January, 1921 
T H 
N 
W E R 
LILACS 
Worthy Members of a Shrub Family which Most of Us are Accustomed to Think of Only in Terms 
of Lavender Flowered Bushes Beside an Old-Time Gate 
MRS. FRANCIS KING 
President of the J! Oman's National Farm and Garden Association 
O FTEN I wonder whether names of places 
and of things speak to others as they do 
to me. Meaningless or poor names seem al¬ 
most an affront, while beautiful or significant 
names start trains of thought leading in singu¬ 
larly pleasant directions. The names of Pull¬ 
man cars are a curious study. Who named 
them? Why are so many of these names fool¬ 
ish, almost to the point of imbecility?—almost 
as if letters had been shaken together in a 
box and drawn at random to constitute a word. 
But there are exceptions, and one is the 
name of a car in which 1 lately traveled in 
Indiana, with Middlebush on its doors. 
“ ‘Middlebush,’ ” said I on seeing it. “Here 
is something to think of’"—landscape planting 
flashed into the mind on sight. The bush 
which may connect the taller and the lower 
shrubs in some planting small or large; the 
bush which might bloom in mid-season. 
The Middlebush of our Michigan spring is 
undoubtedly the lilac or syringa. Early shrubs 
have lost their blossoms; the shadbush, the 
wild plum, Spirea arguta, forsythias are long 
since green again after their white and gold 
of earliest spring; and yet the great tribe of 
the mock oranges, the Philadelphus, is still to 
hang its whitening wreaths, still to breathe out 
upon the airs of evening that unmatched fra¬ 
grance. Hydrangea arborescens will follow 
these; then mid-June, and the procession of 
most of the familiar flowering shrubs is over. 
Species and Varieties 
Let us, translating Middlebush into lilac, 
consider one of the most fascinating of all sub¬ 
jects, the lilac in some of its species and va¬ 
rieties. I bring to this a mind over-enthusi¬ 
astic perhaps, for in a modest way I am 
collecting. The first 
blooming of my young 
trees occurred last spring. 
The trees themselves 
were set out two years 
ago this last autumn, 
and last spring all but 
four or five of sixty va¬ 
rieties showed some 
flowers, while many of 
the little three-foot things 
were in themselves bou¬ 
quets of loveliest color. 
There is for me only 
one way in which ade¬ 
quately to set down my 
impressions of a particu¬ 
lar flower or plant; that 
is with that flower or 
plant before me. In May 
I rarely walk about even 
our small place without 
the pencil and the memo¬ 
randum block; and the 
notes which follow were 
made in the very pres¬ 
ence of the lovely things 
themselves. If these com¬ 
ments seem extravagant, 
the excuse is the over¬ 
whelming beauty of the 
flowers, and that excite¬ 
ment which the gardener always feels when 
confronted for the first time with somethin" 
O 
as fine as it is new to him. Let me name some 
few of these lilacs, and add a word or two 
concerning each. For better descriptions I 
would send you to what Professor Sargent, 
Mr. Wilson, Mr. Iiavemeyer, Mr. Dunbar and 
Mr. Barry have written upon these flowers. 
I have not compared my notes with theirs nor 
did I consult theirs before making these, as I 
wished to be quite unprejudiced in my com¬ 
ments. 
The First to Bloom 
The earliest of all to bloom was Syringa 
Giraldi; delicate pinkish—very open panicle, 
graceful and free flowering. Marechal Lannes 
carried immense bluish-mauve flowerets, the 
panicle not very large but most effective for the 
size and color of its flowerets; exceedingly 
handsome. Mme. Antoine Buchner is a very 
distinct flower; buds of a faded pink, flowers 
of pinkish-white, slightly double. The flower 
clusters here were rather open and branching 
—this is a lilac of great slenderness and ele¬ 
gance. 
Pasteur has superb blooms of rich reddish 
purple. Its thyrses are tall and open, with 
large single flowerets. Ccerulea superba lias 
small but full clusters, rather bluish in tone. 
This variety is particularly free-flowering and 
lias loose branches, a great beauty. The bloom 
of Danton is of a very fine, clear, deep, red- 
purple, with a large floweret. President Fal- 
lieres is one of the loveliest; a charming semi¬ 
double pinkish bloom. Loose clusters of 
flowers came in tremendous numbers upon this 
3' specimen the first year after planting. 
Claude Bernard, with its palest lavender-pink 
flowers, is also very free-blooming. President 
Poincare has enchanting bluish flowers, double 
with reddish-purple buds, buds and flowers 
an interesting contrast in color. Vestale is 
marked by many spikes of single white bloom 
on terminal branchlets. There is a special 
charm for me in Rene Jarry-Desloges, whose 
palest bluish-lavender flower, double, has a 
delicacy all its own. Thunberg is lovely be¬ 
cause of its deep red buds all the way up the 
thyrsus of pink-lavender bloom. This gives 
a remarkable richness to the clustering flowers 
which appear in four steeples, as one might 
say, to each panicle. 
Syringa Diderot, though moved in autumn, 
has borne a cluster of flowers at every terminal 
point; in its first time of blooming, however, 
the flowers were not remarkable, reminding 
one only of the common lilac. Lamartine had 
a faint blooming—so did Miss Ellen Willmott 
-—enough to show that here is a treasure in 
white lilacs. Small double flowerets appeared 
on this lilac last year, greenish or creamy, and 
very round buds. Mirabeau also gave one 
breath in flowers and expired; but I was too 
late in examining this to describe it. 
Other Distinctive Sorts 
Syringa Milton’s flowers are of a dull rich 
lavender; a small floweret but very finfe in 
color. Marechal Lannes is very double, and 
of a good bluish-lavender. The fine loose and 
twisting petals of each floweret give a beauti¬ 
ful effect to the cluster of bloom—an effect of 
softness not always present in lilacs. Pasteur’s 
distinguished habit of bloom sets it apart. The 
tall upright thyrses of mauve flowers are set 
in sprays of large dark green leaves. The 
play of light and shade upon the mauve and 
green is one of those spe¬ 
cial spring delights upon 
which the possessor of 
this lilac may almost 
surely count. 
Cavour has the most 
unbelievable number of 
seven pinnacles of 
flowers to each thyrsus, 
—large flowerets at that 
—in each cluster. And 
for the brilliance of this 
lilac in sun I have no 
adequate words. As for 
the species lilacs, S. 
pubescens, which when 
grown is like a tree of 
pale heliotrope, with a 
delicate fragrance unlike 
any lilac ever known; S. 
inllosa, with its loose pale 
pink flowers (never shall 
I forget my first sight of 
this, cut with the pale 
pearly Iris Florentina or 
iris Storm King); and 
S. macrostachya, one of 
the most enchanting of 
all, very pinkish — one 
has to see these in order 
to realize their beauty. 
(Continued on page 56) 
At Highland Park, Rochester, are lilac plantings whose variety of flower form and color 
gives one a new conception of the decorative possibilities of these shrubs. A carefully 
selected list would develop into a delightful and unusual shrubbery border 
