Thursday, June 01, 2006

Japanese Tree Lilac















I once again have lilacs blooming. My Japanese Tree Lilac (Syringa reticulate 'Ivory Silk') is just beginning to bloom. It doesn't smell quite as heavily as some other lilacs, but if you get up close and smell the flowers, you can definitely tell they are lilacs.

I think this is a good small tree for the garden, and not planted nearly as much as it should be. This tree should only grow 15 - 20 feet tall and 10 -15 feet wide. Fall color isn't the showiest, but that's okay because I like the bloom, which occurs after most of the other spring flowering trees like pear trees, crabapples, and redbuds have finished blooming. The only other tree I can think of that is also blooming right now are the catalpas.

By having several varieties of lilacs, I now have lilacs blooming from late April through early June, with just a week or so at the end of May without a lilac in bloom. I just need to find a variety to fill that one week gap and I'll have almost 6 weeks with at least one species or another of lilac blooming! See this previous post for more info on lilacs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe Julie has this same Japanese Tree Lilac in her yard and was wondering what it was. It smelled so good when in bloom, but oh my all the beetles of some sort that were on it too. Now blooms and bugs are gone.

When catalpas are in bloom that is when we have the worst storms.

Anonymous said...

I planted a Japanese Lilac the summer of 2007. It bloomed that year but hasn't since. Any ideas why this may be?