Last updated on December 2nd, 2011
LILACS recall the sweetness of an “old” garden. I inherited two mature specimens with this Victorian house eight years ago: white ‘Avalanche’ towers over a walkway near the front door, and purple ‘Albert Holden,’ a French hybrid, resides in splendor on the hill above the rose garden. You can select varieties to bloom from April into late June, but the later ones have a smell, not a scent. Here, May is lilac time, when the varieties of nostalgic fragrance and beauty are in bloom.
Some gardeners complain that lilacs bloom well only every other year. This has not been my experience, but I take care to water them in times of drought, and also to feed them heavily. Unlike most of my other shrubs, lilacs want sweet, not acid soil. The best plan is to work lime into the soil at planting time, and in generally acidic soils to top-dress with lime in early spring. I also spread wood ashes from my fireplace around the shrubs in winter, to provide potash. Potash promotes strong root growth.
A springtime pruning keeps the large growers in check, and also provides lovely scented bouquets for the house. As I write this, sprays of lilacs adorn the table in my entrance hall, the piano in the Music Room, and the mantel in my bedroom. To promote freshness, cut the branches early in the morning, smash the ends with a hammer, and immediately place them in water. White lilacs seem to hold up better in a vase, but the purple and blues are delightful too, and more strongly-scented, at least to my nose.
Although I’m partial to traditional lilacs with their huge forms and large flowers, dwarf varieties are not without merit. When I designed the Serpentine Garden, Randy Hinz at Sycamore Garden Center in Columbiaville, NY, suggested a row of Syringa palibin ‘Miss Kim’ for the garden’s upper terrace. This dwarf Korean lilac grows to a height and spread of only five feet, and will – when I get around to it — provide an engaging background for foxglove and other old-fashioned perennials.
Dwarf Syringa ‘Miss Kim’
To me, lilacs are the cat’s meow. Are you a lilac-lover, too? Let me know, in the comments section below. (photos: R.H. Blackburn)
Related Posts:
What To Do In May
Here Comes the Bridal Wreath (Spirea vanhouttei)
Mock Orange for Flowers & Fragrance
Wood Ashes in the Garden
Marion says
Lilacs are the cat’s meow and the bees’ knees, the antidote to the recession and every gardener’s dream come true. Thank you so much for the reminder and the ode to their joy. I stop and smell them everywhere I go, making walking the dog these days a very long and thoroughly enjoyable task. The site gets more gorgeous all the time. Wonderful.
Judy says
When my father was a boy he and his sister used to sell lilacs at the train station in Europe for pocket money. They lived in the city but had a lilac bush in their courtyard. Each time I see lilacs I think of that — so I’m going to buy some lilacs today! Thanks for the inspiration!
Jed Swift says
Hi Kevin
Lilacs are what I most love about spring-the scent in the air and the gorgeous colors in the yard. I will have to check on our lilacs today to see where they are at. We had them trimmed back last year as it had been several years and they were everywhere.
Blessings, Jed
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Marion: I couldn’t agree more! The scent of lilac is surely a cure-all!
Judy – Great story! Lilacs are known to have a “memory scent”: they make us recall people/places/events from our youths.
Jed: Do report back on the condition of your lilacs.
georges says
Lilacs make mid May my favorite time of year. What great photos of lilacs!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Welcome, Georges. Thanks for the comment. Hope to see you again…there are many more plants to discuss!
Joan says
I live in the western North Carolina mountains. While my back was turned, my pale purple-blooming lilacs sent a dazzling number of pencil shoots straight up. How can I tame this unruly and beloved shrub? Can you recommend strong, manly pruning shears that don’teventually poop out? I so much enjoy this site, Kevin.
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
HI, Joan – I’m glad you like the site. Those pencil shoots are suckers, or new plants. They will in time interfer with bloom of the parent lilac. One plan is to dig the suckers out with roots attached,and grow them on elsewhere for new lilac shrubs. Or, just prune them off. Manly shears? Buy Felco Pruners, just as the pros do. The blades stay sharp for years.
Allison says
So glad you love lilacs as much as I do, Kevin! They are my favorite flower, and I can't imagine the month of May without them.
Leslie says
I have a sole lilac bush(if you can call it that) that produces a single bloom a year. It was planted by the original owner of my house and probably got more back then. Can I rescue this plant?
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Leslie – Need more info: is it a large bush (shrub)?
Leslie says
It may have started as a shrub, but a heavy overgrowth of trees appears to have forced it to become a leggy lilac tree in it's pursuit of the sun.
Angela Willis says
My lilac blooms seem rather small this year… any ideas?