^Jhe Jlilac £ea&an oJ t 1940 
T 
JLHE MATERIAL for this catalog went to the 
printer just before our Lilacs began to bloom. The 
season is now past and we have just learned we needed 
an extra page of material for our book. This gives us 
an opportunity to tell you about the wonderful bloom' 
ing season of our Lilacs that is just past. 
During this season we had many visitors from dif- 
ferent sections of the country. All were amazed at the 
amount of bloom we had on our small as well as large 
plants. Some came with cameras and took pictures in 
color so they could enjoy the season all over again 
during the winter months. All came with the idea of 
seeing beautiful flowers, but we believe every visitor 
went away feeling he had never seen a lovelier sight. 
Many stated they didn’t realize such lovely Lilacs with 
their huge panicles could be grown. 
We list no poor varieties but it would be impossible 
to name our best one. But we can select from our 
large list twenty-five that attracted special attention. 
And for our first one we must name Buffon, an 
early hybrid that delights all who see it. This early 
clear pink always shows half opened florets of a deeper 
shade. It is the mingling of these two shades of pink 
that makes this variety so striking. Then it is the 
earliest of all the Lilacs that we are now growing. 
Among our good blue Lilacs, Olivier de Serres, Pres- 
ident Lincoln, De Caisne, De Minbel, and Rene Jarry- 
Desloges are outstanding. Olivier de Serres with its 
full double florets, its immense panicles that easily 
measure 13 inches in length, is a variety that calls you 
to the garden many times during the course of the day. 
It is a real attraction in our fields each year; a Lilac 
one cannot forget. Rene Jarry-Desloges is somewhat 
darker in coloring than Olivier de Serres, panicles not 
quite so large, somewhat more compact, a trifle later 
in its season of bloom, and neither of these two good 
double Lilacs can take the place of the other. 
De Caisne, De Miribel, and President Lincoln are all 
most excellent single blues. One of our visitors re' 
marked that President Lincoln was truly blue. It is 
the earliest of the three. De Caisne with long slender 
panicles comes into bloom just after President Lincoln. 
De Miribel is the latest of all and has more of the deep 
blue-violet coloring than the other two. To prolong 
the Lilac season you need De Miribel. 
For a wonderful combination of Lilacs whose florets 
are single, Congo for a red, De Caisne for a blue, 
Mine. Florent Stepman for a white, and Buffon for a 
pink cannot be surpassed. 
The two great double whites are Miss Ellen Will- 
mott and Edith Cavell. We can make no choice be¬ 
tween these two. 
Mme. Florent Stepman, Vestale, Mont Blanc, and 
Jan Van Tol are the great white singles. Jan Van Tol 
with us has larger florets than the other three, but we 
find it does not come equally good every year. This 
season Mme. Florent Stepman was the favorite. 
Katharine Havemeyer, Hippolyte Maringer, Henri 
Martin, Victor Lemoine, Reaumur, Leon Gambetta, 
President Poincaire, Marlyensis, Mme. Antoine Buch¬ 
ner, are all masterpieces. Not a variety we have men¬ 
tioned will disappoint a purchaser. 
Among the Lilacs classified as red or red-purples, 
Congo, Edmond About, J. de Messemaker, Stadtgart- 
ner Rothpletz, Paul Thirion, Monge, and Capitaine 
Baltet were conspicuous in our fields this season. 
Congo, the early red single, cannot be surpassed by 
any when this variety is seen at its best. Many people 
come to our nursery to order their Lilacs while they 
can see them in bloom and Congo is a variety that is 
included in almost every order. Charles Joly and 
Stadtgartner Rothpletz are two fine double varieties 
that come on just as Congo is passing. 
As visitors pass down our long rows of Lilacs, J. de 
Messemaker, Monge, and Paul Thirion received equal 
admiration. When we see Monge in the field, we 
question if it is not the best but we pass onto J. de 
Messemaker with striking red-purple panicles and we 
feel as if we must change our mind about Monge. 
We had just one large bush of Lucie Baltet. This 
lovely coral-pink is perhaps the most noticeable of all 
our Lilacs due to its distinct coloring. Before the 
blooming season was over, we sold all of our available 
stock for this season and began to book orders for 
fall 1941. We hope by then we can supply the de¬ 
mand as we are building up our stock as rapidly as 
possible. Lucie Baltet in the Lilac field is as outstand¬ 
ing as is Walter Faxon in the Peony field. We cannot 
say it is the best but it is certainly very distinct. 
Another fine variety is Gilbert, a beautiful bluish 
lavender, remarkable for both size and beauty. Each 
panicle really is made up of five distinct smaller ones. 
The compound panicle measures a foot in length and 
a foot in diameter. We have no stock to offer of this 
variety but may be able to list it within a short time. 
For the past ten or twelve years we have been giv¬ 
ing more or less time to the bringing out of new Lilacs 
of our own. For the past six years we have had some 
five thousand seedlings under test, and this season, 
for the first time, we realized we were making real 
progress. We believe that we have five or six selec¬ 
tions that will be real additions to the list of named 
Lilacs. We have had almost a complete list of the 
world’s best Lilacs right here in our own collection to 
compare our own seedlings with and we have been 
very conservative in our selections. 
To add one real worth-while new Lilac to the 
world’s present list, we consider a real accomplish¬ 
ment. We firmly believe we have done this. We have 
a great red coming on, an intense red so brilliant that 
it instantly arrests the attention from a long distance. 
It has large beautifully formed, graceful, rather open 
panicles held nicely erect, with individual florets and 
petals of the greatest size. The flower is an intense red 
as it opens, stays a rich red for at least five days, turns 
gradually to a rich violet-blue and then fades to a 
pleasant light purple. We feel that this Lilac is as good 
as any in our collection. We have named it for the 
originator, Archie M. Brand. It will be some years 
before any of these new Lilacs are offered for sale. 
A. B. MORSE COMPANY. HORTICULTURAL PRINTERS. ST. JOSEPH. MICH. 
