Lilacs for the Garden (Hardcover)

by Jennifer Bennett (Author) "Everywhere. Every soil. All exposures. Consider the lilacs of the field, how they grow..." (more)
Key Phrases: hyacinthiflora lilacs, lilac collection, lilac species, John Fiala, Arnold Arboretum, Royal Botanical Gardens (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Bennett takes readers on a trip down memory lane to celebrate the lilac, a shrub many first encountered on a fragrant spring day at Grandmother's house. Waxing both nostalgic and rhapsodic, Bennett reintroduces this much-loved but underutilized shrub to a new generation of gardeners, extolling its virtues as a landscape plant: hardiness, drought-tolerance, and soil adaptability, not to mention its intoxicating fragrance and ethereal flowers. Where once lilacs were thought to thrive only in colder climes, Bennett highlights newer cultivars that tolerate hotter and dryer conditions. Stunning color photographs make you fall in love with them all over again. Carol Haggas
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Review
After flipping through page after page of gorgeous photographs, I'm hooked. -- David Hobson, Kitchener-Waterloo Record, May 11, 2002

An excellent guide. -- Steve Whysall, The Vancouver Sun, May 18, 2002

Beautifully illustrated ... likely to become a classic -- one of those you just can't bear to do without. -- Jessie Deslauriers, Kingston This Week, May 3, 2002

Combines practical advice, personal observations, literary quotes and full-color photographs in an irresistible mix. -- Jo Clavert, Canadian Living 04/01/2003

Detailed portraits... prompted me to make room for four more of these beauties in my already crowded garden. -- Beckie Fox, Canadian Gardening 01/2004

Full of gorgeous pictures, lilac facts ... and advice for selecting, planting, pruning and tending lilacs. -- Beth Botts, Chicago Tribune, May 2, 2002

Perhaps every gardener's library should include a book dedicated to this fragrant shrub. -- Susan Mulvihill, Spokane Spokesman 06/20/2003

Recommended ... The information is all there. -- Peter W. Bristol, Chicago Botanical Garden 05/11/2003

Total details on buying, planting, pruning, diseases and propagating from cuttings; for mail-order sources and public gardens with fine displays. -- Kerry Moore, Vancouver Province 06/04/2002

You'll learn a great deal from Bennett's guide. -- Nanci Corrigan, The Kingston Whig-Standard, May 18, 2002

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Firefly Books (May 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1552975800
• ISBN-13: 978-1552975800
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,559,560 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lilacs for the Garden, May 6, 2003

By	Valerie Adolph "Coast Journal" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Lilacs for the Garden Jennifer Bennett

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 child 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.

The author, besides giving her readers a useful and detailed description of different varieties of lilac, also explains plant requirements, mulching, grafting fertilizing, 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?"

This is a well illustrated book, with most of the colour photographs taken by the author herself. There is a valuable resource list at the end, with mail order sources for the US and Canada, nurseries, public lilac collections and web sites with lilac information.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the Lilac Novice, June 26, 2007

By	Jeffrey E. Young "Lilac Dr" (Vermont) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I do many lilac seminars each year and I refer all my students to Bennett's book first. It is the only recent book in print that does justice to understanding lilacs. If you are a gardener that wants a solid reference book to add a lilac or two to your garden this is the book to have. John Fiala's book, Genus Syringa, is much too detailed for the casual gardener and is geared to the lilac collector.

Jeff Young, Lilac Curator, Univ of VT Horticulture Farm, Vermont Master Gardener