THE LILAC ZONE

It is not uncommon to see lilacs described as either "old-fashioned" lilacs or "French" lilacs. While it could easily be argued that the French were the greatest contributors of new lilac cultivars to the world during the 1700 and 1800's, what many don't realize is that there are actually other countries that have contributed significantly to lilac development since then, notably Russia and the United States. It is likely that the reason why this is not very well known is due to a combination of several factors:

1. The French cultivars have been around substantially longer and thus have gained more exposure, having been passed on to others with more frequency.

2. Some of the French hybrids have been available at nurseries for quite a bit longer than the US and Russian varieties. 

The use of the term "French lilac" has thus become more commonplace, which is understandable. The reality is that quite a few of the lilacs currently sold by nurseries in the US did not originate from France. In my opinion, the United States and Russia deserve more credit for the roles that they have played in the development of lilacs. Thankfully there are several wholesale nurseries that have made an effort to identify, collect and propagate some of the best cultivars developed by US hybridizers and have introduced them into the market in the past 20 years or so, making some of them more readily available. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Russian varieties. To date, only a handful of the Russian varieties have been available commercially in the US (much to my chagrin). Hopefully that will change someday soon.

It is important to note that Germany, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, China, Canada and the Virgin Islands have also produced some notable varieties. Ok, so not really the Virgin Islands - I  just wanted to see if you were still paying attention. In all seriousness, each of the other 6 countries listed is deserving of being given some credit for contributing to the ongoing development of superior lilac cultivars!