Need advice on lilac hedge

Hello all. I am very new at all this and need some help ... I have a 30' x 15' bed across the front of my house (north-facing, but no trees in the yard so there's plenty of sun) which was packed with horrible Japanese Burberry shrubs. I recently pulled them all out and I was planning to plant a hedge of lilacs in their place, but now I'm worried that the lilacs will grow too tall for a foundation hedge. Can I keep a lilac hedge pruned to ~5' tall, or should I just find something else? Oh, and I'm in Memphis which is Zone 7b/8. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

I'm not real familiar with your zone, Omlaura, I think most lilacs are zone 3- 7. There's a real pretty one called sugar plum fairy that stays on the smaller side, I've been thinking of planting lilacs too. One thing I do remember is the lilacs around my friend's porch when I was little, they were huge, and there were always bees around them. When I do get to plant some, I'm putting them far away from the walkway and the kid's play area. There's an abelia that smells like lilacs, fragrant abelia it's called. I think they get up to 5 ft. They're deciduous here, I don't know what they do in your zone lol I'm actually jealous of you guys in the warmer zones, I'm so eager to start planting and all I can do is dormant trees and evergreens! And petunias. Now I'm pouting....maybe somebody in your zone can give you better advice!

There is a lilac called Miss Kim that is usually pretty easy to find in stores and on-line.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55992/ Although PlantFiles has them growing 8-10 feet, my understanding is that they are compact and only grow to 5-6 feet. Take a look at the photos, and you will see that they are not very tall. I have one that is 3 years old and stands about 3-1/2 feet tall. The flowers have a nice fragrance.

You may be in a zone that is too warm for lilacs. Lilacs need a period of cold in order to bloom. Your zone is the warmest in the hardiness range for lilacs, so you may have some trouble getting them to bloom. Mind you, I'm far from being an expert on the subject; so if you have your heart set on it, you could give it a try with one or two shrubs and see how well they do. If you know that lilacs do grow well in your area, I would definitely give Miss Kim a try.

I think lilacs will still be OK...if you look at the detailed zone maps on the Better Homes & Gardens website, Memphis is in a little tiny corner of TN that barely gets into zone 7b, but since it's just barely into 7b I think the lilacs will still get enough winter chill. I don't think it's until you're solidly in zone 8 that you start to have problems. If you want to be safe though, there are varieties that need less winter chill to bloom so you could look for those (the Descanso hybrids are ones that people out here grow--I'm not sure what height they get to though)

Thank you all so much. I think I'm going to go ahead and plant them--at least some of them--and then if they start getting too big, I'll just move some or all of them to the back yard and replant some of the dwarf variety. If it turns out to be a mistake, at least I'll have learned from it. Again, I really appreciate everyone's advice. This forum is amazing

I probably live about an hour from you. Maybe 45 minutes depending how fast you drive on the interstate...:)

Last year I bought a 'Miss Kim Lilac' at Lowe's. Paid $6.98 for it. I moved it twice. This season it's doing great!

(The tag says the average size is 6-7' x 6-7')