Autumn is the best time to plant lilacs in all except the coldest sections of the country.
You may plant them in spring, but you must be sure to do so only in the earliest weeks of spring before the leaves have started to unfurl. If the plants have leafed out, there is less chance of complete success.
Another factor is the weather. In spring, the weather is usually erratic, and the soil is too moist to work. In autumn, garden chores are less pressing, and plants are dormant, so the chances of success are good.
Versatility of Lilacs
Lilacs are so adaptable. They lend themselves to such a variety of uses that no garden, large or small, need be without at least one lilac.
When you consider how they will enhance your terrace, fill the need for tall flowering shrubs on the border or elsewhere, and round out and complete your garden picture, you’ll want to order several immediately. Then it won’t be long before you’ll enjoy bushels of blossoms every May.
Use of Lilacs
Where and how can lilacs best be used? The sketches on the opposite page suggest several ways of using them.
You’ll find them most useful with tulips and other spring flowers, as border plants, specimens, or anchor plants by the house or terrace.
They make good hedge plants, too, and it is not necessary (as some people feel) to use the common lilac species for this purpose.
French hybrid lilacs make very good hedges, suckering less than the species and requiring little maintenance. If they are planted 4′ to 5′ feet apart, they will soon fill the spaces between.
They make a handsome informal hedge that won’t need shearing or clipping but can be kept in a form and good bloom by cutting blossoms for the house each spring. This kind of pruning is a pleasure.
True lilac enthusiasts will want to learn about the lilac species and grow as many as they have room for.
However, the French hybrids have a wider array of colors and blossom forms and seem most suited to use on small home grounds.
Of the species, Syringa villosa and its hybrid children, the Henryi types, bloom later than most lilacs. S. oblata dilatata is the earliest to flower and grows better in warm climates than other species.
Blooming time may be extended by growing both these species. They are large, broad shrubs and reach 8′ to 15′ feet at maturity.
History of Lilacs
The common lilac, Syringa vulgaris, is a native of Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece and was much esteemed in Turkey as long ago as the 16th century.
It is believed to have been introduced into Western Europe by Busbecq, the Viennese ambassador to Constantinople, who brought the first seeds of tulips out of Turkey.
During the four centuries since lilacs came into European gardens, they have been sent out worldwide to grow in many places.
We know them well in America, where they flourish in the vigorous climates of the northern tier of states and well up into Canada.
Although they don’t grow well in the lower South, they grow as far south as North Carolina. On the West Coast, they can be successfully grown from Puget Sound southward into the northern parts of California. Lilacs fit beautifully with all kinds of houses.
The prejudice some persons have toward placing them with modern houses has no real basis but probably stems from mental associations with the old-fashioned gardens of traditional homes in New England, gardens they graced from the time they were brought over from England by the early colonists.
Speaking of England, we know that the lilac was grown there at least as far back as 1597 when the plantsman Gerard, writing of it as the blown pipe tree, spoke of others calling it lillach or lilach.
Bacon wrote of it as the lelach, while other writers refer to it under various quaint names such as Mayflower, Prince’s feather, Roman willow, laylock, and even lily-oak. (Perhaps this latter corruption stems from oak being known in parts of old England as ock, and lilac became lil-ock.)
In France, lilacs have been grown and admired for centuries. It was not until the 1870s, however, that a pair of French nurserymen named Lemoine made serious efforts at hybridization, which resulted in many of the named varieties we still grow.
Although there was much hybridization done by Belgians and, later on, by American plantsmen, the name French hybrid has been used to denote superior varieties, often without regard to origin.
Certainly, in the opinion of many, the early French creations have not been improved upon but merely equaled.
Among the hybrids can be found large blossoms and an extensive color range, the result of many crossings, recrossings, and intelligent selection.
It may be that you will be a bit bewildered at first by the many colors, sizes, and forms of blossoms described in catalogs. But because of this wide choice, you can have exactly the right color and type of bloom to fit your garden.
Choosing and Caring For Lilacs
How does one choose a lilac? There are only a few factors involved.
First, one must decide whether to buy own-root plants or settle for those grafted or budded on other rootstocks. Briefly, here is what each offers: The own-root plant is grown from suckers or rooted cuttings.
These are grown in the nursery until the proper size for sale—usually from 2′ to 4′ feet high.
Because results are slower than with grafted plants, you’ll pay more for these than for grafted plants, but the results are more likely to approach 100 percent.
