The blooming lilacs in my garden are a joyful celebration of spring, but also remind me of “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” Walt Whitman’s beautiful 1865 elegy to Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated on April 14 of that year. The first stanza says it all:
When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
Whitman never mentions Lincoln’s name, but does allude to the passage of the assassinated president’s coffin as it traveled by train from Washington, D.C. to its final resting place in Springfield, Illinois. The image of lilacs speaks of spring, beauty and the persistence of memory. When I go to Central New York State in the summer, I see lilac bushes hugging the sides of the old Greek Revival farmhouses, in what used to be called dooryards. Often, the men or women who planted them are long gone from this world. The farmhouses are sometimes abandoned and collapsing in on themselves, but the fragrant shrubs endure.
Lilac–Syringa species and hybrids–like its relative and springtime companion, forsythia, appears nondescript for fifty weeks every year. While the shrubs have the benefit of attractive heart-shaped leaves, their full-time allure is still limited.
For about two weeks in mid spring, however, lilacs are glorious, combining exquisite flowers, gorgeous color—including blue, purple, blue-purple, pink, white and creamy yellow–and ravishing fragrance. It’s enough to make you want to stage a festival to celebrate them, which is exactly what they do in Rochester, New York, every year during the first week of May. Highland Park, a Frederick Law Olmsted-designed masterpiece, is home to Rochester’s formidable lilac collection, which draws thousands of visitors every year at lilac time.
Rochester is a long way from the mountains of southeastern Europe, where Syringa vulgaris, the common lilac, originated. It was probably introduced to northern and western Europe in the sixteenth century and it caught on. The species may not have the showy panicles of modern varieties and hybrids, but its alluring fragrance attracted admirers. Considering the array of foul smells that confronted the average European at the time, it’s no wonder that lilacs grew popular.
We in North America probably first imported lilacs during the colonial period. That great gardener, Thomas Jefferson, installed the shrubs at Shadwell, the plantation where he was born, and at Monticello. Clearly, he knew a good thing when he saw and smelled one.
Modern lilac breeding owes much to the Lemoine family of Nancy, France, who bred and sold plants from 1849 through 1960. Three generations of Lemoines were responsible for introducing over 200 cultivars, some of which of which are still obtainable. Victor Lemoine—1823-1911– the family patriarch, also gave the world the first double-flowered lilac. His oeuvre includes gorgeous, voluptuous doubles, like the purple ‘Alphonse Lavallée, introduced in 1885 and awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit (AGM) in 1893; the pinkish purple ‘Claude Bernard’, introduced in 1915; and ‘Miss Ellen Willmott, a double white variety, named for the great English gardener, and introduced in 1903. The Lemoines brought out many fine single varieties as well. Even now, lilacs from the Lemoine era in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are known as “French lilacs,” because of the family’s preeminent place in the lilac breeding world.
But not all good lilacs originated in France. Father John L. Fiala was a mid twentieth century Catholic priest, educator and author of the book, Lilacs: The Genus Syringa. Father Fiala spent much of his life studying, growing and hybridizing lilacs, introducing over 50 named varieties, including the beautiful, ‘Wedgewood Blue’.
In the last few decades, the lilac world has also been enriched by the introduction of reblooming varieties like ‘Bloomerang’ and ‘Baby Kim’, dwarf shrubs that blooms in spring and follow with further flushes later in the season. Growing about three feet tall and wide, they are a good choice for small space or container gardens.
While I admire the desirable traits of the reblooming varieties, I will always choose the old-fashioned once-bloomers as long as I have the space. The flower panicles are more lush and the fragrance more intense. There are many things that I enjoy only once a year and I am perfectly content to let lilacs be among them. The anticipation makes the annual flower show even more glorious.
Of course, lilac breeding continues and every year the array of choices on the market grows larger. Before you invest, however, make sure you can provide your shrubs with the right conditions. To produce those magnificent blooms, lilacs need either a dormant period–often about eight weeks–of winter temperatures at or below forty degrees Fahrenheit or, for those in warmer climates, several months of real or artificially induced drought in the summer. Lilac fanciers in climates that do not meet those requirements should either look for hybrids and/or species that are adapted to local conditions or grow similar plants, like the so-called “California lilac” or Ceanothus.
Full sun, which means at least six hours of direct sunlight per day, is a must, as is well-drained soil. Lilacs tend to get “leggy” if not pruned, reaching ever higher to catch the sun and producing flowers only at the tops of the branches. If your shrub is completely out of control and you don’t mind missing a year of blooms, cut the whole thing to within a foot of the ground in February or early March. Otherwise, do the same thing to one third of the oldest, largest stems. By the end of three years, the plant will be completely rejuvenated. Add color underneath the shrub by installing various spring-flowering bulbs or annual pansies, followed by summer and fall annuals and perennials.
Local nurseries and garden centers often stock several lilac varieties. If you want a more comprehensive selection, try Forestfarm, 14643 Watergap Rd, Williams, OR 97544, 541-846-7269; www.forestfarm.com. Print catalog available.