For the love of lilacs
GARDENING
Lilacs. Just hearing the word conjures up clouds of fragrant, pastel violet, purple and white blossoms.
When I was growing up, lilacs were secreted away behind the garage along with snowball and forsythia bushes. Most of the houses in our neighbourhood had a similar border; lilacs were cheap, cheerful and self-sufficient and overlooked for most of the growing season.
Today, the gentle fragrance of spring lilacs takes me back to playing in the backyard and fleeting bouquets of lilacs on the kitchen table for Mother’s Day.
Common lilacs, also known as French hybrid lilacs, are native to southeastern Europe. Beginning in the late 1500s, lilacs were grown throughout Europe and they were carried to North America by colonists in the early 1600s. There are literally thousands of named hybrids available today.
Common lilacs (Syringa vulgaris) are easy to grow, just give them a sunny spot in average, well-drained soil. They will tolerate light shade, but produce the most abundant flowers in full sun. They do not like soggy, wet soil. The name syringa comes from the Greek syrinx meaning tube or pipe, a reference to the pith-filled but easilyhollowed stems of some lilacs, vulgaris comes from the Latin, meaning common. At one time, the stems were hollowed and used for pipes.
Trim away the spent flower heads, if you can reach them; this tidies up the plant for the growing season. Left to their own devices, the seed heads are unsightly as the seasons progress. If necessary, prune the shrub immediately after it has finished flowering. Next year’s flower buds are formed over the summer months, a late season pruning will shear away next year’s crop of flowers.
Lilacs usually have multiple stems and will reach three metres tall and 2.5 m wide; root suckers develop as the plant matures. To prevent colonial spread, remove root suckers as they appear. (Rooted suckers can be dug up and transplanted, if desired.)
Powdery-mildew, patches of whitish-grey, may appear on the leaves in the summer. It is unsightly, but the shrub recovers in the following season. Give your lilacs a little breathing room. Good air circulation will help prevent the development of powdery mildew when the weather turns hot and humid.
When choosing new lilacs for your property, check the labels for cultivars resistant to powdery mildew. After transplanting, lilacs may take two or three years to settle in before they start blooming. Just be patient, they are definitely worth the wait.
Early blooming lilacs are treasured for their romantic colours and rich perfume. Once they have finished blooming, their heart-shaped, blue-green leaves make a solid backdrop for summer and autumn blooming shrubs or perennials. Add lilacs to shrub borders or privacy screens, they make colourful spring accents for a cutting garden or along the edge of a woodland. Blooming for a few short weeks, lilacs beg to be cut and brought inside to be enjoyed, but they are notoriously difficult to hydrate.
Here’s a typical lilac arranging scenario. Cut a handful of stems and then place them in a vase on the kitchen table, they usually wilt within 24 hours — what a disappointment.
By a streak of luck, I am reading Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden, a book filled with great tips for growing and arranging home grown cut flowers. In the book, author and flower-farmer Erin Benzakein shares her process for conditioning cut lilacs, so they will last longer in the vase. She describes “trying every trick in the book” to keep her lilacs hydrated and then finally discovering a method that proved successful, I had to give it a try.
Before heading into the garden, I filled a bucket about threequarters full with cool, fresh water, grabbed a sharp pair of sharp pruning shears and headed out to cut a few lilac stems.
“Cut the flowers in the early morning, or in the evening, when it is cool outside,” Benzakein advises.
Because lilacs will not open much after they have been cut, I chose flowers were about threequarters open.
“Flowers that are fully open will have a shorter vase life,” Benzakein warns.
I carried the bucket into my little greenhouse to trim the stems, Benzakein suggests removing the foliage so that the stems channel their energy into hydrating the flowers and not the leaves. The stem ends were slit with sharp pruners and then twisted back before plunging them back into the water. This final cut exposes more surface to help the stem absorb water.
I left the lilac stems to condition in the cool greenhouse overnight. The following morning, I arranged the stems in a vase filled with fresh water laced with floral preservative. Two days later and counting, the flowers still look fresh and smell divine — I am impressed. — Theresa Forte is a local writer, photographer and speaker. You can reach her by calling 905-351-7540 or by email theresa_forte@sympatico.ca.