My 'Miss Kim' has only a few blooms too....

Spotty results are usual, many lilac bushes in this area are not smothered in bloom every year. However, if your care was lacking last year that might have affected bud set. The better they are doing, the more strong shoots that set flower buds they will be producing.

Note that, unless there's been a change I'm not aware of it's patula instead of pubescens.

My Miss Kim blooms when the common lilac is done, so yours might not have bloomed yet.

Corrine

bboy - Sorry. I'm going off of the name that was on the tag and matched up well to my super old SWGB, so it may be an old name.

Wasn't a very good year for lilacs for me, either.
Plus, a couple cold nights zapped the growth on three of four lilac bushes.
Blooming was spotty and light after that.

Josh

Looking at the Hillier manual I'm reminded that julianae, microphylla and patula are presented there as subspecies of Syringa pubescens.

Just today (I've been wantonly gazing at the lilacs daily for the last week or so) the "miss kim" decided to begin showing signs of buds. Strange because I was beginning to become concerned that it may be getting choked out by strawberries despite the fantastic bushy appearance.

Lack of care last year, when they were still new, could definitely contribute to lack of bloom this year.

Miss Kim blooms later than the others, as well, noted above.

Once they are established they are quite drought tolerant in our climate but yours aren't established yet, so they need some water over the summer.

The lilac across the street from me doesn't bloom well most years because they insist on pruning it into a square box. One year they left it alone and it was covered in flowers. This year? there's one flower, deep inside the square. There oughta be a law ...

>The lilac across the street from me doesn't bloom well most years because they insist on pruning it into a square boxHow vulgaris!

Any idea when to expect suckers to bloom? My large deep purple Frech Lilac died but left me with 6 or 8 nice suckers which are about 5 years old and maybe a spindly 3 feet tall. They get a good 6 hours of sun and are well watered, if not too well. Their feet are covered with a matt of lamium...would that be a problem?
My thought is to pull, er dig one out and find it a new home somewhere else in my yard; ie, better drainage, more than 6 hrs sun, no lamium. Any thoughts out there?
Smiles,
D....