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