USDA Zones: 3 - 7
Light: sun
Form: Upright/Vase-shaped
Height: 8 - 18 feet
Flower Colors: A wide range of pinks and lavenders plus white. Some bi-colors.
Bloom Time: late spring

Special Features:
CutFlowers
Deer Resistant
Easy to Grow
Fast Growing
Flowers
Fragrant

Lilacs are among the most recognizable spring flowering shrubs. If you miss their large cone-shaped flower trusses, you can't avoid their intense fragrance.

Lilacs are durable and able to put up with most any growing conditions except shade. Left to their own devices, they can reach 20 feet tall. Spring pruning (after flowering) can keep them shorter.

Notable Varieties
There are hundreds of varieties available, and new ones appear each year. Here are a few to look for:

• 'Lavender Lady', 'Blue Boy', 'Chiffon', and 'Sylvan Beauty' are better suited to warmer climates that most lilacs.
• 'Macrostachya' produces dense trusses of white flowers.
• 'Sensation' offers purple florets edged in white.
• 'Charles Joly' has bi-color blooms in pink and violet.

Care
Maintain good air circulation to prevent diseases. Prune immediately after flowering to encourage more blooms the following year; do not prune in the fall. To keep the plants from becoming too crowded, cut back at least half of all new suckers each year.A severely overgrown lilac can be revived by cutting it back to nearly ground level.

Planting
Plant in a sunny location in rich soil that is neutral or slightly alkaline.edge each year.