The development of common lilac
hybrids has continued on both sides of the Atlantic. ‘President Lincoln’, a single blue, was developed in 1916 by John Dunbar, superintendent of parks in Rochester, N.Y., and has stood the test of time. Two varieties selected in Holland in the 1930s are sought after today: ‘Sensation’ is purple with white edges on the petals and ‘Primrose’ is a pale creamy yellow. Newer selections include the beautiful,
double, pale pink ‘Krasavitsa Moskovy’ (‘Beauty of Moscow’) and several devel- oped by Father Fiala including ‘Marie Frances’, a very compact plant with fine, single, pink flowers and ‘Wedgewood Blue’, a low-growing single with hanging racemes of lilac-pink buds opening blue. In 1918, Frank Skinner travelled to the
Arnold Arboretum of Harvard Univer- sity near Boston and returned with seed- lings of a Korean lilac species, S. oblata var. dilitata. In 1921 he crossed these plants with French hybrid varieties to initiate the American hybrid lilac group (S. x hyacinthiflora). The first group of hybrids gave rise to
five named varieties. Three of these are still available in the nursery trade. ‘Poca- hontas’ is a single dark purple, ‘Asessippi’ is a single lilac purple and ‘Excel’ is a single lilac pink. The advantages of
this group over
some of the French hybrids are better winter hardiness and less tendency to sucker. The positive reaction of Ameri- can lilac enthusiasts to these varieties encouraged him to continue work with this lilac breeding. Later introductions include ‘Maiden’s Blush’, an outstand- ing pink, and ‘Sister Justina’, a compact single white that is recognized as being among the best. The Preston lilacs are a group that was
initiated when Isabella Preston, plant breeder at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, crossed the villosa lilac (S. villosa) and nodding lilac (S. reflexa) in 1920. The Preston lilacs bloom about two weeks after the French hybrids with smaller individual flowers. Plants are vigorous and hardy and don’t sucker. Of Miss Preston’s cultivars, ‘Coral’, a fine pink, and ‘Royalty’, a dark purple, are available today. ‘Donald Wyman’, a very vigorous
reddish purple was introduced by Frank Skinner in 1944 and is still found in nurs- ery catalogues. Two beautiful hybrids of this type were
developed by Bill Cumming and intro- duced from the Morden Research Station in Manitoba. They are ‘Miss Canada’,
40 • Fall 2016 Syringa vulgaris 'Monge'.
with striking bright pink flowers and ‘Minuet’, a compact bush with lilac-pink flowers and excellent dark green foli- age. ‘Charisma’ is a new dwarf selection with dark purple flowers introduced by Boughen Nurseries of Valley River, Man. The most interesting recent develop-
ments in lilacs have been more dwarf species and hybrids. ‘Miss Kim’ (S. patula ‘Miss Kim’), introduced in 1954, was grown from seed collected in Korea. It is compact, upright and non-suckering with pale lilac-coloured flowers that fade to near white. It displays dark purple foli- age in fall. Beginning in the 1960s, nurser-
ies began to offer Meyer lilac (S. meyeri ‘Palabin’). It grows larger than was first anticipated but it is compact and matures at about two metres (seven feet). Recent hybrids of Meyer lilac from Neal Holland of North Dakota — ‘Tinkerbelle’ and ‘Sugar Plum Fairy’ — grow 1.2 to 1.5 metres (four to five feet) high, are fragrant and have pink-to rose-lilac flowers.
Among the shrubby lilac species,
Japanese tree lilac (S. reticulata) is a beautiful small tree. It thrives in gardens across the prairies and in Ontario, and will grow four to seven metres (12 to 24 feet) high. It blooms after the shrubby species in late June or early July with large fuzzy flower trusses that are creamy white. ‘Ivory Silk’ is a selection that develops a single stem and a regu- lar round head. It is an attractive small accent or specimen tree with dark green foliage
and interesting smooth dark
bark. The lilacs of today may remind us of
our grandmother’s garden, but we can choose lilacs now that are much better adapted to our modern landscapes than the common lilac of grandma’s hedge. x Hugh Skinner has been immersed in the testing and production of a wide variety of hardy plants at the Frank Skinner Arbo- retum for more than 30 years, and has written and spoken extensively about these plants. He is Frank Skinner’s son.
localgardener.net
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