Should the soil be amended at all, if so anything in particular? Frequent watering after planting? Thank so much again.

Never amend planting holes. Water when planting then when needed. Test by checking the soil at a depth of a few inches. Lilacs are tough and easy. Don't pamper them to death.

And lilacs really don't want to grow in a wet area.

i would take a hand trowel.. crawl under there.. and start poking around and find out if any of the suckers have their own roots ... besides the bigger momma root ... you need some finer fedder roots ...

i would choose those ...

i would pot them in a pot with some damp media.. and put them next to the spigot ... so i could water them once in a while .... and allow them grow some roots until fall .. then give them to sissy ...

i did this once.. putting one in 1 inch of used media... in a one gal pot.. and promptly forgot about it for two years ... and it rooted down thru the pot holes ... and it survived ...

so as noted.. you can barely kill the things.. and do go loving them to death ...

but do understand.. it might take them a year or two ... to grow a root mass.. to get going ... they arent going to burst forth in growth like if you had bought one at the store.. with a pot full of roots ...

ken

Thank you all for your helpful suggestions!