Lilacs: Time for a Fresh Look

Now you can be choosy about fragrance, shape, hue, and flowering time

Sometimes it feels like I was destined to fall in love withlilacs . In my young I spent countless time of day working with my granddad , a gardener who specialize in theseenchantingbeauties . I was most enthralled with a marvellous , pink - flowered ‘ Esther Staley ’ lilac that produce next to my grandparents ’ back room access . I once pollinated that plant in hopes of hybridizing a great new lilac , just as some dreaming of writing the great American novel . While my other endeavor at interbreeding fizzle out , I still breed lilacs as a sideline . Professionally , I also monitor the lilac accumulation at Harvard University’sArnold Arboretumin Boston .

What makes lilacs so fascinating ? Certainly their enchantingfragranceheralds the arriver of outpouring . Lilacs are singular enough to define a color and a fragrancy , and they ’re remarkably easy to get . And while lilacs used to follow in just two feel — purple and white — there ’s now awful variety in their color , habit , salad days sizing , Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe , and flowering clock time .

These traditional plants are now used in many ways . Colorful and fragrant specimens can beckon attention . A pigeonholing of lilacs can form a filmdom or hedge . marvellous shrub or tree lilacs offer shade for a patio . Lilacs can also be underplanted with spring bulb , or perennials such as bleeding heart ( Dicentraspectabilis ) that will blossom with them .

With lilacs, fragrance is the number one priority

Some lilacs are more fragrant than others . For example , many white lilacs are only faintly scented . Other lilacs roll from slightly sweet to highly pungent . I can find the pleasantry of scent , but my olfactories seem to become promptly used to a smell . This makes it hard to distinguish the scents of different flowers . Still , when I smell lilacs , I smile .

Some years ago , I tackle a labor to memorialize which lilac were — and were not — fragrant . I had to recruit unpaid worker sniffer . Now , based on the nose of others , I can confidently commend fragrant lilacs .

French hybrids are the best-known lilacs

All lilac belong to the genusSyringa , with about 20 coinage and century of cultivars commonly train . Most species are aboriginal to Asia . None are native to North America . Many of the species , or risky , lilac bet quite different from the popular common lilac , S. vulgaris , with its substance - shaped folio and large flush which flower about the third hebdomad of May here in Boston .

Native to Eastern Europe , the common lilac was introduced to Western Europe before 1600 and likely to North America from there . It was n’t until the 1800s that named cultivars were breed . Around 1900 , so many of these better cultivar do from France that the terminus “ French Hybrid ” is often used to describe all cultivar of the common lilac , even though many were bred in other European nation or North America .

Beyond the mutual lilac , otherSyringaspecies have some very interesting traits . All have pleasant fragrances , with some quite different fromS. vulgaris .

The lilac usually regard the most fragrant is a Chinese native — S. pubescens . It has lowly , white peak tinged with purpleness . The fragrancy is dulcet and spicy , very different from the traditional “ lilac ” scent .

The other - floweringS. oblata , an attractive native of China and Korea , blossom about two calendar week before the vulgar lilac , which it resembles in face and scent . This species is best known as a parent of the early on - flowering hybrid groupS.×hyacinthiflora . The other parent is the coarse lilac . Breeders have crossedS. oblatawith cultivars of rough-cut lilac and created some hunky-dory early on - flowering , fragrant selections , many of which are disease - resistant . My pet cultivar fare from this radical . These admit ‘ Sister Justina ’ , my favorite white lilac , and the lovely lilac - pinks ‘ Asessippi ’ and ‘ Excel ’ . None of these three have huge blooms , but all grow abundant flowers from the top of the plant to the ground . They are fragrant and , here in Boston , they seldom stand from the prevalent foliar disease — powdery mold and leaf - roll necrosis .

Another Taiwanese species , S. protolaciniata(similar toS.×laciniata ) is know as cut - foliage lilac because of its flyspeck , deeply take apart , fernlike leaves . It produce many small , light - purple bloom in inflorescences that , unlike the common lilac , seem all along the stem turn from a branch end back about 18 inches . Some plants may become 8 feet high and 10 feet across , but it always has a very prissy appearance .

Some lilacs are trees

There are actually Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree lilac that are not simply big shrubs , but can become the size and cast of an orchard apple tree tree . They make lovely tad tree diagram and their dramatic bark adds a 2nd time of year of interest . A large , unclipped hedge of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree lilacs , ab initio plant as a nursery row , now define my backyard .

The tree lilacs flower a week to 10 years after the former lilacs , which blossom about a calendar month after the early lilac . They have ivory flush that smell similar to privet , a close congeneric . The leaves of the Japanese Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree lilac ( S. reticulata ) run to be broader and rounder than those of the Chinese tree diagram lilac ( S. pekinensis ) . Both tree lilac have attractive barque that is reminiscent of cherry barque , but that of the Chinese tree diagram lilac often shed , peeling off in strips . ‘ China Snow ’ is an attractive cultivar with this trait . ‘ Ivory Silk ’ is a cultivar of the Japanese tree diagram lilac that is now commonly usable . Beyond its value in gardens , it is prove promise as a pocket-sized street tree diagram .

