Plenty of lilacs to plant

Press, 28 July 1989, Page 10

Plenty of lilacs to plant

A lilac which has been a favourite of mine for a good number of years has fragrant pink flowers and some times goes under the name Syringa tomentella, or sometimes S. wilsonii. It has also been known at one time or another as S. alborosea and S. adamiana. This lilac is native to Western China and the proliferation of names probably came about because different collections of it were sent by different collectors to herbaria in Europe, Britain, and the United States. S. tomentella appears to be the earliest name and therefore has precedence over the others.

Whatever you call it, this is a fine shrub. Its leaves are slightly downy and its pink flowers come in numerous tight clusters; they begin to appear

about the same time as those of the common lilac but continue much longer. E. H. Wilson, collecting for the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, introduced it to cultivation in 1904.

Another Chinese lilac, S. villosa, which flowers later, is similar but its leaves have only scattered hairs, and the growth habit is bushier. Both these lilacs belong in a group of species which develop their flower panicles from terminal buds — the buds at the very tips of the shoots. The flowers of the common lilac also are at the ends of the shoots, but if you look closely you will see that they are in pairs of panicles, from lateral buds. The “common lilac” is the European species, S. vulgaris, and it is the

(Gardener’s! ® diary

Derrick Rooney

“hybrids” of this species, heavily fragrant and often with double flowers, that most gardeners associate with the word “lilac.” But there are many equally gardenworthy species from North-east Asia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. Recently I received a young plant of S. yunnanensis, a species related to S. tomentella in the terminal-flowering group. It has erect branches, a bushy habit, and broad, attractive leaves, but I do not expect to see its pink flowers for a few years.

A European species in this largely Asian group is S. josikaea, the “Hungarian lilac.” Its flowers are purplish, not pink, and it is mainly notable as a parent, when crossed with the Chinese S. reflexa, of a wonderful hybrid called S. x josiflexa “Bellicent.” , There are other hybrids ■from this cross but "Bellicent” is the best, and probably the only one available here; rather expensive, but worth it. The flowers are in nodding panicles, carmine rose in bud and opening pink. Two smaller, and daintier, species related to the common lilac are “Persian lilac,” S. persica, and S. velutina. The former is an old favourite of cottage gardens; its flowers are so pale a lilac as to appear almost white, and are very sweetly scented. It flowers in spring, before the common lilac, and in my garden grows to no more than shoulder height. Botanical books say that S. velutina is the same thing as S. palibiniana, but for horticultural purposes they appear to be two distinct entities. Plants supplied under the former name are vigorous and grow to two metres or more fairly rapidly, but the plant I have under the latter name is 10 years old now and still barely 30cm tall. It makes hardly any growth but flowers freely every summer, in pale, purplish lilac. S. afghanica is another small shrub. My plant died back to ground level last summer, for no good reason that I could find, but even if it hadn’t done so it would have been no more than one metre tall for eight years growth. It has leaves so deeply divided that they appear to be pinnate, which makes it look more interesting in the nonflowering season than some of the others, but it

is shy flowering, or rather, the clone that I was sold is shy flowering. It may behave better in a more extreme climate, say in Central Otago. In botanical literature S. afghanica is reduced to being merely a regional variant of S. persica, as var. laciniata, but the Afghan name is well entrenched in horticulture. The species was introduced to cultivation by the well-known English nursery firm, Ingwersen’s. I’m not in a position to comment on the botanical situation of the two plants, but I have found a distinct practical difference between them: S. afghanica strikes readily and rapidly from cuttings, whereas my plant of the Persian lilac does not. S. pubescens and <S. meyeri are two smallish northern Chinese species related to the Persian lilac, the former with pale lilac flowers, the latter with deep violet ones. Overseas writers praise both as precociously freeflowering, but I don’t know a great deal more about them; I haven’t had an opportunity to grow either. Lilacs, incidentally, belong in the olive family and are thus related to the ashes, the privets, the jasmines, and those familiar spring-flowering shrubs, the forsythias, many of which have burst into premature bloom this winter. The most common cultivars of forsythia — the likes of “Arnold Giant” and “Beatrix Farrand” — have large flowers but their colour is, not to put too fine a point on it, as brassy as a busty barmaid. I would like to draw attention to a lesser known cultivar which has an erect growth habit, and flowers very easily, in a paler, more appealing shade of yellow. It is called “Spring Glory."