Common Lilac Bushes

The Intoxicating Aroma Gardeners Love

Large purple flower clusters on the end of green leaved stems.

Common Lilac bushes are a great way to add fragrance, colour and texture to your garden.

They come in a range of different coloured flowers from the common purple flower to white, pink or a bluish colour and also purple with white edges.

Lining a few of these bushes along the edge of your property would make a great hedge or you could grow one in the corner of your garden to attract bees, butterflies and other pollinators.


Pruning Lilac Bushes

Pruning your bushes right after it is done flowering is a good way to keep them the size you want them to be. You don’t want to wait too long as the flowers for next year start to develop around July so you would be cutting off next year’s flowers if you wait until August or later to prune it.

When pruning your bushes don’t forget to check around the base for any offshoots or suckers. These can easily be cut off or you can wait until they are about a foot tall and carefully dig them up and give them to friends and family members.

One of the best things about these bushes is cutting the flowers off and bringing them into the house to fill the air with the beautiful lilac scent.

 

Uses in the Landscape

You can use this shrub in many ways around the landscape

  • cut the flowers to bring the fragrance indoors
  • stand alone specimen
  • as a hedge along a fence or along the house
  • grow it in a large container on your deck or patio
  • as a screen to block out unsightly scenes

Common Lilac Varieties

These common lilac varieties listed below are considered mid to dwarf size because they don’t grow as large as most other varieties.


Miss Kim (Syringa pubescens subsp. patula 'Miss Kim')

2 branches of spiked pink flower clusters with green leaves in the background.

This slow growing, upright Miss Kim Lilac will grow to about 6 to 8' tall and wide, which could get bigger with age. It pinkish coloured flowers bloom later in spring to extend the fragrance of spring and has great fall colour with a burgundy tinge to the leaves.


Dwarf Korean (Syringa meyeri 'Palibin')

Pink flower buds just starting to open up with bright green leaves in the background.

Growing only 4 to 6' tall and 5 to 7' wide, this Dwarf Korean Lilac with its pale purple flowers will look great planted as a low hedge along a walkway or as a standalone specimen plant.


Tiny Dancer (Syringa vulgaris 'Elsdancer’)

small clusters of purple flowers


4 to 5' tall and 3 to 4' wide, this Tiny Dancer Lilac will tolerates road salt, and is cold and heat tolerant. It’s also disease, pest and mildew resistant.


Maiden's Blush (Syringa x hyacinthiflora 'Maiden's Blush')

An early bloomer, this upright, rounded shrub has panicles of fragrant pale pink flowers.

It can grow 6-8' tall and wide and considered one of the best pink blooming lilacs.


Sensation (Syringa vulgaris 'Sensation')

Bright purple flower clusters with white edges hanging from a branch with green leaves

Growing 10' tall and 6' wide this mid season bloomer is a must have for lilac lovers.

Purple flower clusters edged in white attracts wildlife to your gardens.


Common White

Tiny white clusters of white panicle flowers hanging from green leaved branches

Add a splash of white to your garden with these beautiful white panicles flowers on this common lilac from mid spring until early summer.

Grows to about 10' tall and wide.


Primrose (Syringa vulgaris 'Primrose')

camera saying photo coming soon

Pale yellow panicle clusters of blooms is a favourite amongst gardeners.

Growing 9' tall and 11' wide, it will be stunning when in blooming.


Adding a common Lilac bush to your yard will add fragrance, colour and character, and they are one of the least favoured plants to deer, so unless the deer is starving they will leave it alone.

 

Huge Lilac Bush covered in pinkish purple flower clusters

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