Today's lilac varieties offer larger flowers and more variety in color and scent, as well as flower and shrub form. Fragrance too is variable. French hybrids are sweetly scented, while oriental varieties and their hybrids have spicy overtones. Single flowering lilacs tend to be more strongly scented than doubles.

For best results, plant lilacs in full sun in a well-drained location, away roots of mature trees and follow proper pruning practices. Avoid high nitrogen fertilizers (such as lawn fertilizer), which encourage leafy growth at the expense of flowers.

Once young shrubs are four to five years old, annual pruning is essential to ensure that you get flowers all over the shrub - not just at the top.

Lilacs: when and how to prune

Pruning encourages growth of healthy young stems, which produce better blooms than thick old ones. Because of their suckering tendencies, many lilacs will outgrow their space if you don't prune them.

• Prune lilacs immediately after flowering. Next spring's flowering buds are produced in June and July, so avoid removing them with late pruning. By cutting off spent flowers right after blooming, you ensure that the shrub's energy goes into producing flower buds for next year, not seeds.
• Each season, cut out a quarter of the oldest branches and take out any crossing stems.
• To rejuvenate old, overgrown lilacs, cut one-third of thickest, oldest stems to the ground and remove thin suckers each season. Over three to four years, all old stems will be replaced by new growth. Do this job in late winter or early spring before leaves emerge. (You won't lose too many flowers because overgrown plants don't bloom well anyway.)
• Young lilacs should start flowering two years after planting, but it can take about five years. Depending on weather conditions, lilacs can produce heavy blooms one year and few the next. Spring bloom is influenced by the previous season's weather. The best bloom tends to follow cool, sunny summers.

For more information about lilacs, see http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com/lilacs.html | Garden writer Yvonne Cunnington is the author of a book for beginner gardeners called Clueless in the Garden: A Guide for the Horticulturally Helpless. For more gardening tips, visit her website at http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com.