Purple Prose

With its enchanting scent and plumes of gorgeous petals, little beats the lilac for sheer flamboyance

May is the month of the lilac, when these woody shrubs erupt into a mass of sweetly scented panicles, which are mostly purple, pink or white. The combination of silvery grey bark, pale green leaves and purple-toned petals is phosphorescent and magical.

Victorian floriographies associate lilacs with romance, while the Celts ascribed magical powers to this intoxicatingly fragrant flower. So it’s no surprise that its otherworldly beauty is so often a favoured subject of impressionist painters such as Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.

Belonging to the olive family Oleaceae, lilac is native to the Balkan Peninsula, where it grows on rocky hills, and temperate Asia – although it has now been naturalised in many parts of Europe. Its botanical name Syringa comes from the ancient Greek syrinx, meaning pipe, and refers to the hollow branches of common lilac, Syringa vulgaris.

Lilacs were introduced to the UK in the 16th century, but didn’t gain popularity until the late

18th century, when the French nurseryman and genius hybridiser Victor Lemoine introduced more than 200 new cultivars to the scene. These formed the foundation of the modern lilac varieties we love today, with their double flowers and saturated hues.

It was during the Franco-Prussian war that Lemoine taught his wife, Mary Louise, how to hybridise the S. vulgaris ‘Azurea Plena’ shrub in their garden. The process of transferring pollen from the minute lilac flowers using a paint brush, fine pincers, scissors and a needle was truly painstaking. When the Lemoines began breeding lilacs, only S. vulgaris and S. oblata were available at first, but by 1933 the family had created about 214 new cultivars.

In fact, Lemoine’s flair for hybridisation was responsible for many garden stalwarts of today, from geraniums and begonias to showstopping varieties of peony, delphinium, hydrangea and gladiolus. And in 1911, just a few months before his death, Lemoine became the first non-English plantsman to receive the Victoria Medal of Honour from the RHS. ■

HOW TO GROW Lilacs are perfect for those with chalky soil but also grow well in most well-drained, humus-rich, alkalineto-neutral soils. They dislike shade, so choose a sunny spot. Mulch well every spring and don’t be shy about deadheading once blooms begin to fade.