Anything Dr. Donald Wyman or Dr. John C. Wister wrote about lilacs is worth reading carefully, for few have had as much experience with the lilac as it grows in the Eastern half of this continent as these two men.
While differences in personal taste are evident in their preferences for varieties, any lilac that is highly rated by either is certain to be good. Yet, there are places on this continent where the varieties that they rate highly can scarcely be grown satisfactorily due to climatic conditions.
Unfortunately, I live in one of those parts of the country where our Winters are too severe for many of Lemoine’s best varieties and where they flower so seldom as to be scarcely worth growing.
Let us take a look at some of the varieties mentioned by Mr. Wister in his article on “Lilac Preferences” in June 1950, the number of Horticulture, and see what their bloom has been with me.
Some Good Whites
Vestale is a good, single white, with flowers about an inch across, the largest of the named, single, white varieties that have flowered at Dropmore.
Although I have grown it for about 20 years, last year was the first time I had seen it in bloom, and then, it only had a few spikes.
Jan Van Tol, as it grows with me, is a tall, rather slim shrub with flowers that are no better than Marie Le Gray and not nearly as freely produced.
Marie Le Gray is the best-named single white lilac that has flowered with me, but it suckers badly.
Double Whites
In double whites, both Edith Cavell and Miss Ellen Willmott do fairly well as a rule, though they sometimes do suffer from the severity of our Winters; in a favorable year like 1950, Edith Cavell is a fine plant.
Decaisne is the most reliable of the single-flowered, blue varieties here; I prefer Boule Azurce, but, as a rule, it just recovers from the effects of one severe Winter only to be cut down by another. Only once in 25 years have I had a good bush of it blooming.
President Grevy and Rene JarryDeSloges are two of the most reliable old varieties, as both are a little harder than Montaigne or Mme.
Antoine Buckner, though I prefer Montaigne. Lucie Baltet is very hardy and flowers freely as a small bush; in some seasons, it is a pleasing pink.
Prodigy, Ambassadeur, Marengo, Mare-dial Foch, Monge, Night, Priscilla, and Lamartine, among others, have all suffered so much from the severity of our Winters that I do not consider them worth growing.
These results have led me to conclude that though there may be far too many named varieties already for those parts of this continent where they can be grown well, there is ample room for new varieties that will be better suited for conditions such as we have here.
Among the newer hybrids of Syringa oblata, dilatata is a number that will compare favorably with the varieties already in commerce. Moreover, they can be depended on to flower freely year after year, even under adverse conditions.
Added to this are the facts that these new lilacs start flowering when rather small, very often have richly colored leaves, and do not sucker to the same extent as with many of the older varieties.
Three or four-old seedlings and two-year-old grafts are not unusual to flower freely, not more than 18” inches tall, and often have several 6 to 8-inch bloom spikes.
Spring of 1950
The Spring of 1950 was an exceptionally good one for lilacs at Dropmore, and I saw in bloom some of the standard named varieties for the first time.
President Grevy and Edith Cavell gave large crops of exceptionally good flowers. My own S. oblata dilatata hybrids also flowered with their usual freedom and allowed me to compare them with some of the good standard varieties.
One lot of four-year-old seedlings, ranging from two to five feet in height, gave a very high percentage of good types in the pale shades.
One pure, white single was equally as good as Vestale and much more floriferous, while another, with just the faintest tinge of blue, had large florets on an open upright spike.
New Hybrids
Among those raised in 1941, which have been flowering for several years, are several that are worth naming and propagating for general cultivation, especially in districts with as severe a climate as we have in northern Manitoba.
One double white has stiff, upright spikes of slightly smaller flowers than Edith Cavell, but it comes into bloom from 10 days to two weeks earlier.
This has now been named Gertrude Leslie, after the wife of the well-known superintendent of the Dominion Experimental Station at Morden.
Another, which is a little later in flowering, but still earlier than Vestale, has single white flowers with florets up to one-and-a-quarter inches across, the individual lobes half an inch wide.
I find it rather impossible to evaluate a new lilac on the strength of one year’s performance, and I feel that at least five years should elapse before a new variety is considered worthy of naming.
To be eligible for general acceptance, a lilac must have good flowers and produce them in quantity year after year. One is apt to get a little tired of a hush that only flowers about once in five years.
44659 by F. L. Skinner