Lilac from cutting

I don't seem to see much mention of Lilac as bonsai.This was grown from a cutting taken in 2005 from a standard patio lilac that had quite small leaves. Pretty puny trunk as yet but as I used to work from cuttings or seedlings that seems a very distant prospect,so I suppose my wife will refer to it as another of my twigs in pots.I think it was worth trying though.
Hight inc pot 10"

Michael, nothing wrong with twigs in pots, if that's what you want.
If you want to grow the trunk some bulk, you need to give it the means to do that. Put it either in the ground or in a pond basket, and let it rip for two or three seasons, cut it back and repeat. In a small pot it will never achieve the vigour to grow thick.

Some things I keep just for flower in spring, after flowering it gets cut back pretty severely, fed properly and left to grow another year, flower in spring etc. like this dwarf Lilac, like yours grown from cutting:

IMG_3142 by Arihato, on Flickr

Some have grown in the ground, this Cherry was three meters high, chopped down and is now being grown smaller.

IMG_2874 by Arihato, on Flickr

You have to give the tree the 'tools' to do what you want it to do.
These Lilacs are great little trees no matter how big.

Michael Cooper wrote:This was grown from a cutting taken in 2005 from a standard patio lilac that had quite small leaves.

I've read that lilacs are notoriously difficult to root from cuttings. Can you tell me what method you used?

William,It probably survived despite my abilities rather than because of them.Nothing special ,a cutting a few inches long plus rooting compound and crossed fingers for luck.

[/url]


I've got a lilac I've been working on for a few years now.  Haven't  been able to get it to flower since I chopped it smaller.  I did some heavy pruning on it earlier this spring.  Should I prune the new growth to get it to bud back further.  This all grew in the last week or two.  Any advice would be much appreciated, you guys seem to know what you're doing with this species