Lilacs dazzle us with showy blooms in an array of purples, pinks and white, and scent the landscape with a delicate fragrance. Lilacs typically bloom in mid-May, Here are a few of our favorite varieties.

Common Lilacs, also known as French Hybrid Lilacs, are great for borders. They can grow quite large: 6-ft to 15-ft tall and 6 ft to 12 ft wide, so give them plenty of space. If you do not have that much room, try some of the dwarf varieties instead.

Miss Kim Lilac is a compact garden accent shrub featuring showy panicles of light lilac-pink flowers in spring. It is rounded and dense, an ideal garden shrub alone or in groupings. The flowers are great for cutting. The fragrance is overwhelmingly spicy.

Korean Lilac is a compact, low-spreading cultivar which typically grows 4-ft to 5-ft tall with a spread of 5-ft to 7-ft. Pale pink, sweetly fragrant single flowers are arranged in a dense cluster (up to 4 inches long) and cover this shrub with profuse blooms in late April to early May.

The Dwarf Korean Lilac is great as a specimen or in mass plantings. Use them for a shrub border, and as a screen or informal hedge for property lines.  Flowers are medium pruple with a great fragrance.

The Bloomerang series of lilacs are very similar to Dwarf Korean, with the added bonus of summer and fall re-blooming. Varieties include Bloomerang, Bloomerang Dark Purple and Bloomerang Pink Perfume.

Scent & Scentability Dwarf Lilac is light pink with heavenly fragrant flowers in spring. Its dwarf size fits into just about any landscape.

Tree-form Lilacs are bush-type dwarf lilacs that have been grafted to be small trees. They’re perfect accent trees that grow under 10 feet tall and produce fragrant flowers in spring.  Varieties include Miss Kim, Dwarf Korean, Bloomerang, Bloomerang Dark Purple and Scent & Scentibility.

Lilac Trees, including Ivory Silk and Summer Storm, are true tree lilacs, growing 20 to 30 feet tall and 15 to 20 feet wide. Large panicles of white summer flowers adorn this small tree.  althought they are not very fragrant, they are beautiful and in bloom when other trees are not.

Visit your local English Gardens store for more information about lilacs.