Customer Reviews

Lilacs for the Garden

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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.

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

I too have fond memories of beautiful lilacs in a yard known in childhood. I also had a lilac years ago here in Phoenix in the heart of the low desert. It would have done well here if I had been a better caretaker. I have to fault this book for not meeting my own particular needs. The author is a Canadian and seems very good on northern lilacs, but I need to know about those that can thrive on mild winters and extreme summer heat and dryness. Ms. Bennett does touch on the topic of southern lilacs, but there does not seem to be an easy way to sort out what varieties would work here. (I have bought the book.)