Among the most nostalgia-inducing flowers, lilac trees still grow near where many abandoned farmhouses once stood. That tough-as-nails disposition, which makes lilac bush care easy, as well as an unforgettable fragrance still keeps the blooms popular today.
1. Common Lilac (Syringa vulgaris)
This is the “old farm lilac” from which most modern hybrids derived. It typically grows taller than they do, up to 16 feet or so, with single flowers whose color is—no surprise here—lilac. As with most of its single-flowered descendants, it produces panicles of highly fragrant, 4-petal florets at its branch ends. Vulgaris varieties usually take at least 2 years, sometimes up to 5 years, to bloom after they are planted.
2. Common White Lilac (Syringa vulgaris var. alba)
The white-flowered version of the farm lilac, this one also grows tall—and wide due to a multiplicity of suckers. Keep in mind that, on grafted bushes, you should remove all suckers, as lilacs typically are grafted onto privet. However, you can leave the suckers in place on bushes growing on their own roots if you want those bushes to spread into a hedge or living fence
3. Primrose Lilac (Syringa vulgaris ‘Primrose’)
Derived by Dutch breeder Garrit Maarse from an aberrant limb of the white ‘Marie Legraye’ variant, this lilac isn’t an intense yellow. In fact, the flowers reportedly start out cream and darken to pale yellow as they age. Still, a yellow lilac plant is unique and almost a contradiction in terms! This one tops out at 12 feet.
4. Sensation Lilac (Syringa vulgaris ‘Sensation’)
Also a sensation for its unusual coloring, this lilac produces panicles of purple blooms with a white picotee edging on each floret. It derived from a purple-flowered cultivar called ‘Hugo de Vries’, on which Dirk Eveleens Maarse of the Netherlands spotted one branch with laced lilacs. Reportedly a bit slow-growing, it probably won’t surpass 10 feet in height. However, that lighter edge gives it a distinct edge on the competition.
5. Yankee Doodle Lilac (Syringa vulgaris ‘Yankee Doodle’)
As is implied by its name, this dandy came from an American breeder, Father John Fiala, who founded the International Lilac Society and produced a large number of his own hybrids. This is one of the darkest purple color of lilac flowers, with just a few flecks of white at the centers of the florets. It grows to 8 feet high.
6. President Lincoln Lilac (Syringa vulgaris ‘President Lincoln’)
Introduced by another American breeder, John Dunbar, a horticulturist at Rochester’s Highland Park, this lilac was named for President Abraham Lincoln—perhaps in response to Walt Whitman’s elegy “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Its flowers appropriately put it among the bluest of the cultivars and it grows to more than 12 feet.
7. President Grevy Lilac (Syringa vulgaris ‘President Grevy’)
Speaking of presidents, this introduction from famed French lilac breeder Victor Lemoine was named for a 19th century president of France and co-prince of Andorra, Jules Grevy. It grows to a stately 12 feet, producing mauve buds followed by double bluish-lavender blooms impressive enough to cause viewers to do a double take.
8. Monique Lemoine Lilac (Syringa vulgaris ‘Monique Lemoine’)
Also from Lemoine, and probably named for one of his relatives, this lilac offers double white blooms. Keep in mind that there is an earlier lilac called ‘Madame Lemoine’ for the wife who helped him with his hybridizing, also with double white flowers. Don’t worry if you get the two confused, since either can produce resplendently bridal blooms on bushes 10 to 12 feet tall.
9. Paul Thirion Lilac (Syringa vulgaris ‘Paul Thirion’)
Another Lemoine French hybrid, this one was named for a Nancy Parks horticulturist. As with most of Lemoine’s cultivars, it produces double flowers, this time on an 8- to 10-foot bush. Those blooms are an interesting reddish pink described as either magenta or fuchsia, so Paul shouldn’t pall on you!
10. Charles Joly Lilac (Syringa vulgaris ‘Charles Joly’)
This lilac was named by Lemoine for Victor Charles Joly, a French physician and—probably more important to Lemoine—a writer on horticulture and vice president of the Central Horticultural Society of France. Like Paul, Charles, too, “wears” double magenta blooms on a bush that can reach 12 feet in height.
