A light-skinned man and a baby inspect a lilac bush in bloom - Olga Zheltonogova/Getty Images When lilacs open their fragrant flowers, it's nature's signal that summer's here. It's hard to have enough ...

Shrubs like hydrangeas and lilacs can be started from cuttings, but they require some work and a lot of patience. Cuttings can take 8 to 12 weeks to root and several years to reach blooming size.

A: It can be split into quarters, thirds or halves, but do so after it has completed flowering, which should be sometime in March or April. I would encourage you to take some cuttings from the plant ...

Q: My neighbor asked for a cutting of my lilac bush. I’ve grown other plants from cuttings in the past but have been unsuccessful with the lilac. How should this be done? A: Lilac, Syringa vulgaris, ...

A fun way to challenge yourself is to take a softwood cutting to propagate one of your favorite shrubs. Some shrubs that may be propagated are ninebark, lilac, weigela, dogwood and viburnum. The best ...

Readers: A correction to a previous column. When pruning a Miss Kim lilac, it should be done in the spring AFTER it blooms. Thanks to reader Tony G. Q: I have a very large Thanksgiving cactus plant in ...