Never trim this plant in the fall/winter. If you do, you will not get blooms the following year. Always, if you need to trim, do so right after it blooms in late spring/early summer. This plant blooms ONLY on old-wood, never new growth.
This plant can take up to 3 years to bloom from planting time. It has lavender-colored blooms, which are a magnet for butterflies.
This 'Palibin' cultivar of the Dwarf Korean or Meyer Lilac is the one that is really sold fairly commonly in the conventional nursery trade in the Midwestern and Eastern US. It is a rounded bush form with tiny rounded leaves to 1.75 inches long. It usually blooms in mid-May with its pinkish-purple small flower clusters that are fragrant, but not really sweetly fragrant like the Common Lilac. I have seen it used as a sheared hedge that works out well with its slender twigs. The mother species comes from northern China, but it is only known in cultivation.
The bush keeps a nice shape and needs almost no pruning except to cut off blooms for the re-bloom
This dwarf lilac blooms on old wood in the spring and reblooms on the new growth created after the first bloom. For the best rebloom, water it well, but make sure it has good drainage and plenty of sun. Fertilize in early spring and again after the first bloom. Any pruning should be done immediately after the first bloom. This will delay the second bloom by a few weeks. Pruning in fall, winter, or early spring will remove the buds for the spring bloom.
This lilac was bred by Victor Lemoine, and introduced in 1896.
"Syringa 'Primrose', Yellow Lilac, , USDA Hardiness Zone 3, Creamy Yellow, Michigan Bloom Month 5.
One of the bluest of the lilacs.
This double white Lilac was raised by Victor Lemoine, and introduced in 1890.
The Persian Lilac is a hybrid between the Afghan Lilac x the Cutleaf Lilac from central Asia and is almost completely sterile, not bearing dehiscent brown capsules. It has small, spearhead leaves about 1 to 3 inches long x 1/2 to 1 inch wide. The lilac-colored flower clusters are looser than those of the Common Lilac and are just as fragrant, and can also be used as cut flowers in a vase. Some are still sold at most larger nurseries in the Chicago area. Not nearly as frequently planted as the Common Lilac. I just find it here and there occasionally. It is a nice larger shrub usually about 8 to 10 feet high. The leaves often get mildew in late summer and fall; not having any autumn color like most other lilacs. (There is a good possibility that the Persian Lilac that is occasionally sold by conventional nurseries is really the Rouen Lilac (Syringa x rothomagensis) (also called the Chinese Lilac of Syringa x chinensis, though not from China) that is a hybrid of the Persian Lilac x the Common Lilac that occurred in Rouen, France in 1777. The Rouen Lilac gets 8 to 15 feet high and bears flower clusters to about 6 inches long. The true Persian Lilac only gets 4 to 8 feet high and bears flower clusters to 3 inches long, according to the textbooks.) Therefore, conventional nurseries may have it slightly mislabelled.
