Q. We love lilacs. My wife saw a new breed of lilac
called ‘Boomerang’, a dark purple Syringa. What can you tell us about it? Can
we plant it and can it survive?
A. These 2 links to my blog might help.
I do not know this lilac and I have never grown it in the
Mojave Desert. All I can do is look at its description, the type of lilac it is
and make some educated guesses. You can read about this lilac on the Monrovia
Nursery website
It has been touted as a dwarf, “re-Bloomer” which means
it continually produces flowers all through the growing season and stays small
which fits nicely into smaller residential landscapes.
Reblooming lilacs are not new. But most of us think of
lilacs that bloom only once for a couple of weeks and then it’s just a green
bush the rest of the year until winter. Calling it “reblooming” is good for
marketing.
Talk about Town
Internet discussion groups say that the word re-Bloomer
applied to this lilac is not very accurate. It does stay small, but people who
have grown it say it’s more of a season-long “trickle of blooms” rather than
reblooming over and over.
I would not recommend planting this lilac in our hot, desert
environment. First, it is not a Persian lilac, the type of lilac best suited
for our hot desert climate. The breeding of “Boomerang” occurred in Canada and was
intended for cold climates.
If you decide to go ahead with this plant as your own
personal experiment, locate it on the east or northeast side of the home in a
place that protects it from afternoon and late afternoon sun. Let me know how
it does.
Amend the soil with
compost at the time of planting and apply a surface mulch of woodchips to the
soil that will continue to improve it, keep soil temperatures cooler and prevent
the soil from drying too quickly.
I bought a Lavender Lady lilac sometime in February. I'm originally from South Jersey and it seems as though everyone had lilac growing in the yard. They bloomed most of the year and the scent was amazing. It's one of the SJ plants/bush/trees that I really miss. You could add forsythia, dogwood and magnolia trees, crocuses just to name a few.
ReplyDeleteSo when I went to Star Nursery I was happy to find this particular lilac. I was told that it's the closest I'll be able to find to my Jersey lilacs. It was blooming when I got it but of course that stopped upon planting. It's survived the summer and if it lives through winter then I'll have hope it "took." I was advised to cover it up for those very cold winter nights.
So Bob, can I have hope for a lilac bush just loaded with those beautiful fragrant flowers or scratch it off to yet another bush that doesn't do well in our desert?
Lavender Lady and Angel White are two of the so-called Descanso low-chill hybrids that do not need the winter chilling requirement that many lilacs need. It will work in southern climates. Don't use it in a "rock" landscape. Put it where it can get some additions of organics and wood chip mulch.
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