May 2009

© Janet Davis

 

Each spring, those of us who love lilacs can hardly wait for the heady perfume of these old-fashioned shrubs to waft through our gardens.  Daffodils, crocuses and the early tulips might have finished blooming weeks earlier, but fragrant lilac blossoms herald the arrival of the truly warm weather that beckons us outdoors.

 

First brought to North America with the earliest European immigrants, lilacs are a favourite, old-fashioned shrub which even novice gardeners enjoy growing for their dependability and ease of cultivation.     

 

Depending on the species and variety, lilacs bloom over an extended season of six or more weeks from early May to mid June in most parts of the country, with the common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) flowering about half-way through the season.   Lilacs can be either single- or double-flowered, and range in colour from dark purple to violet, magenta, blue, mauve, pink, white and that distinctive light lavender-purple hue known as “lilac” that lends the shrub its name. 

 

Of all the lilacs available, there is an outstanding group that should be on every gardener’s list.  These are the Hyacinthiflora lilacs, sometimes called the Early Flowering Hybrids.   Vigorous and easy to grow, they are exceptionally hardy to -35C (-31F) and reward us with sweetly-perfumed blossoms that open 1 to 2 weeks before the common lilac.  Hyacinthiflora lilacs grow to a more moderate height (2 - 4 metres) than common lilac. As a bonus, their foliage is highly resistant to the powdery mildew that can plague other lilacs and often turns shades of red, purple and bronze in autumn.  If they have a negative trait, it is that their early flowering can coincide with a late frost that may damage the blossoms.

 

Hyacinthiflora lilacs have a storied history, much of it created right here in Canada.  The first introduction was made in 1876 by the French plant breeder Victor Lemoine, using pollen from the early-flowering Korean lilac Syringa oblata ssp. dilatata to fertilize a double-flowered cultivar of common European lilac (Syringa vulgaris ‘Azurea Plena’).  The result was a double-flowered hybrid he called ‘Hyacinthiflora Plena’, meaning “double hyacinth-like flowers”.  In the decades that followed, the Lemoine family introduced several more Hyacinthiflora cultivars including lavender ‘Lamartine’, double ‘Vauban’ and pale-mauve ‘Turgot’. 

 

Beginning in the early 1930s, it was Canada’s turn.   Renowned rancher-turned-horticulturist Frank Skinner, working in ultra-cold Dropmore, Manitoba, used pollen from seedlings of Korean lilac he’d received from Dr. Charles Sargent at Harvard (the progeny of seed collected by the famous plant explorer Ernest Wilson), to develop cultivars that remain among the best Hyacinthiflora lilacs available today.  Skinner’s earliest introductions, made during the Depression years, include ‘Asessippi’, ‘Nokomis’, Evangeline, ‘Excel’, ‘Minnehaha’, ‘Pocahontas’ and ‘Churchill’.  In the 1950s and 60s, he introduced ‘Sister Justena’ (considered by some experts to be the finest white lilac), ‘Mount Baker’ and ‘Royal Purple’.  His final Hyacinthiflora introduction, the gorgeous ‘Maiden’s Blush’, often tops lists of favourite lilacs for its masses of perfumed pink blooms covering a compact (1.8 metre) rounded shrub.

 

In time, American breeders developed “low-chill” Hyacinthiflora lilacs such as ‘Lavender Lady’, ‘California Rose’ and ‘Esther Staley’ that do not require the same degree of winter dormancy as other lilacs to flower well in mild-climate regions.  And in 1988, famed Ohio lilac breeder and parish priest Reverend John Fiala named pink-budded ‘Blanche Sweet’ (one of 78 lilac cultivars he developed) for a silent film actress.   That was also the year Father Fiala published his classic book on lilacs, an invaluable reference that has just been revised and updated by Canada’s Freek Vrugtman, the International Lilac Registrar and Curator Emeritus of Ontario’s Royal Botanical Gardens.  Lilacs: A Gardener’s Encyclopedia will be released by Timber Press this summer.

 

Provided a few basic requirements are met (see sidebar), Hyacinthiflora lilacs are low-maintenance shrubs that will grow and flower profusely without much attention.  Because of their smaller stature, they’re perfect either as garden specimens or in a mixed border with other shrubs and perennials.  

 

Six Ways to Beautiful Lilac Blossoms:

 

 

 

 

 

 


A Scented Sampler of Hyacinthiflora Lilacs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adapted from an article that appeared in Canadian Gardening magazine

 

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