Syringa pubescens seed

LATIN NAME: Syringa pubescens

COMMON NAME: Hairy Lilac

The hairy lilac is a handsome, upright, many-branched, deciduous shrub of the gardens, and its fine, broad, oval or heart-shaped leaves and its upright, dense heads of the many small, fragrant, lilac-pink or purple, tubular flowers have made it a treasured and fine shrub of the garden. It grows as an upright, many-branched, deciduous shrub, reaching up to three metres or so, with the upright, branching stems bearing the opposite, broad, oval or heart-shaped, pointed leaves that are softly hairy beneath and, through the late spring, the upright, dense, conical heads of the many small, fragrant, lilac-pink or purple, tubular, four-lobed flowers, followed by the small, dry, two-valved capsules of the few winged seeds. It is a species of the flowering shrub in the olive family, and it is native to the woodlands of the northern and the central China, while it is grown as a treasured ornamental shrub, and it is known as the hairy lilac.

In the olive family it is the fragrant, many-flowered lilac of the north, a shrub whose scent has been part of the spring garden for as long as the gardens have been kept.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The lilac scent is one of the most studied of the spring fragrances, and the hairy lilac appears in the perfumery papers for the volatile oils of its small, tubular flowers. The botanists have mapped its place in the olive family and the woodlands of the northern and the central China, and the breeders of the lilacs have kept the species in their programmes for the dense, fragrant heads and the clear colours. It is a shrub that has given the world a famous scent and the garden a dependable spring show, and the growers of the lilacs keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the spring garden, the hairy lilac is the fragrant tower of the border. Its dense heads of the lilac-pink flowers feed the bees of the spring, the broad, leafy growth gives cover and shelter to the birds, and the scent carries across the whole garden on the warm days. The perfumers and the gardeners alike have treasured the lilac for the ages, and it grows well in the moist, well-drained ground of the sunny, open spot. Lilac-pink, fragrant and spring-bright.

Give the seeds a spell of cold, damp rest in a bag of moist sand in the fridge, then sow them shallowly in pots of loamy, free-draining soil, keep the pots moist and set them in a bright, sheltered spot, and the first leaves will show in time.