Purple Reign

Jacky Hobbs explores a living library of more than 100 lilac cultivars to learn more about the highly scented shrub that was first introduced to British gardens more than 400 years ago

- Jacky Hobbs

LILACS, like old-fashioned roses, are grandmothers’ flowers, typically ly wearing a rinse of blue, dabbed with familiar fragrance, yet tough as old boots. These good old horticultural qualities explain why the common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) has persisted in British gardens since its introduction more than 400 years ago.

Centuries of dedicated breeding have resulted in more than 2,000 individually named cultivars being derived ed from the S. vulgaris species, in wide-ranging tones of the seven classified colours: white, violet, blue, lavender, pink, magenta a and purple. At Gobbett Nursery in Shropshire, Gordon Link has collected more than 100 lilac specimens, mostly S. vulgaris cultivars and a handful of dwarf Asian kinds. Historically, lilac cultivation has been dominated by those grown in Europe, particularly France, but new introductions hail from Russia and America.

Only two of 20 species Syringas—S. vulgaris and the little-known, sparse-flowered Hungarian S. josikaea—are native to Europe. S. vulgaris was introduced to Britain in the 16th century from the mountainous Balkan region of south-eastern Europe and its mauve and white forms rapidly spread throughout the continent, collected and exchanged by the eminent botanists of the time.

Besler’s Hortus Eystettensis (Garden at Eichstatt) of 1613 includes a plate engraving of purple- and white-flowered lilacs in Prince-Bishop Johan Konrad von Gemmingen’s garden in Germany, an elderly Clusius recorded Syringa in the gardens at Leiden in the Netherlands in 1623 and Englishman Parkinson recorded its presence in British gardens in his 1629 catalogue.