculate inflorescences are pleasing to the eye and cause genuine aesthetic pleasure. Breeding work has allowed modern lilac to have not only lilac color, but also blue, and yellow, pink and purple.
How to grow lilacs?
Like any plant, lilac is subject to disease, has its own preferences and shows its own character. This shrub prefers to settle in open places, but protected from the winds. Lilacs like wetlands or lands flooded with water in spring and autumn. However, she loves soil with moderate moisture, neutral and slightly acidic, but of high fertility. Shrubs should be planted from the end of July to the beginning of autumn, in the evening or in cloudy weather.
Lilac: diseases andcare
Immediately after planting the shrub, it is plentifully watered and mulched with peat or humus. During the season, the soil around it should be loosened several times. It is possible to apply nitrogen fertilizer only in the second year of lilac life, and phosphorus and potash fertilizers - in the fall, once every three years. Extremely effective organic. While the shoots are in bloom, the bush is watered abundantly, and in the summer it is only necessary to water the lilac on very hot days. Pruning is done so that the flowering of the shrub is as plentiful as possible. Thinning and sanitary pruning should be done in early spring.
Lilacs are exposed to diseases as a result of the invasion of several types of parasites: lilac moth, lilac hawk moth, moth. It also has diseases such as late blight of the kidneys and bacterial rot. But it is worth saying that the lilac tolerates diseases and pest attacks extremely rarely. And this cannot but please fans of the plant.
Let's consider several types of lilac disease. A photo of a lilac moth shows that it prefers shrub foliage. At first, the leaves are covered with brown spots - mines, then they curl into tubes and dry out, and the bush becomes like a burnt one. It does not bloom the next season. Mid-May is the time for the emergence of butterflies, and in the first days of June they begin laying eggs on the undersides of the leaves along the veins. After 10 days, caterpillars appear and settle in the pulp of the leaves. In the second half of July, the caterpillars rush to the ground, and after 18 daysbutterflies appear. The second generation of pupae winters in the ground. Deep digging of the earth around the bush in late autumn, turning over the layers, will protect the bush from pests. Affected leaves are naturally burned.
The following pests and diseases of lilacs are bacterial necrosis. Carriers are insects that get out of the water during irrigation, through injuries or planting material. Signs: gray leaves and brown shoots. First, the disease affects the foliage and upper shoots, then descends. You can only fight with its technical side - remove and burn the affected leaves or parts of the plant. If the bush is badly damaged, it is uprooted and burned.
