Ivory Silk Lilac

jjfried

I recently purchased two Ivory Silk lilacs with the intention of growing them as single trunk trees. What I got was multiple trunk specimens. My question is can I prune back to a single trunk or knock them out of the pot and bareroot them to select the best single trunk? Is this advisible at all or should I just plant them as a bush form and let it go at that?

Eric Frei

Likely the other trunks will keep trying to sucker.

Pics?

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treeseer

Planting in july is a bit risky but yes i would shake off the dirt and see if the pot had separate plants or if all the trunks are off the same root system. if so yes you can cut the other trunks back and train a single leader.

jjfried

That's what I was thinking, knock off the dirt and see what I've got. I have two plants and am thinking about doing it to one of them on the theory that what's the worse that can happen? In a perfect world suckering will not be too bad.
How does a nursery prevent suckering when training to a single trunk?

treeseer

not a problem with this species; does not sucker by habit.