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Article: Growing lilacs.
- Article from:
- Country Living
- Article date:
- May 1, 1999
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Hearst Communications, reprinted with permission of Hearst. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A hands-on guide to selecting, planting, and maintaining these heavenly - and historic - harbingers of springtime
Like most Americans, lilacs hail from someplace else. Yet few shrubs seem more at home in the United States than these natives of Eastern Europe and Asia. In quiet corners of New England, specimens 150 years old hug derelict barns and abandoned farmhouses. Legacies of 19th-century gardeners, naturalized, common lilacs (Syringa vulgaris) thrive without pruning or care of any kind.
Impervious to the whims of horticultural fashion, lilacs (there are about 20 species to choose from) can become the centerpiece of the spring garden wherever certain ...