Seven Weeks of Lilac Bloom— By John Dunbar &l 



THE NEW VARIETIES THAT HAVE BIGGER CLUSTERS, MORE OF THEM AND LARGER INDIVIDUAL FLOWERS 

 — WHY THEY MUST BE GRAFTED AND HOW TO AVOID THE SUCKER NUISANCE — SPECIES THAT WILL 

 EXTEND THE SEASON TO SEVEN WEEKS — THE VAST IMPROVEMENT THAT YEARLY PRUNING MAKES 



Photographs by Webster & Albee, and by G. W. Kellogg 



EVEN when neglected the lilac is a pic- 

 turesque and attractive bush. If pruned 

 intelligently, it is the showiest of all spring 

 flowering shrubs. It is absolutely hardy, 

 makes a handsome bush when not in flower, 

 bears its huge clusters gracefully and the 

 flowers are deliriously fragrant. 



It never becomes vulgarized by mere 

 abundance. It is not particular or capricious 

 about soil. It seems to do remarkably well 

 in light, well-drained soil and equally well 

 in a heavy one. The most vigorous and 

 healthy lilacs I have seen are around Toronto 

 and vicinity, where the soil is a heavy stiff 

 clay. As a screen plant, in a place where 

 it can sucker freely it is one of the best. How 

 often do we see it overtopping the chicken- 

 house or filling in some odd corner which 

 otherwise would look untidy or obtrusive. 



PRUNING IN AND OUT OF BLOOM 



The lilac needs pruning every year if 

 handsome bushes covered with flowers are 

 wanted in place of tall, leggy objects with the 



flowers all at the top. All flower clusters 

 should be promptly cut off as soon as the 

 plants have ceased blooming, and the mul- 

 titude of suckers that invariably springs from 

 the base of the common lilac should be 

 repeatedly removed throughout the season. 

 The lilac flowers on the wood of the past 

 season's growth, and must therefore not be 

 cut back in the winter. Thinning, may 

 however, be done. I always carefully ex- 

 amine the bushes in the winter-time, and cut 

 away the weak growths and crowded or 

 superfluous branches, but I do not cut back, 

 as the flowers for the season would thereby 

 be lost. Lilac bushes that have been neg- 

 lected for a considerable time will be very 

 tall and naked at the base, and will also be 

 a dense mass of shoots. In such cases it is 

 best to cut back in the winter-time, say 

 within three or four feet of the base, to recover 

 control of the bush and put it in proper 

 shape. The flowers for the season will be 

 lost, but the bushes will break away freely, 

 and form dense, handsome bushes, and, 



321. The new double lilacs are vastly superior to the plain old-fashioned double one. This variety is 

 Alphonse Lavalle, flowers violet-blue, borne in long, erect clusters, the individual flowers star shaped. By 

 pruning just after flowering, bushes can be had with flowers to the ground, instead of all at the top. Can 

 be trained in tree form also. Not all double lilacs are heavy and ungraceful, and all last longer than singles 



232 



322. Lilacs used for mass planting. Almost as 

 well Known as the common lilac is (he Chinese 

 (Syringa Chinensis) in the foreground. It has larger, 

 longer and looser flower masses than the common 

 lilac and blooms at the same time 



other conditions being equal, they will 

 flower so freely the following season and have 

 such perfect shape that the loss of the one 

 season will be forgotten. 



Moderate pruning and disbudding of 

 lilacs can be done just after the blooming 

 season. Thin out shoots where they appear 

 to be congested, and rub against each other, 

 and shorten back any straggling shoots that 

 spoil the symmetry of the bushes. It is 

 well to be cautious about summer pruning 

 in general. When it is overdone, as it is apt 

 to be in the hands of the inexperienced, its 

 effect will be enervating to the subjects so 

 drastically treated. 



The common lilac and its varieties, and 

 the Chinese and Persian lilacs, are liable to 

 be attacked by scale insects; but spraying 

 with a twenty per cent, kerosene emulsion, 

 or crude petroleum applied by a spray 

 pump during March will destroy them. 

 In the summer-time when the young scale 

 insects are hatching out use a ten per cent. 

 strength of the kerosene emulsion. Be care- 

 ful not to spray branches too heavily, espe- 

 cially with the crude oil. It should not be 

 given so heavily as to run down the main 

 stem, as a concentration of oil at the base 

 of the plant is liable to injure the roots. 



WHEN TO PLANT 



Plant the common old-fashioned lilac and 

 its varieties in the fall; all the others may be 

 planted in either fall or spring. The com- 

 mon lilac is among the few quickest of 

 deciduous plants to respond to spring warmth 

 and expand its buds. Therefore, if it is 

 planted in spring the season's growth will 

 not be nearly as strong as that resulting from 

 fall planting. Of all the many lilacs which 

 are in our gardens and parks to-day the va- 

 rieties of the old common lilac (Syringa 



