10 
House & Garden 
Its compara- 
lively low 
growth — about 
5' — fits the 
Persian lilac 
for the front of 
the group 
Let the lilac 
planting be a 
group, a strong 
feature in the 
landscapin g 
scheme 
An essential to good effects with lilacs is mass 
planting, especially when the grouping is con¬ 
fined to one variety 
is the confining of a 
group to one vari¬ 
ety. Lilac mixtures 
do not impress the 
eye; masses of one 
kind alone are neces¬ 
sary, if the most that 
this shrub has to of¬ 
fer in the landscape 
is to be r e a 1 i z e d. 
Hence, in order to 
enjoy a long season 
of bloom, one seems 
to be bound to have 
considerable space 
to give over to lilacs; 
yet this necessity is 
modified somewhat 
by the fact that it is 
possible to use sev- 
e r a 1 varieties in a 
mass if they are not 
actually inter¬ 
mingled. One each 
of several kinds planted together is worse 
than none; but small groups of from three 
to seven each, of several kinds, planted to 
form an unbroken mass, will give the de¬ 
sired extension to the season of bloom and a 
happy effect as well. 
The Earliest Bloomers 
Earliest of all to blossom is a Chinese 
species, distinguished also by being the only 
lilac whose foliage turns to a fine color in 
the fall. This is Syringa oblata, a native of 
northern China, consequently very hardy 
and equal to any climatic vagaries which we 
have here. In this connection, however, I 
think it well to call attention to the fact that 
there are seldom found in the warm sections 
of the country lilac specimens as fine as 
New England and the northern States show. 
It would seem, therefore, that unless one of 
the tenderer species is chosen, the lilac pre¬ 
fers a rigorous climate, with good old-fash- 
{Continued on page 70) 
Early in June 
comes S. vil- 
losa, the one 
really tender 
variety on our 
lilac list 
I am moved to start 
at the beginning, just 
as if lilacs were a 
brand new find. 
Associated as they 
are with the earliest 
days of our fore¬ 
fathers, it would 
seem that their orig¬ 
inal home must have 
been England, if 
they were not native 
here. Yet this is not 
the case; only in 
southern Europe, in 
■ China, in Persia and 
Japan do lilacs grow 
wild—save as they 
have escaped from 
old dooryards here 
and taken to the 
road. The oldest in 
cultivation probably 
is the lilac of south¬ 
ern Europe {Syringa vulgaris) and tliis is 
still the best, all things considered. 
For lilacs—I shall not call them syringas 
except as I must use the name technically— 
are not improved by doubling. And though 
new varieties of great beauty and merit have 
been developed by hybridizing, after all is 
said and done, none is sweeter than the old 
common purple and common white. The 
most that we want more than their sturdy 
beauty and ravishing fragrance is a longer 
period of it, lasting all summer! 
Succession Bloom and Masses 
The nearest approach to this is of course 
attained by the development of varieties 
that bloom at different times, and so keep 
up a succession; and this has been so suc¬ 
cessfully done that one may now carry “lilac 
time” a third of the way through summer 
at least, by proper selection. 
One of the essentials of good effects, 
however, in the use of this species en masse, 
