Syringa vulgaris Belle de Moscou - Common Lilac

Syringa vulgaris Belle de Moscou ('Krasavitsa Moskvy') is an old Russian variety. It is a magnificent descendant of Syringa vulgaris, the emblematic lilac of old gardens. Like all good common lilacs, it blooms in May, but in long clusters of pale pink buds, which are tightly packed together. They gradually open into almost white, snowy florets, as if powdered with pink frost. Their fragrance is subtle and welcome in flower bouquets. Its vigour allows it to thrive in a large flowering hedge or a mass of wild shrubs. Its visual impact and the delicacy of its pastel flowering makes it the perfect standalone specimen in a small garden.

Syringa vulgaris Belle de Moscou ('Krasavitsa Moskvy') belongs to the Oleaceae family, and was grown in 1943 by Leonid A. Kolesnikov in Russia. Its parents are 'Belle de Nancy', a French variety by Victor Lemoine (1891) and 'I.V.Mitchurin', a Russian cultivar. The common lilac, also known as the European lilac, is native to southeastern Europe and western Asia, specifically the Balkan Peninsula, and arrived in western Europe at the end of the Renaissance. In nature, this indomitable plant with highly fragrant blue-violet-purple flowers colonises rocky hills and withstands cold winters.

This variety forms a slender bush with an erect and rounded habit, reaching an average height of 3.5 m (11.5 ft) and a spread of 2.5 m (8.2 ft). It forms a bush composed of multiple stems, similar to the mock orange with which it should not be confused. Its triangular and heart-shaped leaves, measuring 4 cm to 12 cm (1.6 in to 4.7 in) long and 3 cm to 8 cm (1.2 in to 3.1 in) wide, appear in spring in a medium green shade with a satin finish. Flowering takes place in May. At the end of one-year-old branches, compound clusters called thyrses appear, measuring 15 cm to 18 cm (5.9 in to 7.1 in) long. The pale pink flower buds open into double, slightly fragrant white flowers, creating a charming inflorescence that combines these two colours. This sucker-producing variety produces numerous suckers from its stump.

Easy to grow in cool and relatively watered climates, this variety thrives in ordinary, cool, and preferably limestone, but well-drained soils. Use it mixed with other mauve or red varieties of lilac in large flowering hedges, together with single-flowered roses, mock oranges, deutzias, serviceberries, styrax, or large buddleias (B. macrostachya, B. officinalis, B. alternifolia). A hedge of lilacs, flowering cherries, Chinese almond trees, Japanese quinces, and ornamental apple trees, planted overlooking a sunken path, is truly enchanting in spring. It can also be used in isolation, surrounded by a bed of ground-cover roses, in a small space dedicated to it, to turn this modest subject into a grandiose bush, covered in glory in the heart of spring.