I have a Miss Kim that I am controlling. Steve, it seems to be a different form than "regular" lilacs, more of a typical bush shape. I got it from someone here actually because it was too big for their space.

I prune it back after flowering, taking off usually about 6" at a time all over. Not shearing it, just normal pruning. Now, this is keeping it at about 6 feet tall, maybe 4 feet wide. I don't know how big yours are, but keep in mind 6 feet is a possibility when you decide whether to move them now.

How large are the shrubs now and how close together did you plant them? Perhaps you could let the 2 shrubs "merge" together. Or move one of them in the fall after they go dormant if they're not too large. It's too late to move them now in zone 6.

Steve Miss Kim is not a suckering type of Lilac and grows on a single stem. I have one in the front garden that has been there about 8 years. It's barely 5 feet tall. This shrub seems to grow very slowly, at least for me. It puts on a great show, but I kind of wish it would get bigger.

Thanks for the responses. Mine are about 5.5-6ft high, and currently spaced about 3ft apart at the root. The branches are growing together, intertwined, to form a hedge. I don't mind the hedge look, but they're getting a bit overgrown and I can see some bare branches inside the shrubs.

I would prefer to maintain them at around a 5ft height, and I think I need to thin out and trim back some of the branches. They're starting to encroach on nearby hydrangeas and other perennials and they're also growing through the deer fencing. Anything sprouting beyond the fence gets deer-pruned, so I end up losing those blossoms if I can't keep them inside the fence.

I have a Miss Kim about 10 years old. Last year tons of blooms. This year it looks like 3/4 of it is dead...it still bloomed....now several shoots are coming up from the base and are about 2 1/2 ft tall. Can I prune it down and let the shoots take over or will this kill it? What to do?

I think the shoots coming up are from the root stock and should be removed.

E, Can you take some photos of the base of the plant? While I don't think most lilacs are grafted onto rootstocks, from what I read, Miss Kim sometimes is grafted onto a dwarfing rootstock so that it grows smaller than it would on its own roots. Unless we know if yours is grafted or not, we can't know for sure if your sprouts are the same plant. Generally, the sprouts from a rootstock are removed since they won't be the same as sprouts on the upper part of the plant. Sprouts on an own-root plant can be removed for shaping, but will grow true to the plant if left to grow. Regardless, any branches that are truly dead might as well be pruned off, though by now that will be more difficult to tell without leaves.