One whiff of a lilac: Often that's all it takes to transport the unwary back to childhood, to Grandmother's garden, walks along a country road or a park where friends would meet in spring and celebrate the world reborn. This uncanny ability to evoke moments long locked away is what earned the common lilac, also known as Syringa vulgaris, and 19 related species their poetic moniker: the flower of memory.
Little wonder that European emigrants en route to a new life in North America took their lilacs with them. Bundled in moistened burlap and cradled in straw, the first treasured cuttings made their way to the colonies in the 1600s. Today descendants of these early lilacs remain intact, even though the farmhouses they once adorned may have vanished long ago.
Even now, cold-hardy lilacs, which can survive in Zones 3 through 7, number among the first shrubs gardeners plant when they move to a new house. But with hundreds of selections to tempt us, it's hard to choose just one. Shall it be creamy white Edith Cavell or deep blue President Lincoln? At public gardens and arboreta across the country, opportunities abound for viewing — and sniffing — the candidates up close.
In Zone 4 Shelburne, Vt., for example, the Shelburne Museum will host Lilac Sunday this year on May 23, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Close to 400 lilacs — 90 cultivars among them — run the gamut from single to fully double. Gardens conceived a half-century ago by museum founder and folk-art collector Electra Havemayer Webb and landscape designer Umberto Innocenti now cover 45 acres — plenty of room for lilacs, and memories, to take root.
Gardens to remember
Many botanical parks offer annual lilac festivals, where horticulturists stand ready to answer questions.
— Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens, 115 S. Pekin Rd., Woodland, WA 98674; (360) 225-8996; www.lilacgardens.com. Thirty minutes north of Portland, Ore., more than 150 cultivars on 3 1/2 acres can be viewed daily from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Lilac Festival: weekends mid-April through Mother's Day.
— Maxwell Arboretum Lilac Collection, University of Nebraska-Lincoln East Campus; 38th and Holdrege Sts., Lincoln, NE 68588; (402) 472-2679. Dozens of cultivars, in bloom from mid-April through late May, await visitors from dawn to dusk daily.
— Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130; (617) 524-1718; www.arboretum.harvard.edu. More than 500 lilacs, including 23 species and 230 cultivars. Open daily, dawn to dusk. Lilac Sunday: May 16, 2004.
— Highland Park, 180 Reservoir Ave., Rochester, NY 14620; (716) 244-8709. Largest collection of lilacs in the country, possibly in the world, with 1,200 bushes (500 cultivars) on 22 acres. Lilac Festival: May 14-23, 2004.
— Shelburne Museum, U.S. Route 7, P.O. Box 10, Shelburne, VT 05482; (802) 985-3346; www.shelburnemuseum.org. Close to 400 lilacs — 90 cultivars among them — on display in gardens covering 45 acres. Lilac Sunday: May 23, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Lasting pleasures
Rick Peters, head gardener at the Shelburne Museum, recommends common lilacs and hybrids to anyone looking for a shrub that stands up to winter as far north as Zone 4. "All of our collection has proven to be extremely hardy, despite temperatures that occasionally drop to 25 below zero," he notes.
— Plant lilacs in well-drained, moderately rich soil in full sun. Ideal soil pH: 6 to 7.
— Apply balanced fertilizer, such as 10-10-10, after flowering. Top-dress new or transplanted lilacs with compost.
— Deadhead spent blossoms to prevent seeds from forming and ensure that energy is directed toward next year's flower production.
— Prune if shrubs become leggy by cutting back one-third of the oldest stems to ground level each year for three years, to encourage strong new growth from the base.
Rebecca Sawyer-Fay is a contributing editor to Country Living Gardener magazine.