Why Lilacs May Fail to Bloom 
We are asked a number of times during the course of the year, 
“Why do my Lilacs fail to bloom?” 
It is impossible to answer this question satisfactorily by letter. 
There are a number of reasons why Lilacs fail to bloom. We 
cannot tell which special reason is applicable in each individual 
case. We are giving a number of causes in this catalog and leaving 
you to decide which of these fit your individual problem. 
We have no difficulty here at the nursery. Our plants are loaded 
with flowers.each year and if your plants are not giving satisfactory 
bloom, some one of the following causes must be responsible. 
1. Your plants may not have been handled carefully enough when you made your 
planting. The roots may have been exposed to the air and some of the vitality of 
the plant weakened. A bundle of Lilacs comes to you and this bundle is often 
opened up and the plants separated and looked over. Then they are laid out in 
the sun or shade while the holes for them are dug and the planting goes on. The 
plants grow but they received a setback from this exposure of the roots and it 
often takes two or three years to overcome this mistreatment. 
2. It may be the roots were not spread out carefully and soil packed tightly 
about them at planting time. The roots may have become jammed in a cramped 
and twisted mass in the hole, and growth stunted. In filling in the hole dry dirt 
may have been pulled in over the roots and so reduced the vitality of the plant 
as to check its right growth for several years. 
3. The young plant may be planted so close to trees or larger shrubs as to rob 
it of much of its vitality. 
4. It may be in too much shade or in dry gravelly soil. Lilacs like a rich heavy 
soil but not a wet acid soil. 
5. It may be your plants are making altogether too much growth and that such 
growth needs checking. Or they may have formed a great mass of heavy branches 
from the ground with a tremendous branchy top growth and have reached a point 
where they have stopped going forward and produce no bloom. If your plants are 
making a very rapid growth, sending out long new shoots with no bloom, go 
through your plants about the middle of June and trim out about one-half of the 
new growth back to the old wood. This will have a tendency to cause blooming 
buds to set on the balance of the new growth for the next year. If your bushes 
have a great many branches from the ground and many short top branches go 
through your plants in March in the north or earlier in the South (before the sap 
starts) and cut out about one-half of the old branches to the ground. This will 
cause a new growth which no doubt will bring the plant into heavy blooming. 
Now any of the foregoing causes might be the reason your Lilacs are not bloom- 
ing. You are in a position to analyze your difficulty much better than we. We 
have no further information to offer. 
INSIST ON OWN-ROOT LILACS 
In placing your order for Lilacs, you will naturally compare prices. 
Do not confuse the prices of Lilacs grafted or budded on California Privet with 
the price of own-root Lilacs. 
It is the Own-Root on a French Lilac that makes it cost more. 
~ Our French Lilacs are on their own root 

LILACS in Small Sizes 

Peonies in The South 
We are often asked if Peonies will grow 
in the South. One of our good customers 
who buys most excellent varieties from us 
‘wrote to us as follows: 
North Little Rock, Ark., 
May 2nd, 1949. 
Since Peonies are supposed to be a North- 
ern plant I thought you might be interested 
in how they grow down in Central Arkan- 
sas. Our winters are seldom colder than 6 
or 8 degrees above zero. We have about 
fifty Peonies and about forty of them were 
bought from you and today we are having 
a great number of callers to see our flowers 
in bloom. They really are lovely and I be- 
lieve the single ones do better here than the 
doubles, but our dowble ones are very beau- 
tiful. I am sending you a color picture we 
made last year. They are nicer this year 
than last but we have not made any pictures 
of them yet this year. I have found your 
plants very superior to any others in my 
collection. They do well in this locality if 
planted very shallow just barely covering 
the roots. You may keep this picture and use as you like. 
MRS. C. V. McCAUL. 
The color picture that Mrs. McCaul sent us was beautiful and from 
the looks of her plants and the amount of bloom that was on them, 
we think she is succeeding as well as we. Our white single, Krinkled 
White, was very much in evidence. See pages 16, 17, and 18, for good 
varieties for the deep South. 
More About 
New Flowering Crabs 
MORDEN No. 27. We mentioned this new Crab else- 
where in our book, but we want to call your attention to 
this one again. Of all the Flowering Crabs that we are 
trying out at the present time, we find that Morden 
No. 27 is a Crab of outstanding beauty and of great 
promise. Standing in the nursery row two-year-old trees 
running 4 to 5 feet high were often literally covered 
with bloom. We occasionally found little trees not over 
two feet high a mass of bloom from top to bottom. This 
tree is not so straight growing as some but it forms a 
additional copy. By this time we had finished grading our Lilacs we are spreading, rounded top that will eventually grow into a 
able to offer this spring. We have a limited number of most excellent magnificent tree of medium height. The color is about 
kinds in a strong 18 to 24 inch grade. These small plants will give as even a shade of medium pink as can be desired, with 
Just before our catalog went to press we found we had to supply 
excellent results and should give bloom 2 years after planting. We are 
offering these varieties in two separate collections. the magenta shades practically eliminated. 
. GENEVA. This new Canadian Crab is not only beautiful 
Charles Joly Collection when in bloom, but it produces a fruit 11 to 134 inches 
Chas. Joly. A fine double red. in diameter. The fruit is not only beautiful in itself as it 
De Saussure. A double wine-red with touches of white on petals. hangs from the tree, but it is fine to eat from the hand 
Macrostachya. A fine light pink single. and it makes wonderful sauce, jelly and jam. The bloom 
Ruhm Von Horstenstein. A single light red-purple. is pink. The fruit is a brilliant rich all-over red. The 
White Single. (Our choice, either Mt. Blanc or Vestale.) skin is red and the flesh is red to the core. 
Five lovely Own-Root French Lilacs, all labeled, in an 18 to 24 inch 
grade for $8.00, prepaid. 

we ° CRAB APPLES FOR AMERICA 
Paul Thirion Collection A great deal has been done in late years towards the improvement 
Paul Thirion. A very fine deep claret-rose double. of Flowering Crabs. Up to 1920 there were few varieties that would 
: F . b be classed as strictly ornamental. Now many beautiful kinds have been 
poonkaigne wets sos alu os) oy cteamny pink double developed. We are especially interested in the ones that are hardy 
Olivier de Serres. A clear uniform light blue double. enough for our northern climate. 
Victor Lemoine. A wonderful double blue-lavender. We are offering an 8l-page booklet on these beautiful ornamental 
Four extra fine varieties, strong 18 to 24 in. grade, for $12.00, postpaid. Crabs for $1.00, postpaid. 
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