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Most people are familiar with lilacs as a shrub, but they also grow as trees and can be as tall as 30 feet with a spread of 15 feet, while shrubs are more likely to grow 10 to 20 feet tall and, depending on the variety, can be much wider. The trees have a lifespan of about 100 years.
Keeping this in consideration, can I prune lilacs in the fall?
One way to renew a large, overgrown lilac is to cut the entire plant back to within 6 to 8 inches of the ground in late winter (March or early April). This severe pruning will induce a large number of shoots to develop during the growing season.
Beside above, is there a difference between a lilac tree and a lilac bush?
Shrub lilacs and bush lilacs are short and compact. Tree lilacs are trickier. Tree lilacs can grow up to 25 feet high and have a tree-like appearance, but their many stems tend to get them classified as bushes. They are not technically trees, but they get big enough that you can treat them as if they are.
For lilacs, the recommended method is generally to remove one third of the old wood each year immediately after flowering and shape the shrub over a number of seasons. Of course, you can prune in the fall if absolutely required.