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TABLE 1 



COMMON LILAC CULTIVARS 



'Rochester' 



'Maiden's B/«s/i' 

 'Editfi Cave//' 



Mwe Adtonie Buc/ier' 



'Kqincouri BeaMti/' 



Mrs. WatsoM ^^ebb' _ 



Marechal Lannes' 



'Paul Tfiirion' 



Wedgewood Blue' 



'Sensation' 



'Olivier de Serres' 

 'Adelaide Dunbar' 



ABOVE: Lilacs, flower print by Peirre foseph 

 Redoute, celebrated flower painter of France, 

 1759-1840. 



^he 



mean? 



Dr. Owen M. Rozers 



APRIL /MAY 1994 



'here are lilacs and then there are lilacs. Ask anyone to de- 

 scribe a lilac and the answer would be something like. "It's the 

 bush down by the barn" or "its the flower we enjoy around Me- 

 morial Day." I won't argue with either of those descriptions. The 

 Common Lilac Seringa vulgaris has been around in New England for 

 a long time and is in bloom just before or just after Memorial 

 Day, depending on where you live. The International Lilac Society 

 lists nearly 1500 cultivars of Sgr'inqa vulgaris, so there can be no 

 question about its importance, i do, however, question the list 

 carried by many nurseries. Having plants listed only by color 

 (such as purple, white and pink) does not do much as a boost for 

 the flower that everyone knows. Even if the list includes named 

 cultivars, they are usually the "French Hybrids" (i.e., the results 

 of crosses made in France in the late 1800's). I'd like to see nurs- 

 eries and other places that sell lilacs at least try some of the 

 newer cultivars. How about focusing on ones developed in this 

 country after 1900? We could call them the "American Hybrids". A 

 fair selection of these cultivars is available in New Hampshire 

 from at least some of the big wholesalers and, I bet, others would 

 carry them if you asked. A very short list is included as Table 1. 



Still, even if a person had all the S. vulgaris cultivars, they 

 would still only have ten days of bloom. What about lilacs that 

 bloom at other times? Plenty of them are available. How about 

 some that bloom early, such as the species Syringa oblata that 

 blooms ten days earlier than S. vulgaris! Or the hybrid group 

 listed as S. x fiyacinlhiflora, with a long list of cultivars that bloom 

 five days eadier than S. vulgaris? Then, after Memorial Day, there 

 is a group (including S. x chinensis, S. x persica and S. meyeri) that 

 blooms five days later. This is followed by S. palula Miss Kim' 

 (introduced from the University of New Hampshire) ten days after 

 the Common Lilac and S. x josiflexa cultivars (see Table 2) in an 

 overiapping series that, with the cultivar 'Jesse Hepler', extend li- 

 lac bloom 15 to 20 days after the Common Lilac. The bloom pe- 

 riod finally reaches its end with the Tree Lilac {Syringa reticulata) 

 that blossoms a month after the S. vulgaris. I will admit that there 

 are a few species (S. meyeri is one) that will have a few flowers in 

 mid-August, but since those are at the expense of the following 

 year's spring bloom, we won't add them to the bloom sequence 

 list. 



These other species and cultivars are also useful in the land- 

 scape because they add a considerable variation in plant size 

 and shape, color, disease resistance, and fall foliage color. Syringa 

 X persica, at one extreme, is small and delicate while S. x josiflexa 

 'Agnes Smith' is big and bold. Syringa patula 'Miss Kim' is slow 

 growing and globular while S. reticulata, the Tree Lilac, is a tree 

 growing to 30-40 feet with flowers that look quite different from 

 the regular lilac flower. 



One of the reasons given for not trying some of the new lilacs 

 is MILDEW. I'll admit that mildew is one of the most visible 

 problems on lilacs, for in the late summer, its white powdery film 



15 



