THE GREEN THUMB 5) 
is not quite big enough.’ Most garden- 
ers can afford to plant only the very 
finest garden aristocrats. 
It was Ernest H. Wilson who said: 
“With boundless wealth in plant ma- 
terial at our command we may enjoy 
quality ..., and the best costs no 
more to grow than that of inferior 
merit. Granted it is more difficult to 
obtain but there is sport in hunting 
down and securing trophies. There is 
indeed real fun in this and the pleasure 
does not end there. . . . The size of a 
garden rules quantity but not quality. 
If in the garden there be room for one 
plant only then I would have this plant, 
the most beautiful that can flourish 
theretes oe (3) 
For the gardener who has room for 
only a few lilacs and the nurseryman 
who wishes to stock a limited number 
of varieties that will sell, the seven 
hundred named lilac varieties and 
species are bewildering. The Arnold 
Arboretum lilac collection contains 
nearly 500 varieties and species. The 
Highland Park, Rochester, New York, 
and the Morton Arboretum, Lisle, 
Illinois, collections have about 400 
each. 
In the past two decades many ex- 
perts have tried to guide the amateur 
through this trackless lilac forest by 
compiling lists of the best dozen or 
two. (9) Three books on lilacs have 
recently been published. (10) 
In 1942 the results of the excellent 
and authoritative national survey (un- 
der the chairmanship of John C. 
Wister) of all the 700 lilac varieties and 
species was published in “‘Lilacs for 
America.” (7) The consensus of opin- 
ion of nurserymen and_ collectors 
throughout America on general garden 
value of the variety and species was 
shown by using the numerical system: 
9-10 best; 7-8 very good; 4-6 good; 
0-3 poor. 
The Colorado survey (11) has fol- 
lowed the method of numerical rating 
used in the national survey. Colorado 
nurserymen and collectors were sent a 
list of the 100 varieties and species 
tentatively recommended in “‘Lilacs 
for America” (7) and were asked to rate 
them and also any others they had had 
experience with. 
Colorado plant zones vary from the 
Plains Zone (3500 to 6000 feet), the 
Foothill Zone (6000 to 8000 feet), the 
Montane Zone (8000 to 10,000 feet), 
the Subalpine Zone (10,000 to timber- 
line), and the Alpine Zone above tim- 
berline and up to 14,431 feet. With all 
these varied climates and lengths of 
growing season in Colorado a person 
who tries to summarize a Colorado 
survey might get alarmed by an emi- 
(8) Ernest H. Wilson, Idem. Prologue XIII-X VIII. 
(9) Richardson Wright, ‘‘Lilac Rex,’’ House & Garden, May 1937, Sec. 1, p. 47; John C. Wister: 
‘Four Seasons in the Garden’”’ (1936) p. 118; same author ‘“‘The Lilac Line-up for Gardens 
Great and Small,’’ House & Garden, Mar. 1934, 65:26; Leonard Barron, ‘‘Mr. Havemeyer’s 
Lilacs,” Country Life, May, 1934, 66:66; Ernest H. Wilson, “‘Lilacs Wild and Otherwise,” 
House & Garden, May, 1929, 55:116; same author “Garden Aristocrats” (1926), Ch. “‘In 
‘Lilacdom’ ”’ 1:213; Alice Harding ‘‘Lilacs in My Garden” (1933); Montague Free, ‘‘Gar- 
dening,”’ p. 104 (1937). 
(10) Alice Harding, ‘Lilacs in My Garden,” Macmillan, 1933. John C. Wister, “Lilac Culture,” 
Orange-Judd, 1930, 1936. Susan Delano McKelvey, ““The Lilac,’’ Macmillan, 1928. 