A few are short and sweet

On each side of my front room access , I have planted ‘ Miss Kim ’ , a cultivar ofS. patula . ‘Miss Kim ’ is a compact bush , but not a dwarf , grow to 8 to 9 foot marvellous and wide . One of the few lilacs with sound fall color , its leaf move around a porthole - wine colour . It flowers about a week after the common lilac , and displays many delightfully fragrant blooms .

Another thick lilac is the cultivar often called the ‘ Dwarf Korean Lilac ’ . This lilac , S. meyeri‘Palibin ’ , is in fact a dwarf , but it is a cultivar of a Chinese , not a Korean mintage . It has little , rounded leaves and small flowers on a plant life seldom more than 4 to 5 foot tall . In bud , the prime are a light purple , but when fully open they are white-hot , abundant , and sweetly fragrant . This cultivar may be used to make a low-pitched hedging .

Late-blooming lilacs have a distinctive look and smell

The belated lilacs blossom about a week to 10 days after the common lilacs . Most of them are the resultant role of hybridizers having cover two or more species ( as equate to spawn within a metal money ) and selecting the best progeny . Isabella Preston , a Canadian industrial plant stock breeder , first crossedS. komarowiissp.reflexaandS. villosato create the hybrid groupS.×prestoniae . Others have gone on to scotch the Preston lilacs with other late - flowering species . But these later - flowering lilac do n’t depend or smack like what most mass expect a “ lilac ” to be . Frankly , I consider that if these bush were call by some other name , they would be more pop . Some of my favorites include ‘ Miss Canada ’ , a real cherry-red - pinkish lilac , and ‘ Agnes Smith ’ , with white flowers .

Lilac flowers range from creamy shades to purples

I ’m fond to purple , but I grow lilacs of many colors and ghost — lilac , white , blue , purple , magenta , reddish blue , and pink . There ’s even a xanthous lilac — S. vulgaris‘Primrose ’ . It ’s not the color of dandelions , but rather a luscious creamy yellow . Another unequalled cultivar isS.vulgaris‘Sensation ’ ; its purple flowers have a white-hot pinstripe around each petal . Next to my back door , I planted a marvellous , narrow lilac , one of the Russian launching of the rough-cut lilac called ‘ Krasavitsa Moskvy ’ . Its opening bud remind me of pink opals which then become double , white flowers .

Lilac flowers commonly have four petals , but hybridizers have also modernize many double - blossom cultivars . These have more than four petal per efflorescence , often 12 or more . Sometimes these are arranged hosepipe - in - hose , which means there ’s a four - petaled flower within a four - petaled prime . Some of the Modern introductions have the additional petal arranged radially — daisylike — all in the same plane .

What should one look for in a lilac ? Attractive heyday , of course . More than that , flowers should be fragrant and abundant , and usable in a favourite color . And disease resistance is a magnanimous asset .

Years ago , my pet lilacs were those with large flowers . I ’ve since realized that even the large lavender peak are only obvious from a few feet by and that most lilac will be see from across a garden or even a street . copiousness of bloom then becomes very of import , as does presentation . If all of your plant ’s blossoms are at the top , you may have to sniff your lilacs from a 2d - write up window . Many lilac cultivar become so tall that they ’re not worthy for a single - tale home .

Lilacs are easy to grow

Lilacs are as well-off to grow as veg . And their needs are n’t all that different . Lilacs do well in full sunshine , and in well - drained , respectable garden filth with a pH that is neutral to slenderly alkaline . They ’ll tolerate less than the ideal in these category , but floral reward are directly come to to meet the plant ’s need .

Traditionally , lilacs are considered cold - climate plants . Most are sturdy from USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 7 , so when clime is a concern , it ’s about a lilac ’s heating system tolerance . There ’s hope on the apparent horizon for gardeners in warm clime . late selections spawn at Descanso Gardens in Los Angeles do tolerate the estrus and the lack of a chilling full point . And lilacs maturate on the campus of the University of California at Riverside . I ’m told that one of the well cultivar there is my old favorite , the early - floweringS.×hyacinthiflora‘Excel ’ .

When trimming or pruning lilacs , be certain to remember that the flower bud are constitute the summertime before they bloom . Pruning in wintertime almost always result in few peak the following spring . To encourage the most flush , prune lilacs right on after their blooms fade .

Powdery mold is a fungus that often grows on the leaves of lilac , especially in humid areas . It ’s normally more a pain than a menace , since it appears in the recent summertime and early fall , after most of the growing time of year . It can be ensure with applications of fungicides , but I urge turn those that are the least move . Plants recommended in this article have show only light source to temperate symptoms of foliation diseases . However , internet site and climate also sham the likelihood of infection .

leafage - roll gangrene , another foliar disease , is patently triggered by line pollution and may seem even hundreds of mile downwind of major cities . As with mold , symptoms usually appear late in summertime and in fall . The leaf margins often fail and turn brown and each leaf ringlet upward . symptom can be so unsightly that it may look like the plant will die . Fortunately , lilacs have done most of their grow by then and newfangled spring leafage are usually healthy . Again , cultivar oppose with vary academic degree of wrong , so attend for those that admit their beauty all season .

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