Common Lilac

Common Lilac

Syringa vulgaris

(si-RING-gah) (vul-GAIR-iss)

Synonyms: French Lilac

This is a rare flower from my home garden. What is left of the garden after the October snowstorm. What the storm didn’t take out the deer seemed determined to finish off. These Lilacs were on the property when I moved here and are huge. Big enough to cut arm loads of flowers when they are blooming. The insides of the plants were crushed but the outer branches are blooming now and it is always pleasant. There is one white lilac amongst the purples but it doesn’t seem to bloom as well as the others. We have been collecting the seedlings and making a small forest of the shrubs but they seem to take a long time to get to blooming age.

Did anyone watch Selena Gomez sing a song on Dancing with the Stars this week? I only watched since she was performing her new single, ‘Hit the Lights’. It was nice to see her with her old band, which has been broken up for a few months now. Her new guitar player was playing a *gasp* Fender® guitar. That ups his coolness factor with me. I don’t know how long this video will be on you tube but here is her performance:

Bloomerang Dwarf Lilac

Dwarf Lilac

Syringa 'Penda'

(si-RING-gah)

Synonym: Bloomerang

Okay every once in awhile a season bender plant appears and this little lilac is one. A mixture of several species of lilac including patula x macrophylla x meyeri x juliana it blooms heavily around regular lilac time (around here Mid-May). It then takes a rest period and starts blooming again with a smaller crop of flowers. This picture was taken this week and the plants offered for sale each had a couple of flowers on them.

When you combine the dwarf habit, fragrant flowers and the reblooming Bloomerang is quite a package. One house we care for has a large collection of what I think are ‘Miss Kim’ dwarf lilacs and they are in constant need of pruning to fit in their dwarf spaces. That doesn’t really fit the definition/use of a dwarf plant for me. The problem is not the plant but the planter in that case (I inherited the care of those plants and did not install them). Bloomerang looks to be a much dwarfer and less course plant than ‘Miss Kim’ but only time will tell (Bloomerang was introduced in 2009).

Fall lilac flowers what will we see next?

Common Lilac

Common Lilac
Syringa vulgaris
(si-RING-gah) (vul-GAIR-iss)
Synonyms: French Lilac

Well in the category of you learn something every day yesterday I found out French and Common Lilacs are the same. I guess it is just a kind of something that doesn’t matter but I like trying to keep the names of the flowers straight. Although there is another plant with the common name French Lilac it’s scientific name is Galega officinalis.

This is a nice French/Common Lilac blooming at the Estate now. The color is a little different than most but pleasant. It is always fun to take a picture of a lilac because you can enjoy the smell at the same time. They can be a little frustrating to grow and seem to be specific in the sites they like to grow in. If they are happy than it is no problem if they struggle it can go on for years with less than satisfying results.

We are going to see the great guitarist Ottmar Liebart tonight at the local concert venue. The tickets were a gift a of a gardening client. I am looking forward to relaxing.

Blogger is messed up every morning it seems. I hope they are not going back to their old ways.

Variegated Big Periwinkle
Vinca major 'Variegata'
(VIN-kuh) (MAY-jor)
Synonyms: Greater Periwinkle, V. m. ‘Elegantissima’, Vinca Vine

I don’t think I have ever photographed this flower before. I have never grown a planting of it either, but used it lot in containers. This maybe the first time I remember even seeing it flower. It is totally entrenched in the back garden of the little farm. So much so I may walk around with a little roundup to get rid of some them. It is considered invasive and I can see why! It is rated to USDA Zone 6 (-10F), which is something I never knew. At the end of the season we have been tearing out thinking it wasn’t hardy.

Here are some pictures from the farm. Geographically it is the most northern of our gardens and probably is another climate zone colder than most all of them. This is little Amelia the Sheltie puppy. Very camera shy and right after I tried to take her picture she dug a hole in the garden. She sure is cute. There is also another dog, 3 cats, 2 goats, 4 horses, 10 sheep, chickens and for wild animals there are always deer, turkeys and a hawk. I can’t wait to that big patch of Iris bloom. It is a nice garden but you can see it has some blank spaces. We are probably going to plant a lot of new perennials to beef up what is there.


This is a picture of one of the plantings in the back yard after our pruning. I was walking around with my camera taking some close ups and happened to see the way these plants looked together.



This white Lilac was also blooming yesterday. I am going to cut it down when it is finished flowering. The snow plow knocked it over.

Manchurian Lilac (Syringa patula 'Miss Kim')

Manchurian Lilac
Syringa patula 'Miss Kim'
(si-RING-gah) (PAT-yoo-luh)
Oleaceae (oh-lee-AY-see-ay)

I have to admit to trying to take this picture a couple of days ago and when I wasn’t happy with the first results went back and took this picture (which still isn’t as I wanted it but not bad for running around during lunch). My ‘Miss Kim’ lilacs have been steadily improving over the years and have turned into beautiful shrubs. They require a good bit of water, I found out, and even the group I have growing in a little more than part shade is blooming this year. The ones that have more sun are flowering very heavily. They are not that great for cut flowers, because of the short stems, but they are of good size and very fragrant. I like them because they grow more compactly than most Lilacs. The foliage is for the most part disease and pest resistant and it turns fabulous colors in the fall.



