If you protect them I'm sure they'll recover. A chicken wire cylinder maybe. There's a lot of growth from the base so they're trying hard to live.

Lilacs come back well from suckers, so they should survive if protected as floral said. Gnawing looks rather low for deer - do you have rabbits? I saw recently on GW a suggestion for a cylinder of chicken wire as tall as need be and then topped by netting.

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes we may have rabbits but I haven't seen any in a while. We definitely have deer, and that's what I would suspect. Unfortunately I'm pressed for time, as this is a weekend house and we're leaving this evening. I think that in the interim I'll rig up something with deer netting, using white plastic squares, which have been effective in keeping deer away from our garden.

One question: I found the branches that were snapped off. (They were snapped off a bit high, which I think might argue for deer.) Is there anything I can do with them? If I stick em in the ground will they take root?

I'll do that right away and also wet up a little deer-netting fence to protect em while we're away.

Oh, one other question: should I apply fertilizer? I have fireplace ashes that I hear sometimes are used.

If they have not been girdled completely round the cambium layer, they should survive but if the gnawing prevents the flow of water/nutrient, game over...but since regeneration has had a chance to get going from the base, the plant will recover, just not the gnawed branch.

Well I will definitely snip it off beneath the gnarled branch then, as someone suggested. What's your view of fertilizer?

By the way, I just noticed that I was no upset when I posted this originally I said "rescume" instead of "rescue"!

first.. note all the new suckers coming up ...

second.. IMHO .. lilac never needs anything in the way of fert ... and i grow in glacial sand ... cant beat them back with a stick after a year or two ... dont waste your time

but if you insist.. start with a soil test.. and then decide if ash is a plus or a minus ... no guessing.. and that is what you are asking us to do ...

ken

OK, thanks. Just came back after putting up deer netting on one, second left to go.

Ken's right that lilac should basically never need any special attention to fertilizer, when planted in the ground. As to wood ashes, they are indeed a potent source of potash, AKA potassium, one of the macronutrients needed by plants. But because they are also extremely alkaline, can tend to "burn" vegetation if applied to heavily. I dump mine in such a manner that they are well-spread around-not too much in any one spot. This will work for you but has nothing to do with your lilacs. BTW, lilacs, along with tawny orange daylily, is a plant that routinely outlasts even the home around which they were planted. So, if you're out in the country and see what looks like rows or individual plants of lilac, but no house, that is what happened. Pretty darn hard to kill.

+oM

Well my deer (or whatever) did their best. Have put up posts and wrapped em all in deer netting, with the netting fastened to the ground in a feeble attempt to stave off rabbits. Might even have been a bear - we've had them.