Grafted or budded plants achieve growth quickly and, therefore, can be sold for less. But plants grafted on ash or privet, the commonly used understocks, are likely to send up suckers from the rootstock.
When this occurs, the suckers must be removed. This requires constant watchfulness to prevent the desired lilac from being crowded by ash or privet.
If plants are grafted on common lilac rootstock, you may find your hybrid overtaken by the common lilac suckers.
These are most difficult to distinguish because their leaves resemble hybrids. Therefore, it is generally best never to buy plants grafted on common lilac understock.
It is possible to reduce the possibility of suckers from understock by planting at least 6 inches deeper than the plant grew in the nursery. When this is done, the lilac stem may form roots in time.
The disease may still enter the graft and cause the plant to weaken or die. When choosing between own-root or grafted lilacs, these factors must be balanced against the price and the possible replacement cost.
Wide Range of Lilac Colors
In selecting colors, you will have a wide choice—rosy lavender, the color of the classic old common lilac; deep, dark purple; blue, both pale and deep; pink, from lavender-pink to nearly a true pink and deep red-violet shades called magenta by many plantsmen.
(I cannot agree with this designation; true magenta has a harshness that is lacking in this soft color.)
Pure white, ivory white, and even a pale yellow round out the color range. Most colors appear in both double and single forms.
Individual florets, detailed in the little chart on page 33, range from narrow or broad four-petal types to multi-petaled types, according to the variety.
Size and Styles of Lilac Blossom Trusses
Blossom trusses may be as small and neat as in the common lilac. S. vulgaris, or huge and imposing, as encountered in some of the line hybrids.
Trusses range from about 6″ inches to over a foot long, with the multiple flower heads grouped so that they often measure a foot in width.
The single, narrow-petaled types frequently have a lacy, open effect, while the broad-petaled and double kinds usually give solid, thick masses of color.
Therefore, if you can manage only a few lilacs in your garden, you may achieve blossom-time contrast by planting hybrids of different textures and colors.
After blooming, the grouped plants give a solid mass of similar leaves, making a uniform background for other flowers.
Combination With Other Plants
Combinations of lilacs with other plants offer wide possibilities. Dogwood, crab-apple, hawthorn, and other small trees provide a pleasing contrast.
Flowering shrubs may be combined to give continuous seasonal bloom or to flower simultaneously with the lilacs. Forsythia, spirea, buddleia, and many others are good choices.
Rhododendrons (in eluding azaleas), mountain-laurel, and pieris may be grown wherever the soil is acidic enough but not so acidic that lilacs won’t grow well. Lilacs prefer neutral to slightly alkaline soil; pulverized limestone will achieve this.
Evergreens are another good foil for lilacs. For contrasting autumn foliage, interplant with lilacs, some other deciduous shrubs such as Euonymus alatus, Aronia, and the various members of the cornus and Viburnum genera.
Tulips are good companions, and planting the various types extends the bloom over a long period. In most regions, Iris, Phlox divaricata, candytuft, and aubrieta will usually bloom with lilacs.
For a list of good hybrid lilacs and suggested combinations with tulips, consult the April 1956 issue of Flower Grower, in which lilac specialist John C. Wister gives selections.
Preparing The Soil and Planting Lilacs
Before planting:
- Prepare the soil by digging at least a foot deep.
- Remove stones and other debris; mix fertilizer or rotted manure with soil and add humus if needed.
- Mix pulverized limestone in a cup or more if the soil is acidic.
- Dig a large hole—2’ feet is the minimum diameter, while 4’ to 5’ feet will give the lilac roots plenty of space to spread.
Place plants a little deeper than they grew in the nursery —2″ to 3″ inches for own-root plants and at least 6″ inches for grafted plants.
Spread roots carefully and fill them with soil. Firm well and soak with water when the hole is half filled; then soak again when the hole is filled.
Mulching and Care For Lilacs
Mulch plants shortly before freezing weather. If your location is cold and windy, build a wood frame about the plant and cover it with burlap. Remove the screen when growth starts in spring.
Spring-planted lilacs should also be mulched and kept moist through the first summer. No further fertilizer will be needed in the first year if the soil has been fertilized at planting time.
After that, fertilize generously. Use a couple of handfuls of a complete fertilizer around each plant every April.
Pruning and Rejuvenating Lilacs
Remove spent blossoms before seed pods form and prune lightly to keep plants in shape.
Overgrown plants may be gradually rejuvenated by cutting a few of the older branches all the way back to the ground each year.
44659 by John Burton Brimer