"Lilacs Don't Grow in Georgia..."

I have heard that numerous times, most recently from someone in the garden department at a retail outlet here.  Many varieties of the traditional northern-planted lilac, Syringa vulgaris, apparently need more chilling hours than north Georgia typically delivers.  However, there are low-chill varieties available.  As I have written before, I have one.  The only catch is that I'm not sure anymore what it is.  I got three: two Lavender Lady and one Blue Skies.  I gave one away (probably one of the LLs) and an oaf with the phone company almost immediately killed another by over-spraying glyphosate.  I think what I have at this point is the other LL.  I think Blue Skies bought it courtesy of AT&T.

Whatever the plant is, it has bloomed reliably every year (when the deer haven't eaten the buds or a late frost hasn't killed them as they were about to open).  Two problems with lilacs are commonly cited:  lilac borers and powdery mildew.  I have never had any problem with powdery mildew but I did have a lilac borer one time kill a major branch.

LL is a Descanso hybrid, one of several developed in southern California.  An article in Sunset magazine describes a few others.

My lilac has endured but not really thrived.  There have been a lot of drought summers since it was planted, and it has done well to survive.  It isn't much taller now than it was in the picture in the link referenced at the top of the post, which was probably shot 5+ years ago.  It has remained a small shrub.

It blooms every year in March and finishes up by about the first week of April.  It is a little ahead of Miss Kim, S. patula, which blooms in mid-April.  Miss Kim has a different scent that is still nice (albeit heavier and more cloying than the other lilac) and the flowers are much smaller.  My Miss Kims have bloomed pretty much every year, too, although they can be zapped by a late frost, as well.  I had one break apart in tropical-storm-force winds, so I pulled it out and hauled it to an inert landfill.  I now have only two left.  They grow to be about seven feet high.

Lilacs are a very fragrant early to mid-spring flower.  They come just before native azaleas and about a month before gardenias.  I was introduced to them first in Denver, but later when I lived in the Midwest.  It was those memories that made me want to try them here.  I'm glad I did.