Syringa vulgaris Katherine Havemeyer - Common Lilac

Syringa vulgaris 'Katherine Havemeyer' is an old variety of common lilac, prized for the abundance, changing shades and powerful fragrance of its double flowers. Selected in Nancy by Émile Lemoine in 1922, this large shrub produces wonderful lavender-mauve flowers that gradually fade to lilac pink. It is well suited to an informal hedge or a cottage garden.

Syringa vulgaris belongs to the Oleaceae family, which also includes privets and jasmines. The botanical species is native to the Balkans, where it grows in thickets, open woodland and on rocky slopes, in a contrasting climate alternating cold winters and hot summers. It mainly occupies stony, well-drained, often chalky soils. 'Katherine Havemeyer' is a French horticultural selection of this wild lilac. The plant forms a large shrub that is initially upright, gradually broadening with age to develop a bushy habit. It reaches 3.50 to 4 m in height and 3 m in spread after around ten years, sometimes more in deep, fertile soil. Its deciduous leaves are broadly oval to heart-shaped and a clear medium green. They appear in spring and fall in autumn. Flowering begins in April in regions where spring arrives early. It occurs generally in May in most gardens and may continue until early June in cooler climates. The purple-mauve flower buds open into double flowers, held in compact, broadly conical panicles. Their colour changes from lavender mauve to lilac pink as they open. Their strong fragrance spreads around the shrub and remains noticeable in bouquets. For better vase life, cut the stems when one third to one half of the flowers in the panicle are open.

Like many common lilacs, 'Katherine Havemeyer' may produce suckers around its crown and gradually form a broad clump. This large shrub therefore needs space. It works well as a specimen plant on a lawn, in an informal hedge or in a large shrub border. In an old-fashioned garden, it can be paired with Viburnum opulus 'Roseum', peony 'Duchesse de Nemours', rose 'Charles de Mills' and Geranium 'Brookside'. Their flowering periods follow one another from spring to early summer. Like this lilac, these plants appreciate sun and fertile, well-drained, neutral to chalky soils that remain slightly moist in spring. Once well established in well-drained soil, this lilac tolerates temperatures close to –29 °C.