This is a bud of Kalmia latifolia ‘Elf’. It is a short growing, heavy blooming cultivar of Mountain Laurel. It was a cross made by Richard Jaynes. I got to meet him at his Broken Arrow Nursery. . If you want any information about Mountain Laurel buy his book, Kalmia. It is offered at a discount on the Broken Arrow site. I got mine autographed. At the Estate we have a lot of different Mountain Laurels and I hope to get a few pictures of them to post here.

Cut-leaf Lilac (Syringa laciniata)

Cut-leaf Lilac
Syringa laciniata
(si-RING-gah) (la-sin-ee-AY-tuh)
Oleaceae (oh-lee-AY-see-ay)

You don’t see this plant too often (well I don’t anyways) and I often wonder why. It has been a welcome addition to the garden. I originally bought 3 plants but only 2 made it. The two that did make it have really turned into handsome plants, although one is getting a little crowded by a Sargent’s Crabapple (Malus sargentii). I planted my Cut-leafs on either side of a broad Granite staircase. It has been nice to enjoy the fragrant flowers and unusual foliage up close. They are quite vigorous and I have started to prune them a bit more. I have been holding mine at 4.5 feet but have read that 6 to 8 feet is a more normal height. The foliage seems fairly resistant to the dreadful Powdery Mildew but it can get it. Overall I am extremely happy with my Cut-leaf Lilacs.

I have been fooling around a bit with the Monochrome setting on my D70s, which is a lot of fun. Actually the best picture I took of the Lilac foliage was this one in B&W. It is not the greatest but you can get an idea of how unusual the foliage is on this Lilac. In reality the foliage is a nice medium green and turns yellow during the fall.



My plants are getting delivered today. Of all the jobs in gardening the one I enjoy the most is planting. Maybe because it is usually a final step in getting a project done. After all the work getting an area ready it seems easy to place the plants and put them in. Like the old saying goes something like “Plant a tree and you plant a hope.” I guess that sums up the way I feel it.

Yesterday I spent all day fine-tuning the irrigation system. I had to replace a couple of heads and clean some of the valves. I only have one station that is giving me a headache although I have 8 more stations to check. I will probably have to dig it up and replace the valve. I won’t be looking forward to that but it probably won’t be bad either. I wanted to take some pictures because there are literally hundreds of things in flower in the garden right now. Maybe at lunch today I can get a few snaps.

Early Flowering Lilac (Syringa × hyacinthiflora)

Early Flowering Lilac
Syringa × hyacinthiflora ‘Pocahontas’
(si-RING-ga) (hi-a-sin-thi-FLO-ra)
Oleaceae

Okay I have decided to quit complaining about what a crummy early spring we have had, even though there is a chance of snow here for Thursday. Yesterday was a little better weather wise and today it is actually suppose to reach 50 degrees F. I noticed a lot more daffodils out yesterday and that is a good sign. I have been cleaning up one of the large gardens I care for. I spent most of the day pruning some big Junipers. I am not sure what type they are (probably ‘Hetzi’) but they have completely overgrown, which is typical. I have torn out more Junipers than I have planted. I think it is the most misused plant in gardens in this area. They generally just grow too big. The ones I was working on were about 10 feet tall and 30 feet wide. When I looked underneath I could see that it was just 3 original plants. I took about 3 feet off the top and tried to reduce the sides. Of course I have a case of what I call ‘juniper rash’ and it feels like it is getting worse as I remember pruning them yesterday. Don’t get me wrong there are several types of Juniper that I like and I think I will go out and take a picture of some them for this space. There are also certain spots I might consider using them, like the side of a steep dry hill. For the most part I will only be using the dwarf and smaller types and as single specimens in my gardens.

I took this Lilac picture at the nursery when I was looking for a 12-14 foot Magnolia tree. I have been enjoying bud photography but it is sometimes hard to get the right depth of field. The Lilacs growing around here are not as far advanced as I looked at some yesterday and they were just starting to show a little green. I hope to get up to the Arnold Arboretum when the world’s largest lilac collection is blooming. I went a couple of years ago and it was amazing. The NYBG’s Lilac Collection is quite nice, also. I may have to settle for that if I can’t take the time to get up to Boston.

This is a Lilac I have seen growing and it is superb. The dark purple buds open to deep violet single flowers. Developed by the famous lilac hybridizer, Frank Skinner from the Hardy Plant Nursery in Dropmore, Manitoba, to withstand the severe prairie conditions, he introduced several popular hybrids including ‘Pocahontas’ (1935) and ‘Maiden Blush’ (1966). His work in this group of Lilac hybrids is sometimes called the Canadian Hybrid Cultivars. The original early Lilacs were developed in France in the latter part of the 19th century. They generally bloom a week or two earlier than the Common Lilac and can extend the season a bit for Lilac lovers. ‘Pocahontas’ gets up to about 10 feet.