Lilacs in California?

Are there any type of Lilacs that can grow in So. Calif.?

I've never grown a lilac and really don't have any room for one, but my DD's house would be a perfect place for one or more. She lives in Lake Forest, which is very warm during the summer, and does have some tall Eucalytus trees on her property that give her partial shade in some areas. She wants some nice bushes to go along her side fence to give them some more privacy. They are only allowed partial fences in her area.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Donna

If you go to plant files and search for lilacs, you'll get butterfly bush and CA lilac as well as common lilac. All three grow here in Hoopa. The very fragrant, deciduous, common lilac I think you might be talking about doesn't grow in warmer CA zones.

I don't know where Lake Forest is, but we have lilacs here in Hoopa and they are also on the coast around Eureka. They didn't grow in Santa Cruz or San Bernadino, when I lived around those places. Check the zone.

This website has been incredibly informative and useful for me in trying to determine what's best to plant for privacy in CA
http://www.laspilitas.com/

This message was edited May 26, 2006 12:37 PM

Donna,
I've grown the white Descanso bred for warmer weather, not worth it IMO, have heard from others that the other warm weather ones are not that great either. There are so many other shrubs that would be much better suited.

Sherry

Thank you both for your great opionions. I always wondered why we didn't grow them down here. I never realized they were cold weather plants.

I will look at your link 4paws for some other specimens for her area.

Donna

There are a number of lilacs specifically bred for warm southern climates. They don't need as much winter chill as the others. I live in Orinda, in No. Cal and I grow several of them, including Angel White, Lavendar Lady and Josee. I have a pink and a yellow one as well, but I can't remember the names at the moment. The Lavendar Lady grows particularly well, sending shoots up all over the lilic beds. They took a couple of years to settle in, but put on quite a show now. I grow large flowered clematis with them so when the lilacs are done the clematis grow through and put on another spectacular show.

orindarose
Thank you,
I may have to give them another try.
Sherry

I have a lilac that was growing here when I moved in. It blooms only occasionally. Sure does smell nice when it does though.

Donna:
Regular lilacs have a Chill requirement -- they're not really 'cold weather plants', they do just fine in Moab where it is currently reaching 102F daytimes! -- but they need to have below-freezing temperatures in the winter. The Descanso varieties need less chill, and/or perhaps a higher low-temperature... but I planted a Lavender Lady in Anaheim Hills and the only flowers it ever had were like, individual 1/4" flowers (not cones or bunches of flower-ettes). Definitely a disappointment to one who grew up in upstate New York collecting enormous bouquets of shrubs gone naturalized on abandoned homesteads, burying my face in the fragrance.

Most California lilacs (ceanothus sps) do not really make a substitute, but I believe there are lilac-colored butterfly bushes, and from a distance, even a that-color crepe myrtle (at least from a distance) can make me nostalgic...

~'spin!~
p.s. The lilacs are well-past bloom in Moab, of course. But they're not dead in the heat! At least if they get a little water now and then.

My biggest gardening disappointments in So Cal over the years have been that I couldn't grow lilacs (yes, the fragrance-up-your-nose type) and peonies (again, it's the full blown spring-time lush smelling one). And all the substitutes in the books (i.e. tree peonies) are not it. I sure couldn't grow them in Laguna so Lake Forest, which is even warmer, would never do. But I do have a suggestion, Donna, if either you or your DD are really missing them. Next year (too late now) go up to Julian and bring back arm loads of them. They grow up in those places that get a good frost or two in the winter. They still don't have the heady scent that they get in say, Ohio, which is where I grew up and where, when I go back in May, I get a good dose of both (there's a Peony festival in Van Wert in May, and my sister has a couple of huge lilacs in her yard).

Ok gals, sounds like real Lilacs are something I won't be able to grow here, along with Peonies. I have never been able to smell a real Lilac, but when I hear people talk about them and see them in the plant catalogs, I wanted to try one really bad. Oh, well, I'll just continue to look at all the pretty pictures of them in other peoples yards.

I saw my first real Peonie when I visited Seattle a couple years ago....wow, what a beautiful flower they are. They were blooming everywhere I went and selling at all the stalls in Seattles waterfront area. I just fell in love with them too. :-)

Thanks to all for not letting me spend my plant money on a plant that would eventually die on me. lol

Donna

Donna, I do sooooo wish you could smell lilacs.......spent a couple of years at different times in Iowa and the lilacs and peonies were almost enough to make me want to stay there! I also gathered armloads of lilacs to fill the house, miss that so much. I have considered that if I lived in Julian I could grow them there and wondered if anyone living in our local higher elevations was growing them at all for florist trade. You should maybe consider a litle trip somewhere at lilac time just so you could smell them!
Sherry

Sherry,

There is definitely someone growing them in Julian for the trade. I worked at a flower stand in Laguna for a few years and the buyer went up every spring to get them. Again, they weren't nearly as fantastically lush and aromatic as in the midwest, but, hey, you take what you can get, right?

stellapathic, what a job, huh? I did see something else that was pretty cool in Oregon and Washington. Holly farms. That or a lilac farm might be something I would like to do, other than this nursery I'm gonna have some day.Uh huh, sure......
Sherry

A couple of years ago I planted a lilac in my backyard and it is finally blooming! It does not get frost. The blooms are smaller than the ones I remember from the Midwest but are dark lavender and smell heavenly.

That's really good news, ginny. I think I've discovered a lilac bush in the yard. There are so many things that almost died off when no one lived here for almost a year. But with water and love, leaves are popping out all over. I just came in to get the camera because the lighting is great out there. I'll see if I can get a good shot of it and post in the ID forum, see if my guess is right. Tell me, how do you treat it in Covina? Water? Sun? Feeding?

Was it a lilac? Did it bloom?
Lilac essential oil is really nice. Doesn't take much....

No bloom yet, but, yes, seems that someone planted a lilac here. I'm trying to baby it through the summer and then I'll probably move it to better soil when the rains start. I'll see if I can find the thread and post it here.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/616727/

We have very hot, dry summers and very, very wet winters. My established lilacs don't seem to require watering in the summer, and I know lilacs that I "prune" when flowering that are not mine don't get water, or babying of any sort. Those in fact, are growing in gravel parking lot dirt.

But you get a chill there too and I think that's the ticket. They like winter chill. It rarely gets below 50 degrees here, much less close to a frost. I'm just surprised this is surviving at all.

There are some amazing little spots where I've seen Syringia vulgaris doing well, like in Arcadia. I'm not really sure why, but it seems they are very sensitive to many water district's use of copious amounts of chlorine in the water supply. One of my all-time favorite fragrant shrubs in Cardiff was Choysia ternata. I planted several here and they just hated our water. I agree that heat isn't a factor nearly as much as chill, but I do think that water quality is as much a determining factor in the success with these fabulous plants as any other climatic requirements they might have. I'm not sure, but aren't they also big time acidic soil lovers? Not a particularly widespread phenomenon here in southern CA.

Heck, Donna.....I think you should try 'em and just use a lot of peat or oak leaf mould in your soil prep and water them with Evian....lol. If they don't grow, then I'll send a letter to the Evian people letting them know their 3.00 a bottle swill kills plants....lol.

best to you always,
don.......he who sips his tequila with his pinky out....lol.

Thanks for that great tip, don. I will now move it to the rhodie/fuschia/camellia area instead. And it will get watered with bottled water as do the rhododendrons, who hate, hate, hate the salt/chlorine factor in our water. That side of the house would also give them really cool roots too and that might help.