Perhaps your garden needs a bit of colorful addition aside from the green foliage you normally see. What better way to achieve this than adding flowering plants to the landscape? And for that, we encourage you to take a look at Miss Kim Lilac — a deciduous flowering shrub that produces fragrant blooms later in Spring.
Here’s a bit of an introduction to what Miss Kim Lilac is and its favorite growing conditions.
I. Appearance and Characteristics
Miss Kim Lilac is one variety of lilac bushes with a more compact shape than the common lilacs. Others refer to it as a Korean lilac. This bushy plant outdoor has an upright-rounded growth and reaches an average mature height of 5 feet tall.
As a deciduous species, Miss Kim Lilacs produce dark green leaves that turn blush red during the fall season. It’s a perfect plant to use for mass planting, foundation planting, or mixed borders as it creates a massive display of Kim lilac flowers in blue and lavender shades. On top of it, the Spring blooms give off a wonderful fragrance you will certainly enjoy.
Miss Kim Lilac pairs well with smaller evergreens.
Planting Miss Kim Lilacs is something that you won’t regret because it adds beauty to an otherwise bare space. If you’ve got the right location and you provide the best-growing conditions as much as possible, this elegant shrub will make a stunning statement.
II. How to Grow and Care
Sunlight
The ‘Miss Kim’ lilac, like its cousins, prefers full sun to bloom well. It can tolerate some shade, but it won’t produce as many blooms. An ideal location receives direct sun for at least six to eight hours per day.
Temperature and Humidity
‘Miss Kim’ lilacs generally aren’t good choices for gardens in the Deep South where there is not enough winter chill for bud development. This shrub is slightly less cold-tolerant than the common lilac, but it is still reliably hardy down to minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Zone 4 gardeners might want to plant it in a sheltered location. Unlike other lilacs that often develop powdery mildew in humid conditions, ‘Miss Kim’ is more resistant to fungal problems. Because ‘Miss Kim’ is a late bloomer, its flower buds are less likely to be damaged by frost.
Watering
Newly planted Miss Kim Lilacs will need regular and frequent watering because it helps them establish an extensive root system. Make sure to keep the soil evenly moist but not soggy. Adding mulch around the base of your young plants will help reduce the rate of moisture loss and prevent the growth of weeds.
Once established, you can reduce the watering frequency of your Miss Kim Lilacs. At this point, they’re able to tolerate a short period of drought. But during times of extreme heat, we recommend that you provide supplemental water.
Soil
Plant ‘Miss Kim’ in well-drained soil with a neutral to slightly alkaline soil pH. This lilac does not do well in acidic soil. Ideally, you’ll want to work some compost into the soil.
Fertilizing
Adding fertilizer to your Kim Lilac plants starting in early Spring will help boost their growth. A balanced houseplant fertilizer (10-10-10) will usually suffice. You may also opt to apply a slow-release fertilizer like compost and other organic options to maintain fertile soil.
Pruning
One important maintenance activity you shouldn’t neglect in your Miss Kim Lilac is pruning or thinning. Such management practice promotes good air circulation and encourages better growth and fuller blooms in the next season.
The best time to prune is after flowering. Cut off the dead, aged, and crossing branches to thin out the bush. We advise that you disinfect your pruning tool before and after use as it helps prevent the occurrence of disease in your garden.
Propagation
Like other lilacs, ‘Miss Kim’ is most easily propagated with young softwood cuttings. Late spring or early summer is the best time to begin propagation by taking cuttings from the tips of actively growing stems. Here’s how to do it:
- Using sharp pruners, take 4- to 6-inch-long cuttings from a new growth stem.
- Strip off only the bottom sets of leaves and dip the end of the cutting into rooting hormone to promote root growth. Plant the cutting into a mix of potting soil, sand, and perlite. Roots will emerge from the buried nodes where the leaves were removed.
- Place the pot in a warm location and keep the potting mix damp until a network of roots is established.
- When roots are well established and new growth has started, transplant the cuttings into larger pots or the garden.
How to Grow From Seed
Growing lilacs from the seeds you collect from the dried flower heads is possible but is not very practical. It can take as long as four to five years for a plant started from seed to reach flowering maturity. Further complicating the issue is that hybrid lilacs (though ‘Miss Kim’ is not one of them) do not produce seeds that come true to the parent plant.
Start the seeds indoors and grow them through the winter, or save seeds to sow outdoors in the spring. If you want to try seed propagation, take these steps:
- Collect some of the seed pods from dried flower heads on a mature lilac.
- Plant them in small pots filled with standard potting mix.
- Keep the mix moist and set the pots in a moderately warm, bright location but not in direct sunlight until they sprout.
- Once established, the seedlings will need plenty of sunlight to grow.
- Gradually repot seedlings into larger containers until they are large enough to plant outdoors. This process can take a couple of years.
Potting and Repotting
Lilac shrubs are not a typical choice for container culture, but as a slow-growing and relatively small lilac species, ‘Miss Kim’ can be container-grown. Use a large, heavy, deep pot at least 12 inches in diameter. A terra-cotta or ceramic planter will be sufficiently heavy to resist blowing over.
Because most potting mixes are somewhat acidic due to the amount of peat moss they contain, alkaline-loving lilacs will require that you amend the potting mix by blending in an agricultural lime before planting—about 1 cup of lime for every 2 cubic feet of potting mix.
A mature lilac is not easy to repot, so it’s best to start with the largest pot that is practical. When a potted ‘Miss Kim’ becomes overgrown and begins to decline, it will need to be repotted into a larger container. Plan to do this every two to four years.
A potted shrub is more susceptible to cold injury than an in-ground plant, so a potted lilac should be moved to a sheltered location if you live in a zone with especially harsh winters. Some gardeners will bury the entire pot for the winter. Another solution is to heap compost or leaf mulch around the entire pot to insulate it for the winter.
Overwintering
When planted in its established hardiness range, ‘Miss Kim’ does not require any special winter cold protection. Young plants can be susceptible to winter gnawing damage by rabbits and rodents, so shielding them with a cage made of metal hardware cloth can protect a shrub during its formative years. Once well established, the shrub will no longer need this protection.
In regions where late, hard spring frosts are common, you might want to shelter the shrub with a tent made of canvas or burlap, erected as buds begin to appear in early spring and left in place until all danger of frost has passed.
Pests and Diseases
Common shrub diseases such as bacterial blight, powdery mildew, and leaf spots may potentially affect Miss Kim Lilac. These diseases are caused by fungal pathogens that may be present in their growing environment. To prevent them from occurring, maintain good air circulation around your plant indoors band refrain from wetting the leaves during watering.
Maintain good sanitation by disinfecting pruning tools before and after use.
Scales, borers, caterpillars, and leaf miners are the common pests of the Miss Kim Lilac shrub. Inspect the leaves and their undersides from time to time to see if these organisms are present. In low populations, manual removal of these pests and the infested portions is enough to prevent significant damage.
III. Uses and Benefits
Plant as a specimen or in mixed shrub borders for dramatic spring blooms. Use it in the perennial border to add structure to a bed. A great flowering shrub that is perfect for hedges too.
