where are you

how was winter ...

can wee see where the plant goes in the ground ... how did you plant it.. drought last year??.. how watered .. nice lawn.. is there a lawn service ...

have to give us something to work with

ken

This is one perhaps shows the ground a little better. There was originally another shrub here that was killed off a few years ago (now that you have me thinking about it - maybe I'm sensing a trend?) The planting hole was amended with compost when that first shrub went in, but nothing was added when the lilac was planted. I'm close to Detroit, MI. Winter was relatively mild and we provide supplemental water through the summer so drought shouldn't be a concern.

There is a lawn service, yes. Now you have me thinking that perhaps some of their product was distributed and may be affecting this shrub? Although, there is a large healthy viburnum right beside the lilac that is obviously happy. And, I am located in Ontario, Canada. We have a cosmetic pesticide ban in place - our lawn service can still use 'some' products but they are not the really potent products of years gone by.

the weird thing is.. the big fat dead buds ... it seems like it was all set in fall ... but i cant figure out how.. in this very mild winter... that killed it ...

unless it went in to winter... overfertilized.. and did not harden off properly ...

with no insult to the root mass ... and presuming it was not a grafted plant... which i dont think is an option with Ls.... you might be surprised how large it could get .. this summer ...

only thing left is.. how deep is the root flare ...

ken

Possibly lilac bacterial blight.

Why are you mulching with rocks?

Thanks for the thoughts. What do you think I should do now? Leave it be, cut down the bare branches, cut the whole thing down to ground level and let it all come back?

This part of the yard is 'landscaped' rather than 'gardened'. There are a number of shrubs and trees and a few grasses in a section of yard that is finished with landscape stone. I prefer the gardens with mulch, but it is what it is and so far the plants there have been doing well (lilac notwithstanding).

I had the exact same thing happen to a lilac a few years ago, and the lilac was the exact same size as yours. I think it's because when I got the lilac from our local nursery in a 5 gallon container the roots were a mess!! They were SO tangled up, and so rock hard like cement. I soaked the root ball in our bathtub while simultaneously clogging our bathtub drain. It was pretty funny at the time.

Anyway, the buds were there and nice and fat that next spring, but nothing happened. I yanked it out and planted another one. This, to me, is definitely a root issue. The rocks did not cause this. I use to mulch with rocks to keep voles at bay, and my shrubs all grew successfully. I ended up removing the rocks a few years later.

Lilacs are cheap and grow so fast that replacing the one you have is no big deal.