Book Review:Lilacs for the Garden
© Valerie Adolph
John C. Wister observed "Even with the casual attention we have given it, the lilac is the oldest and best loved American shrub."
Now you might argue that the lilac is not the oldest shrub in North America, but for many people it seems like the oldest inhabitant of the gardens they knew as children. The gardens we grew up in - our parents, grand parents and great grandparents gardens all had lilacs. My grandmother had a white lilac growing in a square foot of compacted dirt - I refuse to call it soil - in an inner city neighbourhood that was as polluted as it could be. Even as a chile I admired its survival skills.
Yet in these days when we have a reasonable plot of ground and amended soil, how often do we choose to plant lilacs?
Jennifer Bennet, author of several gardening books, has done a thorough job of researching the lilac, the species officially known as Syringa. Most lilacs have come to us from the mountainous regions of Asia, although two species came from Eastern Europe to France. The French, enamoured by its perfume, transformed Syringa vulgaris into a wide variety of hybrids with larger clusters of flowers, a range of colours - from white through violet and magenta to purple.
Lilacs came to North America with settlers during the 17th century. Some immigrants over 250 years old still grow on Mackinac Island, Michigan where there is a lilac festival every year. Another lilac festival is held annually in Rochester New York. And if you are looking for a major collection of lilacs, check out the Arnold Arboretum in Massachusetts, which has over 500 lilacs.
Setting a date for a lilac festival can be tricky as lilacs depend on the weather rather than the influence of lengthening days for their bloom time. A cool spring means a later blooming and this can vary up to six weeks from year to year. For this reason lilacs are being used as a marker plant to measure global warming trends. Apparently farmers and gardeners have known for generations that lilac bloom time indicates warmth that brings out all kinds of bugs; alfalfa growers, for instance, take off a crop soon after their lilacs bloom because bugs that feed off the alfalfa crop become active soon after that time.
The author, besides giving her readers a useful and detailed description of different varieties of lilac, also explains plant requirements, mulching, grafting fertilizing and the biotic and abiotic stresses affecting lilacs, and the best way to work with lilacs that have suffered from neglect. Her last chapter is a particularly useful "Lilac Aid: Why won't it bloom?"
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