There are a lot of long new shoots. Does this imply you pruned it this spring? Or late last year?

The sun would also affect blooming. Could be a combination of factors.

I always only prune it right after blooming.

My bloomerang never bloomed much despite full sun. I finally pulled it out. Wasn’t worth the space in my yard. Hope you have better luck.

Oh gosh. That's good to know though. Mine almost went in the garbage but I thought I'd give it one last chance in this new spot. Sounds like I'll be disappointed next year too.

most likely.. the year after a transplant.. will be lesser flowers ... you cut off most of its roots ... it should not be a surprise ...

the new spot will be better than the old spot just because of more sun ... but you may need to water it more.. next year.. because of the move ... but if in the heat of the summer the leaves get ugly.. dont freak out... it just might not have the root mass to thrive ... so give it more water ... and another year ....

that it bloomed in the old spot suggests.. the light wasnt all that weak ...

i had a dwarf L.. palladin i believe.. and it took about 5 years.. for the plant to get mature enough.. to have a good flower show ... especially on the repeat bloom ... and by that time.. the plant was about 3 times the size of yours ... in other words... maturity made it look better ... the bigger plant.. just appeared to have more flowers .. if that makes sense ... i dont know if proportionally it really had more flowers.. or if it just looked better ...

this is a flowering shrub.. not a perennial.. so the expectation is in years.. not seasons ... 3 years might not have been enough years .. for peak performance ...

all that said.. if it doesnt get its act together.. and you just dont have the sun ... just get rid of it ... lifes too short to be disappointed by a plant in your garden ...

ken

Thanks Ken, I'll leave it there for a few years and hope for the best. Good to know that a couple hours of full sun is better than 4-5 hours of dappled. Yes, I don't have a lot of space for gardening so I watch everything like a hawk.

The annual pruning has probably had a lot to do with it.

Your spring blooms look lovely. That's what I was hoping mine would do. My spring blooms looked like my summer blooms - very scraggly. Your summer blooms almost look like a lavender plant in the photo. So different from the spring.

I was expecting the second blooms to look like the first ones, and didn’t recognize the tall, thin stems as flower stalks the first time they appeared! It wasn’t until they actually bloomed that I realized what they were.

The first flush comes from over-wintering stem buds set the previous year, same as with lilacs that only bloom in spring. If you do any cutting back of stems that have produced these buds, after they are set you will be taking away a percentage of the spring bloom.

So you shouldn't prune off the dead blooms in spring?

When (if!) I deadhead the full-sized lilac, I'm careful not to cut off the base of the flower stem as the new buds for next year form near there very soon after this year's flowers finish. But with the dwarf lilacs, it's too fussy to do that and they seem not to be too bothered (re flowering next year) by a shearing. Mostly we haven't got around to deadheading Boomerang but do tend to shear off the messy dead flowers on the older dwarf lilac shrubs we have. So I think you might need to experiment on yours to see what works for you...!