I find they may wait to year 4-5 to leap. A lot depends on if the roots were teased out or congested at planting.

tj

No, not really. They are usually 1st year whips or feathered maidens, or sometimes 2 years old when planted as bare-roots. Ime, hey tend to sit for around 3 years making root growth and leafing out the first laterals but not really getting going till they are about 4 -5 years old . At adolescence, around 8-15 years, just like human teens, they can make a lot of growth - mostly height. They slow down at 15ish, and the annual growth they make after about will be the general growth rate until full maturity...anywhere between 30-50...with seasonal caveats.. This is only from what I have seen since I sowed my first tree (a rowan) almost 30 years ago so I expect a few of the tree people to jump in with corrective posts

Obviously, a lot depends on the tree - grow fast and live shorter lives is a bit of a rule, so a birch will be much faster than an oak, but by 80 or so, the birch will be getting a bit shaky while an oak is just really becoming a good tree.

NO ....

trees will achieve the standerd annual growth rate.. when they first grow a root mass consistent with their size ...

many trees are field grown.. and sold ball and burlap ... a tree is said to be twice as large underground as what you see above... that would be a mature root mass for the tree...

if field grown.. you can understand.. that 95 or more % of the root mass is removed in making the ball..

tree time is counted in decades.. so it would not be inconsistent to suggest it might take 3 to 5 years.. to re-establish the lost root mass...

i know your impatient.. but i guess i would give it another year or two.. because no matter what you replant there.. it will have the same truncated root mass issue.. and maybe even more so.. since you will be restarting the decades lone process...

now all that said.. lilac is a shrub. so i dont know why any tree rules would apply.. shrubs are not perennials.. so the root growing process ...is not as long as trees.. but a little longer than flowers....

i wrote all this on a JMaple.. not a J lilac .. so though a lesson.. it might not apply directly... thd maple is a tree. the lilac is a shrub int he shape of a tree .. sorta...

knowing you.. i also rule out improper planting.. too deep.. etc.. improper water or aftercare.. etc.. etc.. bad soil .... so all thats left is patience..

crikey woman.. spend money on NEW plants.. not rebuying the same plant in a bigger size... FOCUS!!!! .. so many plant.. so little time.. so little budget .. lol ...

ken

Ken -- I didn't mean re-plant the same tree, I meant plant a different, bigger tree. I guess I wasn't clear on that. But I get what you're saying.

FYI: Japanese lilac tree (Syringa reticulata) is a tree. But it looks like I omitted the "tree" part in my post so you get a pass on that one. LOL!

Japanese Tree Lilac | Horticulture, Landscape, and Environmental Systems | Nebraska (unl.edu) .

Here's a picture of mine planted from a 2.5 gal pot 5-28-2017. (3 ft. tall?)
Syringa reticulata: 'Ivory silk'.

Here again in 5-22-2018. (4-1/2 ft. tall). It's a 6 ft fence.

Third year 5-17-2019. (7 ft?)

So maybe didn't sleep but not leaping until the fourth or fifth years.

It is a fast grower once established.

Here it is a year ago 7-3-2022. First bloom year. (no blooms 2023). :-\

It sounds like I need to be patient.

Yes,

I never go by the old cliches. There may be some truth to them, and they sound good but there are too many variables and different types of plants for that to be reliable 100% of the time.

Let us know how things turn out. ;-)

I landscaped my new house in spring 2022; everything was mail ordered. The trees have grown at different rates. The fastest has been the Magnolia virginiana 'Moonglow'--an 8 inch whip when planted is now over 4 feet tall at the end of its second season. The redbud is now multistemmed and, where it hasn't been trimmed by deer, is about 5 feet tall. Both the Halesia 'Wedding Bells' and the Amelanchier 'Autumn Brilliance' have grown much more slowly, still only 2 feet tall but both are looking good. The Cornus kousa, 'Greensleeves' is just beginning to put out side growth. Protecting everything from deer until they outgrow vulnerability has been an ongoing project.

BillMN, I dont know if it is written much, but these tress are an every other year bloomer. There are two planted at a cemetery near me and I always feel bad that they bloom on alternate years from one another. Hopefully you will have a good display next year. Don’t know if they have come out with new varieties that bloom every year. I bought mine many years ago and it was always blooming every other year.

Thanks Thyme!

I found that out after I did some searches when mine didn't bloom this year.

I think there is a new one out that does bloom every year.

I think the bottom line is that as long as the plant or tree looks healthy, they will grow in their own time, not the growth rate you expect, or you find online.

We had a pink dogwood that has been in a perfect place for a dog would that has not reliably bloomed in the 8 years since it was planted.