Gathering attention

As garden designers start to reappraise lilacs, we take a look at the fascinating French history of the once ubiquitous English garden shrub and re-examine some forgotten cultivars

-  JOHN HOYLAND

At the end of the Second World War, Ivor Novello’s We’ll Gather Lilacs was one of the most popular songs in Britain. Recorded by many performers, the sentimental song held out a promise to weary soldiers of a springtime reunion with loved ones, gathering lilacs and strolling down country lanes. What could be more British? Lilacs were a fixture of most gardens; their perfume was the scent of late spring and generous bouquets of the flowers were commonplace in parlours and sitting rooms.

The likelihood is, though, that those oh-soBritish shrubs were, in fact, French. 

From the end of the 19th century until the 1930s, French nurseryman Victor Lemoine and his descendants introduced more than 200 different lilacs, and his plants dominated the European garden market, often sold, simply, as French lilacs. Before Lemoine began his hybridising work on the family, the only lilac available to most gardeners had been the species